The sequel to the critically-acclaimed and Oscar-winning 'Godzilla Minus One' will hit theaters in Japan on Nov. 3 and North America on Nov. 6.

Set to open in 2030, TeamLab Anaheim will be the first permanent U.S. space for the art collective.

Chinese state media outlets issued scathing condemnations of Sanrio, the Japanese company behind characters such as Hello Kitty, over a TV collaboration.

The post China Declares War on Hello Kitty over Japanese TV Collaboration appeared first on Breitbart.

The Ukrainian government has instructed Kyiv to establish alternative routes after Russian attacks stopped traffic on one of the capital’s main bridges. The city authorities will bear the cost of the new crossings, with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko saying the city needs an additional $22 million.

This year, Russia has launched tactics to spread panic among civilians and trigger more people to leave the country. In the latest attack, several Russia's ballistic missiles struck the Southern Bridge, used for vehicle and metro traffic, breaking a huge hole and paralyzing all the pathes. The bridge was closed. Now, there is a fear that more bridges can be targeted this way, dividing Kyiv in two parts.

The situation is urgent, as Ukrainian Transport Minister Mykola Kalashnyk says about 600,000 vehicles cross the Dnipro in Kyiv every day.

What is Kyiv’s response to the winter terror? 

According to Klitschko, Kyiv convened the capital’s Defense Council on 28 October to find an answer to this difficult question.

The agenda included implementing a project to build combined water crossings over the Dnipro River and access roads to them.

“The military command will determine the locations, with approval to be granted, among others, by the Kyiv City Military Administration,” Klitschko said.

Under the government’s recommendations, the Kyiv city authorities must find $22 million for the project.

Klitschko had previously faced heavy criticism after it emerged that the city lacked sufficient shelters and last winter exposed serious shortcomings in preparing infrastructure for Russian attacks. These included a lack of alternative energy supply routes, poorly distributed energy, burst heating pipes that flooded apartments, and the inability of people with disabilities to reach shelters without elevators.

The mayor himself said the problems stemmed from the central government withholding funding, which had stalled numerous energy resilience projects and delayed their implementation.

The latest announcement also indicates that Kyiv has once again taken on the financial burden itself.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has been working with Japan on backup crossings. Tokyo has already delivered 720 meters of prefabricated bridge structures to Ukraine. The two sides are currently exploring how this equipment could be used to establish alternative crossings.

Step two: strengthening existing infrastructure

Another option is to reinforce existing bridges. City specialists are developing additional technical solutions to protect bridges across the Dnipro River, Klitschko said in his statement on 27 October, adding that proposals from the military had also been heard.

The issue of installing mobile shelters was also raised on the same day, the mayor of Kyiv said in a separate statement on his Telegram channel on 27 October. Despite intensifying Russian attacks and about, as Radio Svoboda reported in its article on 30 September, $11 million set aside in 2025, Kyiv still has only a handful of mobile shelters: LB reported in December 2025 that district tenders failed. Donors paid for the first one at a bus stop, the Kyiv City State Administration said on 15 October.

Klitschko raised the issue of shelters again after a court on 12 October ruled that local authorities must urgently install mobile shelters in public areas, including near public transport stops, parks, and squares, according to Kyiv’s Prosecutor’s Office.

Russia hits the Southern Bridge again

On 2 October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with the Financial Times that Russian ruler Vladimir Putin had ordered the lifting of previous restrictions on airstrikes. Among new targets, according to him, were bridges, data centers, internet, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and universities.

The night of 26–27 October showed what that looks like. Russia launched ballistic missile attacks in a few waves, and the second of them hit the Southern Bridge and the metro infrastructure on it, Klitschko said. The structure carries six lanes of road traffic and two metro tracks.

Zelenskyy put the night’s total at 16 ballistic missiles and blamed delays in deliveries of Patriot and NASAMS interceptors: “Every such delay is a new Russian hit on one target or another.”

European aircraft manufacturer Airbus could potentially join a British-Japanese-Italian consortium to build a next-generation fighter jet following the collapse of a highly-troubled French-German project, CEO Guillaume Faury said Wednesday.

The post Airbus Willing to Join U.K.-Japan-Italy Fighter Jet Project appeared first on Breitbart.

