Japan

Long campaigns cause candidates to prioritize fundraising, but shorter ones favor party-line voting.

A new study looks at how Japan's investment in rail has affected the country's real estate prices, and what that might—or might not—mean for Californians.

A large chunk of the country's forests were harmed in 2015 by wildlife—77 percent due to deer. Bringing back an apex predator could help staunch the bleeding.

Cormorant fishermen use sea cormorants to catch sweetfish on October 9th, 2018, in Gifu, Japan.

PS Picks is a selection of the best things that the magazine's staff and contributors are reading, watching, or otherwise paying attention to in the worlds of art, politics, and culture.

People affected by the recent flooding rest at a makeshift shelter in Mabi, Okayama prefecture, Japan, on July 11th, 2018.

A conversation with Garrett Bradley about her new documentary, and what America can learn from Japan.

News and notes from Pacific Standard staff and contributors.

A protester is removed by police officers during a sit-in to block construction vehicles working on the expansion of Camp Schwab, a United States military base, on May 31st, 2018, in Nago, Okinawa prefecture, Japan.

A 2007 government survey offers a glimpse into the lives of Internet cafe refugees: In Tokyo, 58 percent of them are short-term day laborers, and most of them get just enough part-time work to earn a living.

A keeper clad in a Santa Claus costume feeds Magellanic penguins in a water tank as part of Christmas events at Hakkeijima Sea Paradise amusement park.

A round-up of images from Viewfinder, Pacific Standard's daily photo feature.

Bystanders admire a Christmas display along the Meguro River in Tokyo, Japan, on December 17th, 2017.

Across the globe, beef consumption is seeing rapid growth, fed by cheap imports and served by an industrialized agricultural global trade model that's been linked to a host of environmental impacts, climate change chief among them.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's newly elected lower house parliament member Takeaki Matsumoto celebrates his victory with supporters on October 22nd, 2017, in Himeji, Japan.

In just four weeks in May and June of 2017 nearly 10,000 ivory items were sold on Yahoo Auction, one of Japan's largest e-commerce platforms.

In every print issue, we fix our gaze on an everyday photograph and chase down facts about details in the frame.

Updates to past Pacific Standard stories.

As with many cultural artifacts, the Japanese have taken the truck and expressed it, enlarged it, raised it to what we might consider an architectural form.

The latest horror film "based on a true story" is a case study in culturally insensitive Hollywood marketing.

Japanese officials claim hunting a select number of whales each year provides valuable insight into the animal's health and migration. Conservationists, however, criticize the whaling program as a front to evade commercial whaling bans.

A study of nursing homes near the nuclear site suggest the physical and mental stress of evacuation took more years off people's lives than radiation will.

A shrinking population isn't the end of economic expansion.

Will a conflict over oil erupt in the South China Sea? Probably not. While hydrocarbon competition can inspire international spats, the real danger in the region will come from territorial disputes.