Kenji Hall
The collapsible electric Tatamel Bike is changing how cities can move
Tokyo-based start-up Icoma makes this electric two-wheeler that can be collapsed to the size of a suitcase. This Monocle Design Award winner shows that the best design solutions emerge from everyday frustrations.
The Monocle Design Awards 2026: The best homeware and equipment
The year’s most ingenious tools and objects, designed to enhance your everyday living.
Dr Stretch: Japan’s secret weapon fighting stiff joints and office slouch
How a simple wellness idea turned into a health movement – and now an international franchise.
The Toyota Crown turns 70 and looks to a hydrogen future
No car serves all needs but one model comes pretty close. The Toyota Crown is beloved by police, taxi drivers, executives and government officials alike.
‘The format’s inconvenience accounts for its richness’: How Popeye’s editor took the magazine to global heights
From Ginza to a global English debut, the ‘City Boy’ remains an analog icon with an eighty-year reign over Tokyo’s newsstands.
How Tokyo’s Teddy Brown elevates the humble hamburger
Teddy Brown in Hiroo brings Japanese rigor to crafting the perfect hamburger with ‘kuroge’ Wagyu, housemade sauces and meticulously crafted buns. Marble tables, oak chairs and kooky lamps complete an experience worth savouring.
Tokyo’s best barmen are serving timeless elegance at the Palace Hotel
Inside the Palace Hotel Tokyo’s Royal Bar where award-winning chief bartender chief bartender, Manabu Ohtake and his team take centre stage.
The man who remixed Japan: How M-Flo rapper Verbal went from the Tokyo club scene to global CEO
Tokyo-based rapper and Ambush CEO Verbal disrupted Japanese pop music and launched a global fashion brand and a new saké venture, establishing himself as a cultural curator.
Tokyo tea party
The world of J-pop is meticulously controlled but latest sensation Chai are embracing a DIY spirit and dancing to their own beat.
Bowled over
Kagawa is a prefecture so enamoured with Sanuki udon noodles that the delicacy is both tourist attraction and TV star. We tuck in.