Billboards for a local campaign titled ‘Goodbye Bad Halloween’ are up at several places

© Getty

Sanrio ends association with TV drama Vivant after China says portrayal of ruthless Chinese agents is ‘deliberate smear’

The company behind the successful Hello Kitty franchise has apologised and ended its commercial tie-up with a Japanese TV drama after Chinese state media and netizens condemned the show’s “deliberate smears” against China.

Sanrio, a Japanese firm whose characters are popular around the world, said in a post on the Chinese social media site Weibo that it had decided to end its association with the TV drama Vivant after concluding that it “contained elements inconsistent with Sanrio’s core values”.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

After picking up her honor — considered one of the most prestigious prizes in the global arts — the two-time Oscar winner will sweep into the Tokyo International Film Festival on Friday to take part in several talk events.

Demand grows for government to allow married couples to keep dual surnames

© AFP/Getty

Hackers threaten to continue publishing customers’ information unless company pays $1m ransom

© Reuters

At a glitzy event at the Tokyo American Club, Hollywood and Japanese powerbrokers celebrated longtime industry and cultural links between the two countries.

Returning to lead the festival ahead of its 40th anniversary, the industry veteran sees an opportunity to capitalize on the surging international interest in all things Japan.

Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! It's a great day to pour a Miller Lite out.

Let's talk about the NFL invasion of Australia and, soon, Japan. Is it the real deal or is something else at play? Then we'll close with the results of our reader survey about the World Series.

Locker Room Links

• I cannot fathom how this was the best possible plan, but Game 6 of the WNBA Finals will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday (9:30 a.m. for Californian fans of the Golden State Valkyries). It'll sell out, but how many will watch on TV?
• "The search for the best place to pee on an American golf course"
• President Donald Trump is campaigning with Johnny Manziel, Colt McCoy and Danny Amendola in Texas today. (It won't work, just like it doesn't work when Democrats campaign with Hollywood stars.)
• District court judge grants injunction against Trump's golf course renovation plans in Washington, D.C. (The Lorax reference was a bit much.)
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) got booed when he presented the winners trophy at the Formula 1 race in Austin, Texas. Local politicians presenting these trophies has always been my least favorite part of F1.
• After committing billions of dollars to a new football stadium, plus renovations for an arena and a baseball park, some D.C. politicians now wants taxpayers to spend $300 million on more seats and a roof for a soccer field that opened less than a decade ago.
• Elsewhere in Reason, we've got everything you need to know about the Texas Senate race: "Ken Paxton Survived Indictment, Impeachment, and Scandal. Can He Survive a Senate Race?" and "Will a Data Center Backlash Help James Talarico Turn Texas Blue?"
• If only more people had read a certain award-winning magazine cover story about the simple way to avoid government conflicts over pickleball courts!
  

  Someone made a site that tracks what people are talking about at public city council meetings across the US.

  The only thing discussed more than data centers?

  Pickleball courts. pic.twitter.com/qyda81Tw1W

  — Turner Novak (@TurnerNovak) October 26, 2026

The NFL's Push Into Australia and Japan Makes No Sense

Football in Europe is one thing—football in East Asia and Australia is another.

After the NFL played its first regular season game in Australia in Week 1, Commissioner Roger Goodell now says the league may double-down on working its way into East Asia and Australia. "Tokyo is clearly on our list, whether it's next year or the year after," Goodell told NFL Daily. "It's coming at some point in the near future." Another league administrator said they're considering a 10th international game next year, up from nine this year. The idea, one might think, is that by playing a game in Australia, Japan, or any other country, people with a tepid interest in the NFL become swarms of dedicated fans.

It won't work—at least not in the Eastern Hemisphere. The league is much too dedicated to the Eastern Time Zone for it to work. Consider the NFL's main kickoff times (the end of daylight saving time will soon alter these slightly).

Thursday Night Football: 8:15 p.m. Eastern, 9:15 a.m. Friday in Tokyo, 11:15 a.m. Friday in Sydney.

Sunday early afternoon: 1 p.m. Eastern, 2 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 4 a.m. in Sydney.

Sunday late afternoon: 4:25 p.m. Eastern, 5:25 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 7:25 a.m. in Sydney.

Sunday Night Football: 8:20 p.m. Eastern, 9:20 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 11:20 a.m. in Sydney.

