Author: Editor in Chief

One Five Hotels will open a lifestyle hotel, THE KNOT UTSUNOMIYA (3-2-3 Ekimae-dori, Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture), on January 23, 2026. The former Chisun Hotel Utsunomiya, located in front of the west exit of JR Utsunomiya Station, was completely renovated and is the fifth hotel under THE KNOT brand, following Yokohama, Shinjuku, Sapporo, and Hiroshima. The…

Takarajimasya will release the January 2026 extra issue of “MonoMaster” today, November 25. The price is ¥1990. The extra issue comes with a Snoopy glowing BIG blanket. The blanket is made of “luminescence,” which is a light-storing material that makes stored light appear in the dark, and features a full-page design of Snoopy standing on…

The two restaurants introduced here are one from Japan and the other from Canada. The word “elevate” is often used in English, and I feel that they have helped to raise the value of dining in Hawaii and expand the options in the dining out scene. New restaurants opened one after another this fall, mainly…

In early October, in conjunction with a ceremony commemorating the 55th anniversary of JAL’s Guam service, the company actually stayed in the area and visited two hotels of the Premier Hotel Group, which is operated by Ken Real Estate Leasing Co. The company operates six hotels in Guam: Hilton Guam Resort & Spa, Sheraton Laguna…

Japan Airport Building and Tokyo International Airport Terminal have introduced a function that enables a batch cross search of Haneda Airport’s terminal building and surrounding transportation operators in the chat function for inquiring about lost items. This service is implemented in “find chat,” the inquiry chat function of “Lost and Found Cloud find,” and is…

Asamizu Company released a limited quantity of “Suica’s Penguin Dice Cushion” on December 17, 2012 at 12:00 pm. The price is 3850 yen. Reservations will be accepted at the official store “TOY TIME JRE Mall Store,” and shipping will begin sequentially from late February 2026. A square cushion with the faces of Suica penguins and…

Kinokuniya will release a “New Year Happy Bag,” a limited edition corduroy bag filled with popular sweets for the first sale of 2026. The price is 1980 yen, and the quantity is limited. It will be sold in-store only and will not be available at the Daimaru Umeda store or online. The annual New Year…

On December 9, 2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through the “Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund 2” (LEAP 2) funded by JICA, signed a loan agreement totaling US$35.8 million with Air Niugini Limited (Air Niugini), a national airline operator in Papua New Guinea. On December 9, 2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a loan…

JICA President Akihiko Tanaka met with UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahoussou at JICA headquarters on December 10. The two organizations have been working together to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in countries around the world, for example by promoting Women, Peace and Security (WPS). During this meeting, the two organizations…

reporter Name Affiliation Title Toru Yoshida Planning Officer, Sustainability Promotion Office, Planning Department summary Date: November 19, 2025 Organized by JICA Name of venue (pavilion name)：Japan Pavilion speaker Name Affiliation Title Katsura Miyazaki Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, JICA Kentaro Doi Deputy Director-General for Global Environment, Ministry of the Environment Kyosuke Inada Special Advisor…