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Japanese city abolishes 88th birthday celebratory money gift because people are living longer

A city’s longstanding tradition is no more as something that’s very good for its residents turns out to be very bad for its budget.

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The number of elderly people in Japan this year has yet again smashed multiple records

Japan’s labor shortage is so bad that the government is even recruiting old folks who are willing to work.

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This store in Tokyo will pull out your grey hairs for you, leave you looking years younger

“Refresh your soul and hair!” is the slogan of the first white-hair-removal specialty store in Japan.

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The Internet is going nuts for model Risa Hirako who looks more like 25 than 45.

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In pictures: Everyday life in China and Hong Kong, 1868-1872【Photos】

Scottish travel writer and photographer John Thomson was one of the first western photographers to travel to the Far East. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, he travelled extensively in China, recording what he saw for posterity.

From elaborately dressed brides to working fishermen, Thomson captured landscapes and city scenes, people and places. The result is a captivating insight into the everyday lives of Chinese people almost 150 years ago.

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These beer and cigarette poster from the Meiji and Showa periods will confuse and enchant you!

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things in the world is old photos. There’s something almost otherworldly about those 100-year-old photos of Japan, Japanese landscape, and Japanese people, as if we were looking back through a time-telescope. It doesn’t hurt that the photos, despite technological restrictions, also happen to be gorgeous! The same can be said for old Japanese advertising posters that show off a time and place few even remember.

Check out these 16 alcohol and cigarette posters below and try to remember: Just because the cool kids are doing it, that doesn’t mean you should! Cigarettes are still bad for your health.

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Usually when you hear about a fresh-faced new voice in politics, it’s usually, well, a fresh face. Not so much with Ryukichi Kawashima, who is running for office for the first time at the ripe old age of 94.

Kawashima is running to represent Saitama Prefecture’s 12th District and is the oldest candidate out of the 1,504 people running in the current election. He had been putting aside money from his pension to use for his own funeral expenses, but decided the 3 million yen (about US$36,000) would be better spent as an election fund. Deep concern over the future of the country motivated him to run, he says. “I thought it was time I did something.”

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