And so on for Monday Night Football.

Even the Super Bowl, the league's biggest event that we're always told is watched by millions of people in every country around the world, kicks off around 6:30 p.m. Eastern. That's 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning workday in Tokyo and 9:30 a.m. in Sydney. You'd have to be an American expat or an extremely dedicated foreign fan to watch—they exist, to be sure, but they're notable because they're a rarity (like my man @KoreaPistonsFan).

This is not like how American sports fans wake up on a weekend morning with nothing else going on and tune into European soccer matches—the NFL is hoping people will wake up in the middle of the night for an East Coast afternoon game, or tune in during their workdays for what we in the U.S. would consider a primetime matchup. (In Japan, watching every week appears to require an expensive subscription, whereas Australians at least seem to bundle many of the games into other packages like Disney+.)

Ask yourself: Are you frequently waking up at odd hours to watch the Australian Football League or J1 League soccer? Are you watching your favorite sports team in the middle of the workday? OK fine, if you work a flexible desk job like me, you might be tuning in for your baseball team's day games or throwing a golf major on your second screen. When I posted about this on X, people angrily responded that Japanese fans routinely watch baseball during the day—OK, fine, call me when the NFL gets its Shohei Ohtani.

But I'm not getting up at 2 a.m. to willingly start watching a sporting event, unless I'm studying abroad in London and the Tigers are in the playoffs for the second time in my life. While I don't miss a Formula 1 race, when they're on in the middle of the night I watch the next day—sometimes, but not always, without seeing any spoilers online.

The NFL will almost certainly sell out a game in Tokyo, but tickets aren't where the real money comes from, it's TV revenue they're chasing. That, and the 8:35 p.m. Eastern kickoff time for this season's Australia game (10:35 a.m. local, Friday), tell you who the real audience is.

It's you, my humble American friends.

The novelty of games in London and Germany is wearing off. The NFL thinks it can throw a game in Japan, sell it to Netflix for $100+ million, and then, most importantly, put it in primetime for the American East Coast.

The NFL might be hoping their football games in Australia and, soon, Japan, will create broader interest from those countries. What they're almost certainly more interested in is getting U.S. fans to watch another primetime game that the league can make hundreds of millions of dollars from in TV rights.

Readers Want a Brewers World Series Victory. Here's Why.

A lot of you must be pretty pleased with how baseball is going. About 70 percent of you said you're rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers, who now have a 3–0 lead in the World Series after battering the Tampa Bay Rays 10–1 on Monday night.

I, for one, am also rooting for the Brewers but had at least hoped for the teams to make it a little more interesting (at least Game 1 and Game 2 were close!). Both teams have managed to find pretty consistent success in recent seasons and "deserve" to be here, despite both being in fairly small markets and often up against more well-funded divisional opposition. Both, unfortunately, play in stadiums that are for some reason fully or partially owned by local government. But the Brewers, unlike the Rays, have good vibes, a great color scheme (I'm a sucker for navy–yellow/gold), and a strong fan base that deserves happiness.

The survey answers behind the Brewers were wide-ranging, from "The beer and cheese are better!" to "Beer. The answer is always beer." (Shoutout to whoever said "Channeling my inner Sarah Palin, I can see Milwaukee across Lake Michigan from my house in Grand Haven.") Several more said they are from Milwaukee, are from the Midwest, are just glad the Brewers beat the Dodgers, or think a "northern" team should win. A couple Red Sox fans chimed in to say they just hate the Rays.

The Rays, to be fair, might be seen as less objectionable because they have fewer fans to annoy everyone else with their success. No one, I assume, is climbing any street poles to celebrate if the Rays win the World Series (we may never know!). But we did get a few Tampa locals to chime in, and a couple Brewers haters, and one person who I sympathize with: "I have a dear friend who has been a Tampa Bay fan since the very beginning. She deserves a victory." Seems like she will be waiting at least one year longer.

The Brewers seem almost certain to be World Series champions going into what will likely be a brutal MLB lockout. Let us hope there are no games lost—any 2027 World Series champion is better than no champion, or season, at all.

Replay of the Week

Keep your eye on No. 5 car. Drivers don't usually go from 1st to 11th to 1st all in the span of one lap! (And since everyone turned out all right, you can also enjoy the carnage of this big crash.)

