If you visit a typical American elementary school in the morning, you’ll often see a long line of cars slowly moving through the drop-off loop. Parents open the door, children jump out with backpacks, and the line crawls forward again. For many Japanese people, this is surprising. In Japan, it’s completely normal to see small…

If you’ve ever walked into an American supermarket, movie theater, or restaurant in summer and thought, “Why is it like a fridge in here?!”, you’re not alone.Many Japanese people feel that Americans must be incredibly “hot-natured” because indoor spaces in the U.S. can feel shockingly cold compared to Japan. But is it really that Americans are hotter and…

Today Japan and the United States are close allies, major trading partners, and cultural neighbors. But their relationship has not always been peaceful. Over the last 170 years, the two countries have moved from forced opening, to war, to occupation, and finally to a deep—though sometimes complicated—partnership. In this article, we’ll look at: From “Opening…

Walk through a Japanese neighborhood on a sunny day and you’ll see balconies full of shirts, towels, and futons gently moving in the wind. In many parts of the United States, you’ll see almost none of that. Clothes go from the washing machine straight into a dryer, then into the closet. Why does Japan prefer…

Japan and the United States are often compared in terms of technology, economy, and pop culture. But beneath those visible layers, there is a quieter, deeper difference: geography. Japan is an island nation surrounded by the sea; the United States is a vast continental country stretching across a large part of North America. These different environments…