Following the incident, the Pokémon Company announced that it would be scaling back in-store Pokémon Center promotional events nationwide, including cancelling costumed character meet-and-greets for the month of April. While the Monpoké popup will be opening before the end of April, it’ll be operating through early May, and has announced that it will be having meet-and-greets, suggesting that they’re likely to return to Pokémon Center stores around the same time.
The Monpoké shop will be open from April 22 to May 6. There are no meet-and-greets during its first weekend, but on its second Sunday, May 3, both Pikachu and Eevee will be visiting to frolic with fans and pose for pictures in the building’s rooftop Sky Deck Plaza.
It does appear that the organizers are looking to keep the environment controlled, with participation limited to 30 “groups” of shoppers at each of the three 30-minute events, scheduled for 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. (it’s currently unclear how many people will be allowed per group). Still, the announcement of the Monpoké store’s meet-and-greets coming roughly two weeks after the stabbing demonstrates that the company feels ready to start holding such events again, and with Japan’s Golden Week vacation period coming up from April 29 to March 6, an early-March reinstatement of such events at Pokémon Center branches seems likely as well.
In the land of vending machines, what’s behind the biggest single-year decrease ever for soft drinks?
Visitors to Japan are often amazed at just how many vending machines the country has. Residents, though, are noticing fewer and fewer of them, as the number of soft drink vending machines in Japan has dropped to its lowest number in 30 years.
According to the latest statistics from Tokyo-based Inryo Soken (“Beverage Research Institute”), in 2025 there were 1.95 million soft drink vending machines operating in Japan. While that still sounds like a whole lot, it’s a decrease of 90,000 machines since 2024, the largest single-year drop ever. It’s also the first time since 1994 for Japan to have fewer than 2 million soft drink machines, as it initially crossed that threshold in 1995 with 2.17 million, and from 1999 to 2016 the number was approximately at or even more than 2.4 million.
The number of soft drink vending machines has been in continual decline since hitting its all-time high in 2014, with analysts pointing to rising prices and falling demand as the primary reasons. There’s a growing sense of consumer exhaustion at the repeated price hikes for just about everything in Japan, and many are now choosing to buy their drinks elsewhere. It’s become common to see vending machines charging prices 20 or more percent higher than just a few years ago for staples such as bottled water, green tea, and coffee.
That hasn’t made vending machine drinks an unpurchasable luxury, but it has made them expensive enough to erode the breezy, guilt-free impulse-buy image they used to have. That’s an especially big problem for vending machines, since they’re often located in places where potential customers aren’t going to be hanging around very long, such as a commuter train station platform or a street corner, and so extra time potential customers spend asking “Is it really worth it for this price?” makes it that much more likely that they’ll continue on to wherever they’re headed without stopping to buy something.
▼ Japan’s famously punctual public transportation system means that many people have their commutes timed down to the minute, so any time at all spent having to weigh a drink decision is probably going to be too much.
So if Japanese people are buying fewer drinks from vending machines, where are they getting them at? Convenience stores are one alternative. While they’ve also raised prices and aren’t significantly cheaper than vending machines as far as regular drink prices go, convenience stores often have discount coupons and promotions, such as giving customers a free drink with the purchase of an onigiri (rice ball) or bento (boxed lunch) that make them more enticing to budget-conscious consumers. Supermarkets and drugstores also have good soft drink lineups and prices that are significantly lower than vending machines, even if buying a single drink. Supermarkets/drugstores may not be quite as conveniently located as vending machines or convenience stores, but to a lot of people they’re worth making a quick little detour for, especially if they’re buying a drink every day as part of their commuting routine.
While not specified in Inryo Soken’s research, it’s also likely that the increased normalization of online shopping is making increasingly expensive vending machine soft drinks less attractive. Again thinking of a scenario where someone buys a can of coffee every day as part of their morning commute, it’s much more cost effective to simply buy a whole case at a discounted price online, have it delivered to your home, toss the cans in the fridge, and just grab one as you go out the door every day.
All that said, with 1.95 million soft drink machines still out there, they’re not going to completely disappear from Japan’s cityscapes anytime soon. Unless someone figures out a way to once again make them appealing to disenchanted consumers, and profitable to operators, odds are that number is going to continue to go down.
Familiar voice provides narration for reminder that there’s something special about the in-theater experience.