HOW DID KYLE LARSON PULL THIS OFF?!?! pic.twitter.com/nVhlg7JylD

— Rubbin is Racing (@rubbinisracing) October 25, 2026

That's all for this week. Enjoy watching the real game of the week while you skip the school Halloween party—it's Glendale at Salt River in the Arizona Fall League on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, where you can watch MLB test out a crazy new outfield rule.

The post The NFL's Push Into Australia and Japan Makes No Sense—Until You Realize Who the Real Customer Is appeared first on Reason Magazine.

The origin story behind the infectious melody that captured hearts around the world as Japan returned to the international stage after World War II.

With interest in Japanese culture at an all-time high, TIFFCOM managing director Kaori Ikeda says there is an opportunity to adapt IP beyond anime and manga.

Jury president Rolf de Heer was joined by Yov Moor, Oh Jungwan, Makiko Watanabe and Alex C. Lo for a lively conversation.

US military says the restrictions on the electric vehicles at Kadena airbase also apply to delivery drivers and taxis

One of America’s biggest overseas military bases has banned vehicles made by the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD over security concerns, the US military in Japan said on Tuesday.

The ban, which went into effect this week at Kadena airbase on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has fueled speculation that similar measures could be taken at other US military facilities as part of Washington’s crackdown on Chinese technology it suspects of being used to collect sensitive information.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, denies charges that he fatally strangled Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel on the island of Okinawa

Prosecutors in Japan have filed formal charges against a US marine suspected of murdering and robbing a woman while stationed on the country’s island of Okinawa, according to Japanese media.

Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, is charged with fatally strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the city and stealing from her a backpack containing a wallet, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

© Photograph: KYODO/Reuters

Season 2 of Japanese drama Vivant Photo: Screenshot from CCTV News

Global Times | October 25, 2026

By portraying Chinese characters as perpetrators of ruthless violence while casting Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) intelligence operatives as defenders, the season 2 of the Japanese drama Vivant has recently drawn criticism from Chinese netizens, who argue that its depiction turns historical reality on its head while ignoring Japan’s wartime atrocities.

The TBS drama series – a spy suspense story in which an alleged unofficial intelligence unit of the SDF operates across the globe — has attracted a passionate fanbase. Its currently airing season 2 opened with a household rating of 18.8 percent, the highest for a TV drama this year, according toa commentary article by Japanese media Toyo Keizai.

What draws attention is the portrayal of the enemies in the series, the article noted. Scenes in which the Chinese organization subjects kidnapped members of the SDF unit to brutal torture are repeated with unrelenting intensity.

It is rare for Japanese TV dramas to explicitly portray a real-life country as the enemy, the article noted.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also made a reference to the drama, saying that she has been recording Vivant and hopes to binge-watch it over the year-end and New Year holidays, according to Japanese media outlets.

China’s CCTV News report on Sunday revealed that the drama features scenes in which Chinese personnel cut off the fingers of and stab Japanese intelligence operatives in the abdomen. Such acts bear striking similarities to the torture inflicted on Chinese nationals by invading Japanese troops during the World War II.

The drama distorts the truth by attributing these atrocities to modern Chinese characters. Beneath the surface, it subtly glorifies Japan’s cross-border overseas operations, blurs the functional boundaries of the SDF and implicitly promotes an expansionist narrative, per CCTV News.

Following the report, the topic “Japanese drama Vivant smears China” quickly became a trending topic on Chinese social media.

One Chinese netizen Luoxuchen noted that while previous content avoided sensitive topics by setting the story in a fictional country, this season directly names China, signaling that anti-China narratives in Japanese cultural entertainment have shed their disguise and become open.

Some netizens pointed out that Japan’s acts of distorting history are commonplace. “This is a familiar tactic of Japan, and vigilance must never be relaxed.”

The drama has even drawn criticism from some Japanese netizens. One netizen and history scholar @mas_yamazaki said that while the drama explicitly names “China,” it portrays Chinese people as “cruel,” “stupid” and “incompetent,” shows viewers weekly scenes of Japanese people being brutally tortured, and then coolly depicts SDF members slaughtering dozens of the “evil Chinese.”

“TBS broadcast this kind of drama in 2026, with major companies such as Japan Airlines as sponsors. The country is sick,” the netizen said.

