“When you begin again, you repeat everything,” reflects experimental filmmaker Ana Vaz, thinking of her home country Brazil and the setting of her new feature, “Hanabi,” in Japan. “There’s a normalization of the state of catastrophe and disaster necessary for the system to perpetrate itself. It needs catastrophe in order to exist.” In the wake
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the most recent deluge was brought by warm, humid air flowing into the country’s east that combined with cold air above to make atmospheric conditions extremely unstable. The rains are expected to last through late on Friday. “This case was an extremely unusual situation, even by Japan’s historical weather standards,” Chiba
Japan is facing worsening summer heat. In the past two months more than 53,000 people have been treated for heatstroke, with 79 reported deaths. Now, the Do Hiemon – which roughly translates to “The Cooling Box” – is being rolled out in public spaces and sold to businesses. A unit costs 1.5m¥ each ($9,407; £6,973).
The Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) has selected Japan as the 2026 Focus Country for its Producer Hub, a co-production networking platform tied to the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF(. Japan will send 10 producers to Busan in October for project pitching, speed meetings and case-study sessions. Now in its third year, Producer Hub
Japan said it “strongly protests” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to a disputed island chain. Russian state media reported on Thursday that Putin visited Iturup – known in Japan as Etorofu – one of four islands in the Kuril chain that are claimed by both Russia and Japan. Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the
Washington and Tokyo’s unprecedented step to bolster the yen already appears to be unraveling. On July 30, Japan’s finance ministry reportedly sold as much as $59 billion to buy the Japanese currency, then at 40-year-lows. Tokyo and Washington later confirmed they had acted together to bolster a weak yen. It was the first time they