Studio Ghibli was one of the last anime studios to allow for digital distribution of their creations, and to this day they’re big champions of the in-cinema experience, with both the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and Ghibli Park in Aichi Prefecture having their own screening rooms on the premises. So with a new movie theater about to open in one of Japan’s biggest anime culture neighborhoods, Ghibli has produced a short video message featuring art from Hayao Miyazaki to celebrate the joy of not just watching movies, but going to the movies.
“Stories have always been born at the movie theater,” says the narrator as a series of charming sketches of iconic Ghibli characters, ranging across the studio’s filmography from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind through to The Boy and the Heron appear within film strip-framing. “A new movie theater is born in the city of Nagoya,” the narrator continues, announcing the opening of the Toho Cinemas Sakae branch, in the primary anime district of the largest city near Ghibli Park. Toho has served as the theatrical distributor for almost all of Ghibli’s anime in Japan, and all of them since 2001’s Spirited Away.
If you’re a Ghibli fan who’s thinking you’ve heard that voice before, it’s because that’s Noriko Hidaka, the voice of My Neighbor Totoro’s Satsuki, providing the narration. One of the anime industry’s all-time great talents, the 63-year-old Hidaka is still an active member of the industry, currently reprising her role as Akane Tendo in the new Ranma 1/2 anime.
While the video was created to commemorate the opening of the Sakae branch of Toho Cinemas, which is happening on June 11, posters featuring the Miyazaki artwork will be on display in the chain’s theaters nationwide from April 11, and a limited number of leaflet-size versions of it will be given out free to guests starting April 24. The above video will also play at the start of screenings starting April 10.
Jagarico one-ups a viral global trend for fans of Japanese flavour.
If you’re the type of cook with a high desire to eat tasty food but a low desire to make it, then you may have heard of a new hack taking the world by storm: Pringles Chocolate.
This sinfully simple snack involves pouring melted chocolate straight into a Pringles can and leaving it to harden, and it recently caught the attention of our snack-loving reporter P.K. Sanjun. Gripped with an intense desire to make it, P.K. headed out to a nearby store to grab some chocolate and a tub of Pringles, but when he was there, he spotted something that might just one-up the original hack.
▼ Jagarico
This iconic snack is insanely popular in Japan, and much like Pringles, it comes in its own tub that would be perfect for pouring hot chocolate into. It would give the hack a distinctive Japanese flavour too, especially when combined with another popular treat – Lotte’s Ghana milk chocolate.
While these ingredients are slightly different to what’s used in the viral Pringles Chocolate, the core components are there, and the method of preparation is the same.
▼ Simply melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling hot water.
▼ Then open the snack tub and pour in the melted chocolate.
It’s a good idea to tap the cup a few times while pouring to let the chocolate settle evenly around the snacks. Then, once you’ve poured in all the chocolate, cover the tub with plastic wrap and refrigerate for around four hours.
▼ Four hours later
Now we get to the fun part – ripping the tub away from the hardened chocolate.
Pulling the chunk of chocolate out reveals some parts are more evenly covered than others.
That’s okay, though, because the next step is to cut the whole thing up into bite-sized chunks.
▼ After the first cut, the chocolate ratio might seem a little high…
▼ …but the smaller chunks are perfect.
Now all that was left to do was try it, and after popping a chunk into his mouth, P.K. opened his eyes wide in surprise. Not only was his creation insanely delicious, it was an exciting experience in texture as well. Super hard and crunchy on the outside, but tender on the inside, the salty sweet combination was like the best of two decadent worlds, and P.K. reckons it might actually be better than the Pringles Chocolate everyone is raving about right now.
So next time you’re craving a taste of Japan but don’t have the time or motivation to cook, why not grab a tub of Jagarico from your nearest Japanese store? It’ll add a unique twist to your chocolate, and then you can down it with Peanuts and Coke, Japan’s other new viral obsession.
This isn’t a limited-time offer – the free morning donut service has no specified end date!
Usually when you hear someone say “The best things in life are free,” they’re talking about love, friendship, or the peaceful tranquility of self-realization and confidence…or maybe a really, really good nap. All fine things, to be sure, but we’d argue that any list of the best things in life is immediately invalidated if it fails to include donuts, and those aren’t free, are they?