“I’m quietly intrigued by the process of how content like this gets approved within the framework of commercial broadcasting,” another Japanese netizen @kyou_kore_mite wrote.

In the 2026 defense white paper released in August, Japan smeared and accused China, hyped up the “China threat,” while continuously accelerating its remilitarization.

China has already repeatedly urged Japan to reflect on its historical crimes, earnestly draw lessons from history, stop making excuses for its military buildup, and not go further down the wrong path, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian during a press conference.

• Matthew Kelson, now 43, grew up in Michigan and opened his first cinema in his 20s.
• He went on to work for Netflix in Los Angeles before getting transferred to Japan in 2020.
• After leaving his job at Netflix in 2024, he renovated a kindergarten and founded a cinema in Japan.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matthew Kelson, now 43, who was transferred by Netflix from Los Angeles to Tokyo and is now the founder of CineYama, an independent cinema in Uenohara, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. His words have been edited for length and clarity.

Japan isn't new to me. In middle school, I spent two weeks living with a host family as part of an exchange program. I returned a couple of times as an adult.

I was working at Netflix in Los Angeles when the company relocated me to Japan in 2020. I was based in Tokyo for two years before moving to Uenohara, a small town about an hour and a half by train from Tokyo. I still spent time in the capital for occasional meetings and traveled extensively across Asia for screenings. Otherwise, I worked remotely from home. After a company restructuring, I left Netflix in 2024.

I wanted to stay in Japan. My daughter was six months old when my wife and I moved, and my son was born three years later. We thought it was a great place for them to grow up. I started thinking about how I could utilize my expertise in cinema and give back to the community.

While scouting for locations, I came across an abandoned kindergarten. In 2024, I started plans to turn the old school into a cinema. And in December, I got my permanent residency in Japan through the highly skilled professional fast-track program. A year later, I formed my company and spent another year renovating before opening a cinema in March.

Building my career in film

I spent most of my childhood in Michigan, in the Detroit area. My father was a professor of international business. He traveled for work often. It got me curious about the world around me.

At 23, I came across the Detroit Film Center and took a filmmaking course. A year later, I became a teacher and worked as a projectionist there. Through that, I started working at an independent art theater in the Detroit suburbs. I started as an usher, then became the theater manager.

Within the two years of working there, I fell in love with the film world. At 25, I renovated an old school's auditorium into a theater in Michigan using my savings. The theater ran for two years, but after disputes with the landlord, it closed.

I was looking for a fresh start, so in 2011, I moved to Los Angeles. At first, I knocked on the doors of all the film distributors I'd worked with until I met some people at an independent film distribution company. I joined as an intern and worked my way up. I landed a job on Netflix's creative team two years later.

The journey to opening a cinema in Japan

Getting the permit to renovate the abandoned kindergarten was a long process. I had to negotiate with officials at city hall and the residents about how I'd use the building, establish the company, deal with fire and health regulations, and construction in a language I don't speak fluently.

I learned that pushing harder is not necessarily what gets things done in Japan. It was about patience, building trust, and showing people that I was serious and that the project wasn't going to disappear in six months.

There were days when I wondered why I had chosen to make my life so difficult. But every milestone, from getting the building, the inspection, installing the projector, and finally opening the doors, made me more determined.

When the cinema first opened, the elderly residents seemed cautious. After a preview, they told me they were impressed to see the place cleaned up and put back into use. It's important for me to have screenings that kids and families can come to and enjoy the space.

Tickets cost 1,500 Japanese yen, or about $9.50. We offer a discount to seniors and residents. I stick with showing content that is harder to find elsewhere, so that it gives viewers a perspective on other ways of life and culture.

It's mostly family-run. I manage the operations, and my wife helps out sometimes. My kids stamp the tickets when they're around.

Living up to the challenge

Opening the theater in the US was different from doing it in Japan. I was in my 20s, had little money, and was just figuring things out in Detroit. The one in Japan came after 15 years of working in film distribution, creative production, and international screenings.

It's been exciting living over here, having the cinema, and meeting people from all over the world. While life in the US would've been much easier, I like the challenges in Japan. That's why I was at Netflix for so long, because it wasn't an easy job either. I learned life in hard mode.