The Government of Japan · Official Portal — a concept reimagining
From the work of the government to the wonder of the country — policy and technology, culture and craft, the seasons and the regions — bound here like a magazine that opens itself as you walk.
Japan's year begins in April: the budget takes effect, schoolchildren cross under blossom, ministries publish their plans. Spring is when the country states its intentions — softly, and on paper the colour of petals.
政策 Policy Highlight
The ¥115.2 trillion general-account budget takes effect with childcare, digital infrastructure and regional revitalisation at its core — the largest single-year commitment to the Digital Garden City vision to date.
Read the policy brief →
文化 Culture
In a Kyoto tea room the year restarts not with fireworks but with a whisked bowl of matcha. We spend a morning with a fifteenth-generation tea master on why slowness is Japan's most durable technology.
Read the story →
社会 Society
The Meteorological Agency's blossom forecast is among the most consulted data Japan publishes. This year the front reached Tokyo on 24 March — and an estimated ¥650 billion followed it.
Follow the blossom front →Festival season and typhoon season, fireworks and 350 km/h. Summer is Japan at full voltage: the oldest celebrations carried on shoulders, the newest infrastructure humming underneath them.
文化 Culture
Each August, twenty-tonne illuminated floats — warriors rendered in wire and washi — move through Aomori at walking pace. Behind them: a year of work by a guild of nebuta-shi, artists the city now pays as professionals.
Meet the float masters →
技術 Technology
Average delay per train, weather included: under a minute. The bullet train remains Japan's most legible argument that engineering can be a form of courtesy — and the new N700S exports the argument abroad.
Inside the timetable →
環境 Sustainability
Under the Green Transformation programme, the Kerama reefs are becoming a living laboratory: coral restoration, blue-carbon accounting and a tourism levy that pays the ocean back.
Dive into the data →GX 2040: Cabinet approves the next tranche of offshore-wind and hydrogen corridors — 10 GW of new capacity anchored in Hokkaido and Kyushu, with grid storage built alongside. See the news digest →
Shokuyoku no aki — the autumn of appetite. Maple valleys go red, kilns are lit for the winter firing, and the year's harvest is plated with an attention the rest of the world calls cuisine and Japan calls ordinary care.
地域 Region SpotlightKyoto 京都
With visitors past pre-2020 records, the ancient capital is trialling timed entry at Tōfuku-ji, resident-first lanes at dawn, and a lodging tax that funds the conservation craftspeople who keep the maples — and the temples under them — standing.
食 Cuisine
A kaiseki menu is a calendar you can eat: ayu in June, matsutake in October, fugu when the sea turns cold. We follow one Kyoto chef's autumn menu from market to counter.
Taste the season →
工芸 Craft
In Fukui's pottery villages, the government's Japan Heritage programme funds young apprentices to keep six ancient kilns — and the soil knowledge behind them — alive for an eighth century.
Visit the kilns →
地域 Regions
Japan's regional railways lose money and keep running — because a line is a lifeline. New 'tourism trunk line' funding lets the Sagano and Tadami lines sell the journey itself as the destination.
Ride the slow lines →Heritage Forward: the Agency for Cultural Affairs designates twelve new Japan Heritage sites for 2026 — from Himeji's castle-town foodways to the charcoal coasts of Kishū. See the news digest →
Two metres of snow can fall on a Hokkaido town in a weekend, and the trains still run. Winter is when Japan's real character shows: warmth engineered, commons kept, light made from ice.
伝統 Tradition
Kusatsu's sulphur fields have been managed collectively for eight centuries — bathers pay, the town stewards, the mountain provides. A template the government now studies for community energy.
Enter the bath →
自然 Nature
The snow monkeys bathe; the world watches. Nagano's macaque park is a research station first and an attraction second — a model of tourism kept honest by science.
Meet the troop →
伝統 Tradition
Kinkaku-ji is re-leafed in gold every few decades, on schedule, without ceremony. Permanence in Japan is not a state — it is a maintenance plan.