Except, donuts now are free, in a sense, in Japan. That’s because Krispy Kreme Japan has announced that at all of its branches across Japan, if you purchase a drink before 11 a.m., you get a free donut. Here’s the really crazy thing: this isn’t a limited-time promotion. Free donuts with a purchase of a drink in the morning is simply going to be Krispy Kreme Japan’s policy nationwide for the indefinite future.
The free donuts are limited to Krispy Kreme’s Original Glazed flavor, but seeing as how that’s their signature offering, it seems like a pretty safe bet that anyone who loves Krispy Kreme at least likes the Original Glazed a whole lot.
Price-wise, this is a very attractive deal. The Original Glazed is priced at 216 yen US$1.40) for takeout, and a small-size house blend coffee is 345. So by ordering the coffee and getting the donut for free, you’re saving almost 40 percent compared to the previous price for the pair. Honestly, with prices rising in Japan, it’s hard to get even a canned coffee and pre-package pastry at a convenience store for 345 yen total these days, making Krispy Kreme’s offer a bargain for a freshly baked treat and freshly brewed beverage.
Krispy Kreme is calling the offer the Good Morning Original Glazed, or “Asaorigure” (“Morning Original Glazed”) in Japanese.
But why is Krispy Kreme being so generous? According to the company, it’s because the free-donuts-in-the-morning service has been incredibly popular at the three branches (one each in Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Sapporo) where it launched last year. It’s been an especially big hit with office workers, Krispy Kreme says, and so the chain wants to bring that same sweet happiness to the rest of their fans.
Taking a more business-oriented perspective, Krispy Kreme is originally an American company, and has no doubt observed that while donuts are strongly associated with breakfast in the U.S., in Japan not many people eat them before noon. Within Japanese snack culture, donuts often slotted into the same category with the cakes, cookies, and other sweets eaten with tea or coffee, something that foodies traditionally enjoy at 3 p.m. or later.
In other words, odds are Krispy Kreme Japan’s branches are at their quietest in the morning, especially on weekday mornings when no one is going in to buy a box to take to a party at a friend’s house. But coffee is as popular a morning eye-opener in Japan as it is in America, so if Krispy Kreme can get people to choose their branches when picking up a cup on their way to work, and include a free sample of the joy of morning donuts, it could help drum up extra business, especially if customers see other donut flavors that catch their eye too and decide to tack them on to their coffee and free Original Glazed order.
Of course, that would mean that if Krispy Kreme does succeed in making routinely picking up donuts in the morning a thing in Japan, it would then no longer have any need to give them away for free. For now though, as donut consumers, in both the economic and gastronomic senses of the word, free donuts sounds like a sweet deal to us.
The Good Morning Original Glazed service is coming to all Krispy Kreme Japan branches that are open before 11 a.m. (with the sole exception of the Kobe Marui branch in Kobe, which opens at 10:30 on Sundays and holidays) with the gradual rollout of availability staring from April 8.
Grand Hyatt Tokyo celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise with one Pikachu for every year.
The Grand Hyatt Tokyo welcomes visitors from around the world every day, but summer is when the establishment’s guests include Pokémon. It’s become an annualtradition for the hotel to offer Pokémon-themed rooms during the summer months.
However, since the Pokémon Red and Green Game Boy games were originally released in Japan in 1996, 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the franchise, so this year’s Hyatt/Pokémon collaboration needs something extra-special, like a hotel room with 30 Pikachu plushies!
Those 30 Pikachus aren’t the only Pocket Monsters in the room either, as it also features several other species from Pokémon Red and Green (which become Red and Blue for the series’ North American debut). Even if you’re a huge Pokémon fan, you might be wondering if having so many roommates is going to mean you won’t have space to stretch out and unpack your bags during your stay, but that’s really not such a concern since you’ll all be in the Pokémon 30th Anniversary Collaboration Grand Adventure Suite, a Poké-fied version of the Hyatt’s 120-square meter (1,292-square foot) Chairman Suite.
As a matter of fact, there’s enough space for each of the suite’s sections to function as its own Pokémon biome. In the living room is where you’ll find Grass-types like Bulbasaur, Diglett, and Cubone. As Water-types, Squirtle, Psyduck, and Lapras make themselves at home in the bathroom.
That leaves the bedroom as the domain of Charmander, Charizard, and the Fire-types.
