Document 72 Hours

The setting is a 24-hour flower store in Shinjuku Kabukicho, Tokyo. Who comes to buy flowers late at night and under what circumstances? An unfulfilled wish for a one-sided love. A thank-you note to a mentor approaching retirement. A surpr…

Shibuya Station in Tokyo is used by 3 million people every day. Overnight, the platform of the Toyoko Line, a private railway line, was moved from the second floor above ground to the fifth floor below ground. The platform, which has a his…

A small, standing kushikatsu store that is attached to the wall of an underground passageway in Osaka's Umeda Station, it is always packed, sometimes with a long line of customers. The restaurant is always packed, and sometimes there is ev…

We closely follow the special three days that Yokosuka, a Maritime Self-Defense Force base, welcomes. In spring, most of the naval vessels gathered at Yokosuka base for the annual promotion examination. The 8,000 personnel do not hide thei…

Every year, 16 million people pass through Sapporo's New Chitose Airport, on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. In spring, many dramas of greeting and parting play out as people come and go between the great expanses of the north and…

The factory of a major manufacturer in Gifu Prefecture closed its 33-year history. At its peak, it had four thousand employees and had sent out products such as game consoles, but it ended its role in globalization. A skilled engineer who …

Hitorikara" is the art of singing karaoke alone. Recently, specialty stores have also appeared. At a 24-hour restaurant in Shinjuku, Tokyo, 48 private rooms are available, and on weekends there is a long line of people waiting for their tu…

Near downtown Gion, Kyoto. There is a place visited by people from all over Japan who are troubled by their relationships. It is Yasui Konpira-gu Shrine, known as a "shrine for severing relationships. People who wish to break off bad relat…

In Japan's Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, a patient died after being turned away by a number of hospital Emergency Rooms. Other patients have similarly been put in jeopardy; and even for minor ailments, treatment is hard to get after hours…

Got a PC or a smartphone? Media-sharing sites will let you stream live and interactively. It could be called "self-casting" and it's a whole world of its own. In a single day, via a single site, 100,000 people might be streaming in this wa…

Ageo City, Saitama Prefecture, is a bedroom community about an hour from central Tokyo by train. A 24-hour family restaurant in a corner of the city never ceases to attract customers from early morning to late at night. Elderly people go t…

The Akihabara district in Tokyo is known worldwide as a mecca for "otaku" or geeks. It's also where a number of girl groups dance and sing. The otherwise obscure "live theaters" where they perform have become major new attractions for the …

Kochi Racecourse once produced the racehorse Harurara, whose dedication to his sport drew sympathy despite a losing streak of more than 100 races. It is still a “sanctuary for losers,” so to speak, where horses released from racetracks all…

The round, dull eyes are disproportionate to the huge body. The way they drift humorously and leisurely in their tanks. The sunfish is a mysterious creature that gives one an unrealistic sensation when gazed upon. At present, Japan's large…

Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture. More than 100 victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake still live in an abandoned school in a corner of the city. They moved with the town office two years ago from Futaba Town in Fukushima Prefecture, wher…

When summer comes, people from all over Japan flock to Mt. Fuji. After the mountain was designated a World Heritage Site in 2013, the crowds swelled even more. The Yoshida Trailhead is one point where those going up and those coming down c…

The Shonan coastal region in Japan conjures up images of summertime, youth culture, fashion. We cast an offbeat video eye on an obscure but revealing Shonan location: a 24-hour coin laundry, during the rainy season. People stream in, clutc…

For a low fee, you can enjoy to your heart's content a spacious bath and massage room, as well as a place to eat and take a nap at this health spa in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. During the day, it is a social gathering place for the elder…

The Airin District, Osaka. Here live thousands of male day laborers, many of whom spend their nights in rooms so small they have no storage space at all. So they rely greatly on cheap rental lockers to store their essential belongings and …

The Yanaka Cemetery is one of Tokyo's oldest cemeteries. The greatest number of visitors come during the Obon holiday in the summer, when Japanese traditionally pay their respects to the dead. But though they come in droves, they each mour…

In August, a small town on the outskirts of the peninsula of Kagoshima attracted the world's attention. The launch of the state-of-the-art rocket “Epsilon” carrying a planetary observation satellite. The town was inundated with inquiries f…

Yoshimoto Kogyo attracts aspiring young comedians from all over Japan. They believe that they are the funniest, and there is a place where they are first sifted through the ranks. Every year in September, a three-day, two-night “mountain r…

24-hour gyms are quickly gaining in popularity. Relatively inexpensive and open all hours, they're well-suited to busy modern life. A close look at patrons reveals many reasons why people want to tone their bodies. Some people must stay fi…

Outside Yokohama's main rail station is a 6-floor game center. New games come out all the time, but an old standby is a cash cow: crane games, accounting for 40% of revenue. From early morning till late at night, an endless stream of peopl…

Osaka Station: a major transportation hub for Western Japan. One popular service catering to travelers there is a Ladies Powder Room. Women who have traveled long distances without any makeup on, or others on their way to or from work or h…

There is a street person who is said to have no one in the center of Hiroshima who is said to be unknown. His name was "Hiroshima Taro." God's demons are dead. He runs through the city on a bicycle to wear a flashy costume. It is said that…

Hitchhiking on the sea" is a way of traveling through the Seto Inland Sea by boat only. The starting point is Shodoshima Island, and for 72 hours, the group will aim westward. That's the only rule. The destination is simply left to the win…

Nothing but sand, as far as the eye can see. The Tottori Sand Dunes on the Sea of Japan are a vast world of nothingness. 2 million visitors a year are drawn by scenery that is utterly different from their daily surroundings. But their moti…

It occupies an entire floor of a large building in Shinjuku, a bustling district in Tokyo. An enormous travel agency, visited daily by a high volume of customers seeking discount airfares. In spite of the growth of Internet sales, people t…

More and more these days, people communicate via texting, social media and email. Yet there are some who rush into the Shinjuku Post Office, a giant establishment in Tokyo open 24/7, at all hours of the day or night, with something that si…

An unusually large number of passengers gather at a train station in Tokyo. They're taking a special night train to Izumo, a thousand kilometers to the southwest, on the Japan Sea coast. It's November, when, according to Shinto belief, the…

Crammed together are magazines and novels, art books and technical treatises. In an era of increasing Internet book sales, streams of people are drawn to actual bookstores, in search of unexpected encounters. The bestsellers on display pro…