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The 350 residents of Sommarøy are declaring the small Norwegian island the world’s first time-free zone.

“All over the world, people are characterised by stress and depression,” Kjell Ove Hveding, the leader of the campaign, said. “In many cases, this can be linked to the feeling of being trapped by the clock. We will be a time-free zone where everyone can live their lives to the fullest. Our goal is to provide full flexibility, 24/7. If you want to cut the lawn at 4am, then you can do it.” 

Japan is internationalising—and this process is rapidly accelerating. The driving force is demographic change. Japan’s population is ageing rapidly and shrinking. Add in other factors, including never-before-seen levels of foreign tourism, plus massive preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and the result is a nation that desperately needs more workers to fill jobs. 

An ancient pilgrimage trail winds through the mountains of Japan’s Kii Peninsula, a densely forested region south of Osaka and Kyoto. It is the Kumano Kodo, a sacred passage of immense natural beauty that has been in use since the 10th century. There are early recorded visits to this region by Emperor Uda (907) and Emperor Kazan (986 and 987) but the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage became more broadly popular in the 11th century. 

The California-based architects Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael have transformed a stretch of the border fence between Mexico and the U.S. into an international playground. The pair installed three hot pink seesaws between the slats of the fence where Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, abuts Sunland Park, New Mexico, allowing people on both sides of the increasingly militarized border to play together.

Japan and India have decided to join forces in the race to discover water on the moon, with the two countries planning to try to land an unmanned rover on the moon’s south pole as early as fiscal 2023.

Frozen water is believed to exist inside craters and other areas of the moon’s poles where sunlight does not reach. The countries plan to use the rover to excavate in such areas and discover water on the moon for the first time. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have already held meetings on the project.

A social media campaign against dress codes and expectations that women wear high heels at work has gone viral in Japan, with thousands joining the #KuToo movement—a pun based on the Japanese words for shoe (kutsu) and pain (kutsuu). Nearly 20,000 women have signed the movement's online petition so far, demanding the government ban companies from requiring female employees to wear high heels on the job.

When hosting an international rugby tournament and welcoming thirsty fans from around the world, the last thing you want to do is run out of beer.

That’s the message from Rugby World Cup bosses to Japanese hosts as they gear up for the global showcase that kicks off on September 20.

Rugby bosses have warned host cities about running out of ale, using anecdotes such as when Australian and Irish fans drank the city of Adelaide dry, forcing emergency supplies to be brought in from surrounding areas.

Thousands of hot springs in Japan are rethinking their long-standing ban on tattooed bathers, as the country prepares for the arrival of an estimated 400,000 fans for this autumn’s Rugby World Cup.

Visitors are accustomed to warnings to cover up their body ink while they are in Japan, where tattoos are traditionally associated with membership of yakuza crime syndicates.

It comes in red, mustard and black, in sizes 6 up to 16; the Boohoo minidress is, according to the online retailer, "perfect for transitioning from day to play". It is not so much the styling and colour, but the price of the £5 dress which attracts thousands of the thriving retailer's U.K. customers to buy it.

The £5 dress epitomises a fast fashion industry that pumps hundreds of new collections onto the market in a short time at pocket money prices. On average, such dresses and other products are discarded by consumers after five weeks. 

It’s that time of the year again, when NASA gives you the opportunity to “ship” your name to another celestial body. This time, the destination is Mars, and the shipping service is NASA’s future Mars 2020 rover.

On June 20, Rui Hachimura became the first Japanese player selected in the opening round of the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft when the Washington Wizards chose him as the ninth pick.

Men jam their feet into high-heeled shoes and walk back and forth, some falteringly, others with unlikely confidence. Some women watch, gauging the men’s reactions while sympathizing with each other’s stories about wearing the torturous items masquerading as fashion.

Until recently, Japan didn’t have much of an influx of foreign tourists. Now, it does, and with that comes problems.

For much of the 20th and 21st century, foreign tourism in Japan didn’t really exist. Now, with the rise of Japan’s neighbors in Asia, the country has seen an influx of travelers like never before. In 2018, a record number of 32 million foreign tourists visited Japan, with over fifty percent from mainland China and South Korea. In comparison, less than 5 million foreign tourists visited in 2001. In 1970 there were only 854,000.

At the age of 20, Montreal linguistics student Georges Awaad can already speak 19 different languages, most of which he taught himself through internet videos, music and conversation with friends. “I’m a very auditory person, so I try to expose myself as much as possible to the language, by listening to music, videos, films if I find them, and by listening to conversations and having them with friends,” he says.

Japan has a reputation as being a society that demands conformity: All college graduates seeking jobs should wear dark suits to job interviews, women are expected to cover their mouths when laughing, and many schools require students to wear the same uniforms, shoes and have haircuts that meet school regulations.

The Japanese have made the ordinary extraordinary, turning black metal manhole covers into well-rounded works of art. Colorful designs adorn the lids to the sewers in towns across Japan, inspiring flocks of fans, called "manholers," to engage in manhole tourism.

Hideto Yamada works for Hinode Suido, the largest manhole manufacturer in Japan. They produce about 200 a day. “I think we have changed the image of manholes," Yamada said. "People from around the world think Japanese manhole covers are cool."

Workers at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have begun removing fuel rods from a storage pool near one of the three reactors that suffered meltdowns eight years ago. The measure marks a milestone in efforts to decommission the plant, although the more critical removal of melted fuel from inside three damaged reactors will prove far more difficult.

Right after returning from the three-day trip to China, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the Indian leader Narendra Modi to his vacation home at the foot of Mount Fuji.

They agreed on resuming a currency swap accord to the tune of $75 billion and more than ¥300 billion in yen loans to finance India’s infrastructure projects including a high-speed railway using Japan’s Shinkansen system.

AirBnB suffered a major blow when Japan’s main tourism body sharply restricted home-sharing, forcing AirBnB to eliminate four-fifths of its 60,000 listings in Japan. The experience illustrates the country’s hesitant approach to the sharing economy, in which people rent goods and services from one another, usually through internet platforms. The sharing economy’s value in Japan is at most ¥1.2trn yen ($11bn), compared with $229bn for China.

Recently, the ancient art of origami has begun to merge with modern engineering. Origami principles have inspired novel ways of packaging airbags, fashioning heart stents, folding solar sails designed to propel spacecraft, and even collapsible bullet-proof shields.