▼ Feel free to chuckle at the logic of putting the hottest Pokémon in the bedroom.
The preview photos show that there are a few other Pokémon from outside those three elemental groups who are present, including Eevee and Gengar.
While only one Pokémon suite will available per day, the Grand Hyatt will also have eight 40-square meter double rooms with Pokémon decorations.
Guests of each room type also receive a bundle of 30th anniversary Pokémon merch with passport covers, tote bags, and apparel.
▼ The suite room’s merch bundle also includes plushies of the original starter trio and a talking Pikachu figure.
Even the food is Pokémon-themed, as the suite stay package includes dinner and breakfast served in-room, with the former’s main dish a Pikachu hamburger…
…and the breakfast highlight an extra-thick and fluffy Pikachu pancake.
Guests staying in the non-suite Pokémon rooms will receive a voucher for the Hyatt’s breakfast buffet, and will also be served a Pikachu pancake in the restaurant.
The Grand Hyatt Tokyo’s Pokémon rooms will be available to stay in between June 20 and August 26, and reservations can be made now.
Investigators say city councilman was involved in monkey business.
According to the Shimane Prefectural Police, on a June night in 2024, Kiyoshi Inata ventured out of his home in the town of Yonago, where he serves as a city councilman. Inata wasn’t headed out to enjoy the warm air of an early summer’s evening, though, but to have a clandestine meeting in a parking lot within the city limits.
As a member of the city council since 2010 who had been reelected multiple times, and who was even the council’s chairman in 2022, Inata has considerable clout within the local administration, and according to the police, it was that influence that his counterpart at the meeting was looking to buy. At the meeting, the councilman allegedly accepted a bribe of one million yen (approximately US$6,500) in exchange for advancing a specific agenda within the city council. What was that agenda?
Reduce the number of monkeys at Yonago’s Minatoyama Park.
▼ Video of Minatoyama Park
Although Minatoyama is a public park, the city contracts with a company called Yonago Public Park Partners Joint Venture for its management and maintenance of the park’s facilities, which include a Japanese garden, a cherry blossom tree grove, and, yes, a monkey habitat. Naturally, the more monkeys the park has, the more it costs to take care of them, and investigators say that it was a representative of the company, looking to cut costs, who delivered the bribe to the 56-year-old Inata.
Records show that since the alleged date of the bribe, Inata has spoken at least twice at city council meetings about decreasing the number of monkeys at the park, once in September of 2024, saying…
“Aren’t there maybe too many monkeys? I’ve been to the park many times, well maybe not so many, but recently I’ve gone to see [the monkey habitat], and I don’t think it’s such a good environment. I mean, it’s not like we can actually discuss the matter with the monkeys.”
…and again in March of 2025…
“Moving on to other matters, I’d like to make certain that we will reduce the number of monkeys, and in addition emphasize the option of abolishing the habitat within the park as a means to do so.”
▼ Video of Inata’s council meeting remarks
On Tuesday, Inata was arrested on charges of accepting bribery by officers from Tottori’s Prefectural Police Investigation Division 2, who also referred the representative of Yonago Public Park Partners Joint Venture, a Yonago resident in his 70s, to public prosecutors.
▼ It’s unclear if the case falls under the jurisdiction of Investigation Division 2 because Division 1 handles more urgent matters than monkey-related bribery, or because the crime is so serious that it requires specialized expert knowledge.
In the time since Inata’s calls to reduce the park’s primate population, the number of monkeys in the facility has decreased from roughly 50 of the animals to 37 today. There have also been three incidents of monkeys escaping from the park since 2023. Inata mentioned the escapes in his remarks last year, citing them as a reason why the habitat should be shut down promptly, though in light of the bribery accusations it’s hard not to wonder if maybe the facility’s management was being purposely lax in keeping the enclosure securely locked in order to sway public opinion towards shutting it down entirely.
It’s worth considering that reducing the size of the park’s monkey population may not itself be a bad idea. If the management company truly is struggling financially to maintain the habitat, finding proper homes for them elsewhere, where they can receive the care they require, would give them longer, happier lives. However, it becomes harder to believe that someone’s motivations are noble when their methods involve illegal cash handoffs under cover of darkness, and so hopefully the decision of what to do about the park’s monkeys will now be made out of genuine concern for their welfare, not who can end up with more money in their pockets.
