The best Japanese cities to visit, according to someone who's traveled there 11 times — and Tokyo's not one of them

Tech Insider : Travel, Travel
Travel blogger Grace Cheng, wearing a black dress and facing a Japanese city, stands on a balcony looking toward buildings.
Grace Cheng says there are different destinations outside Tokyo that offer authentic experiences of Japan.

Courtesy of Grace Cheng

Asia's governments think people not having sex or dating may be tanking their birth rates. That's not the full picture.

Tech Insider : Economy
Hospital staff attending to new born babies in the nursery ward of the Hospital in Misato city, Saitama prefecture on February 1, 2014.
Cities like Tokyo and Seoul have turned to radical ideas like launching a dating app and giving people money to reverse their vasectomies in order to bolster their declining birth rates.

Yamaguchi Haruyoshi/Corbis via Getty Images

Japan has figured out how to build a better dating app

Tech Insider
Illustration of Cupid with Mayoral sash.
Could the US government bring some much-needed innovation to dating?

Kiersten Essenpreis for BI

Japan is fast becoming the hottest market for luxury brands

Tech Insider
people queuing outside the Dior store in Tokyo
Tourists are flocking to Japan to take advantage of its currency downturn, buying luxury goods for less.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

In a Taiwan war, the US could find itself fighting China without its top allies

Tech Insider
The US may be forced to confront a Chinese invasion of Taiwan without the forces of top allies like Japan.
The US may be forced to confront a Chinese invasion of Taiwan without the forces of top allies like Japan.

Issei Kato/Getty Images

I took a luxurious sightseeing train in Japan for just $12. The stunning views weren't even the best part.

Tech Insider : Travel, Travel
On the left, a purple train covered in floral decals at a train station in Japan. On the right, large green curved seats facing the windows on a train. The carpet is patterned and a maroon color.
For $12, I took a trip on a luxury Japanese train from Nara to Kyoto.

Anna Staropoli

My first visit to Japan left me in culture shock, but I wish the US would adopt some of its norms

Tech Insider : Travel, Travel
line to get on a subway in Tokyo
I saw many people waiting in line to board the subway in Japan.

Anna Haines

Japan is scrambling to explain why its naval destroyer pushed into Chinese waters where Beijing was conducting live-fire drills near Taiwan

Tech Insider
Japanese Akizuki-class destroyer JS Suzutsuki (DD 117) arriving in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province.
The Japanese Akizuki-class destroyer Suzutsuki, pictured here in 2019, sailed into Chinese waters on July 4 for about 20 minutes.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

Japan is bracing for rage against the vending machine

Tech Insider
Japan has issued high-tech bank notes for the first time in 20 years, but they may not work in some places.
Japan's new bank notes may not work in some vending machines.

SOPA Images/Getty Images

The US is upgrading its fighter fleets in Japan, boosting its Pacific airpower with the newest jets

Tech Insider
A US Air Force F-35A fighter jet flies across a blue key with some smoke surrounding the edges of the plane.
The US is sending F-35 stealth fighters and upgraded F-15EX strike fighters to its forward-bases n Japan.

U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Kip Sumner

Subscribe to Japan