The Japan Idea

Surprising Japanese businesses, explained.

Latest stories

• Consumer · Free story · members' edition coming soonJapan's Capsule-Toy Machines Are Now a ¥196 Billion Business

  Gacha machines used to sit outside supermarkets for kids. Now entire stores are walls of them, and the industry nearly tripled in three years.

• Food · Free story · members' edition coming soonTakoyaki Without the Octopus: How Osaka's Street Snack Conquered the Philippines

  In Manila you can buy three pieces from a cart for ₱28, filled with cabbage and carrots, or four from the Japanese chain Gindaco for ₱199, filled with octopus. Both are takoyaki.

• Real Estate · Free story · members' edition coming soonJapan Has 9 Million Empty Homes — and a Growing Market for Giving Them Away

  Why a house listed at ¥0 can be a better deal for the seller than for the buyer, and the odd little industry that grew up around it.

• Companies · Full story freeThe Housewives' Workshop That Became Kyoto Animation

  In 1981 a woman in Uji gathered her neighbors to paint other studios' cels. It took 22 years, one department at a time, to lead its first TV series.

• Food · Free story · members' edition coming soonThe World Wants Matcha. Japan Can't Grow It Fast Enough

  Japan's green-tea exports nearly doubled in a year, most of it powder. Prices jumped, a famous Kyoto shop raised its prices, and China says it now makes most of the world's matcha.

• Retail · Full story freeJapan's Restaurants Rent Their Fake Food by the Month

  The plastic ramen in the window isn't bought. At Japan's biggest replica maker, about 70% of shops pay a monthly fee that covers seasonal swaps, repairs and a visit from a sales rep.

• Food · Full story freeSushi Made in Japan, Frozen for an American Supermarket

  There are three ways to put sushi in a grocery case: hire someone to roll it, buy a machine, or make it in Japan and freeze it. A Tokyo freezer company is betting on the third.