The philosophy of upkeep →Resilience Budget: ¥1.1 trillion for snow-country infrastructure — heated road networks, disaster-tech procurement, and a national snow-depth sensor mesh open to every ski town and farmer. See the news digest →
筋 · The threads that run through the year
Every story on this portal carries at least one thread. Pull one, and a different Japan comes into focus.
伝統 Tradition冬 Winter
Steep thatch, steeper snow, and a roofing tradition — yui — that still conscripts the whole village.
革新 Innovation夏 Summer
Robotics policy meets demography — companion and lifting robots move from expo floor to elder-care subsidy lists.
革新 Innovation夏 Summer
H3 rockets, lunar landings by private firms, and a space fund that finally talks like a venture capitalist.
伝統 Tradition秋 Autumn
Kyoto's 1,200-year-old weaving district rewires itself — obi by day, carbon-fibre textiles by night.
革新 Innovation夏 Summer
Night-time economy zones, late trains on trial, and a metropolis learning to sleep less without fraying.
伝統 Tradition秋 Autumn
World-heritage cuisine turns out to be lunch — how a dietary culture is taught in every school canteen.
環境 Sustainability春 Spring
Harvested on rotation, bamboo outruns cedar on carbon — and Kyoto's grove is now a managed carbon asset.
環境 Sustainability秋 Autumn
LED lantern retrofits cut a machiya district's night load by half — without dimming its atmosphere.
環境 Sustainability秋 Autumn
Thick walls, deep eaves, shared shade: Himeji studies what Edo urbanism can teach heat-stressed modern cities.
No stories on this thread yet — try another.
便り · From the Government
The working week of the Japanese government, in brief — dated, sourced and plainly written.
経済 Economy
Twelve regional hubs — from Hokkaido's wind corridor to Kyushu's hydrogen ports — receive multi-year funding under the GX 2040 roadmap, with community ownership quotas written into every grant.
Full statement (Cabinet Secretariat) →Mutual recognition of verified business credentials will cut company-setup paperwork across ten member economies.
Selected firms — a third from outside Tokyo — receive procurement fast-lanes and overseas expansion support.
Moving house now triggers a single digital workflow for pension, health insurance and local-tax registration.
Subsidised satellite offices near Shinkansen stations aim to let workers keep Tokyo jobs from regional towns.
The 2026 class spans Himeji's castle-town foodways, Kishū charcoal coasts and the silk roads of Gunma.
Osaka's expo surplus seeds 200 municipal partnerships on heat adaptation and water resilience.
No briefings in this category this week.
窓口 · The stepping stones
Three stone paths through the garden — for the people who live here, the firms that build here, and the guests who visit. Step on one.
One digital ID for health records, pension, childcare applications and disaster support payments.
Open gateway → ねんきんネットCheck your national pension record, project your benefit, and file exemption claims online.
Open gateway → e-TaxFile income and residence taxes from a phone — final-return season without the queue.
Open gateway → 引っ越しワンストップOne form moves your address across city hall, pension, health insurance and utilities.
Open gateway →Register a company, enrol social insurance and open tax accounts in a single filing.
Open gateway → J-StartupProcurement fast-lanes, mentor networks and overseas missions for selected startups.
Open gateway → 調達ポータルBid on public tenders from national and local bodies — SME quotas clearly marked.
Open gateway → 特許情報プラットフォームSearch and file patents, trademarks and designs with the Japan Patent Office.
Open gateway →Immigration, customs and tax-free registration in one arrival flow — fill it in on the plane.
Open gateway → 査証・在留資格From 90-day waivers to working-holiday and highly-skilled-professional tracks.
Open gateway → Safety tipsPush alerts for earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity in thirteen languages.
Open gateway → 免税ショッピングHow the consumption-tax exemption works at over 50,000 registered stores.
Open gateway →