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Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.JAXA launched MMX on an H3 rocket from Tanegashima at 04:41 JST on October 20, 2026. It will orbit Phobos, drop the Idefix rover, land to collect about 10 grams of soil and return it to Australia in 2031: the first sample ever brought back from the Mars system. Timeline, key facts and official sources.
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Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.From November 1, 2026, visitors to Japan pay full price at tax-free shops and get the consumption tax back after a customs check at the departure airport, before checking bags, within 90 days. Old vs new rules, step by step at the shop and airport, the mistakes that cost you the refund, and official sources.
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Track real-time autumn leaf color changes and peak viewing times across 21+ curated locations.
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Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.Japan’s minimum wage is rising prefecture by prefecture through December 2 (Tokyo: ¥1,280). The ¥1.06 million wall for part-timers is gone, chu-hi tax rose to ¥35 a can, 3,153 food prices went up, energy subsidies ended and visa fees jumped. A plain-English guide with a wage map and official sources.
Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.Japan has 56,189 convenience stores (JFA, August 2026) handling over a billion bill payments a year. Why konbini became national infrastructure, the three chains that run 94% of them, what you can do there—cash, taxes, pension, parcels, tickets, printing—the etiquette, and why the network has stopped growing.
Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.MHLW’s Reiwa 8 release (15 September 2026): 107,677 people aged 100+, first time over 100,000 since 1963—+7,914 from 99,763, 87.6% women, Shimane’s rate lead, and why 老人の日 is not Silver Week’s 敬老の日.
Illustration, not a photo: this image was generated with AI.Japan’s third full five-day Silver Week since 2009 and 2015 runs 19–23 September 2026: Respect for the Aged Day, a Citizens’ Holiday sandwich, and the Autumnal Equinox—what it is, what families do, and how travellers should handle trains, Tokyo, and Nagoya.
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Navigate Japanese customs with confidence.
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Master the trains, buses, and subways.
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Track the Sakura front.
Learn moreFind the best Koyo spots.
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Explore Japan by prefecture.
Learn more今年の漢字
Each year the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation asks the public to name the single character that best captures the events and mood of the past year. The winner is brushed onto handmade washi at Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto on 12 December and offered at the temple — one year, one character, one collective sentiment.
ユウ／くまYū / kuma
Bear
The first year 熊 has won. Bear encounters followed one another across the country, casualties reached a record high, and bears reached city streets — disrupting daily life and the local economy, and prompting a national conversation about coexisting with nature. The return of four giant pandas (熊猫, “bear cats”) to China also put the character in the news.
Read in sequence, they make an unusually honest record of how Japan felt about itself.
Select a year for the story
Chosen more than once金×5(2000, 2012, 2016, 2021, 2024)税×2(2014, 2023)戦×2(2001, 2022)災×2(2004, 2018)
The vote began in 1995 as part of the foundation’s campaign to show how much meaning a single character can carry. Nominations open each autumn — online, by post, and through ballot boxes in temples, bookshops and libraries nationwide — and the count is revealed on 12 December, read in Japanese as いいじいちじ (“one good character”).
At Kiyomizu-dera the head priest brushes the winner onto a sheet of handmade washi in a single pass, and the sheet is then offered at the temple: a rite to cleanse the year that is ending and to wish for a brighter one to come.
Characters, readings and selection rationales sourced from the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. 「今年の漢字」 is a registered trademark of the foundation.
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