Japan's mysterious disappearance industry

Take a look at the companies that help people vanish.

Each year, some choose to "disappear" and abandon their lives, jobs, homes, and families. In Japan, there are companies that can help those looking to escape into thin air.

Why workers in Japan hire resignation experts

Many workers in Japan hire resignation experts to help them quit their jobs. That's partly because quitting is taboo in Japan. It's seen as "the ultimate form of disrespect" in that country, where job hopping is uncommon. Bosses sometimes attempt to force workers to stay when they resign, creating quite the market for resignation assistance firms. Read more in this article.

An anthropologist analyzes the Japanese movement against having children

Broadly known as anti-natalism, the philosophical stance against having children stems from a variety of factors. In Japan, it arises amid low fertility rates, economic pressures, and ethical concerns. This essay explores the reasons some Japanese embrace the philosophy.

The fabulous prison escapes of Japan's Yoshie Shiratori

Between 1936 and 1947, Japan's Harry Houdini escaped from prison four times, each more daring than the next. Even as the walls grew taller and the windows smaller, Siratori found ways to free himself from captivity.

Japan's 1990s deflation followed the country's fastest growth period

The end of World War II ended Japan's isolation in the global economy, prompting what's now called the "Japanese Economic Miracle." From the 1940s to the 1980s, Japanese policy makers enacted ultra-loose monetary policies that pushed a ton of cash into the market and fueled rapid growth. But these policies ultimately helped create a bubble and sent the country into a deep period of deflation.

The Pacific Northwest's last 'really big one'

More than 300 years ago, a shift in the Cascadia subduction zone caused the seafloor near the Pacific Northwest coast to drop by three to six feet. The force generated a massive tsunami that traveled across the Pacific and devastated Japan.

Researchers think most of its residents escaped with their lives—but how?

With only a few hundred bodies recovered, evidence suggests most Pompeiians fled. This TED-Ed animation follows the stories of three hypothetical residents—one who stayed inside, one who ran, and one who fled by sea—to illustrate how their survival ultimately depended on the choices they made.

When your 9-to-5 becomes optional

You've seen the headlines. But what would actually happen if everyone's 9-to-5 became optional? We dug into the data. Traced automation philosophy back thousands of years. Examined what happened when elevator operators disappeared. Looked at Alaska's 40-year experiment paying every citizen. And investigated the Philippines, where 89% of call center jobs are now at risk. What we found was more positive than bleak. This video explores three questions: What does the data actually show? What does history tell us about this kind of disruption? And what happens when work becomes optional?

Explaining the icy mystery of the Dyatlov Pass deaths

A decades-old mystery from Soviet Russia could be explained by studying the science of snow. After nine students died on a hiking trip in the Ural Mountains, Soviet investigators found six had perished from hypothermia while three others died from blunt force trauma. The mystery confounded officials for years, and rumors of yeti attacks and similar theories abounded until researchers proposed a new potential culprit: an avalanche.

Investigating 'the city that kills women'

For nearly three decades, thousands of women have disappeared near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Some were mutilated in ways that led authorities to suggest it the work of a serial killer, some were trafficked into slavery, and others have never been found. Opening with a hail of bullets, this 10-part podcast series hopes to uncover those responsible for the femicides.

Japanese horror is often more psychological than its Western counterpart

One of the country’s most famous directors is Masaki Kobayashi, who won a Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. Unlike his Western peers, Kobayashi’s films avoid jump scares or gratuitous gore, opting instead for slow-burning psychological explorations that are just as terrifying.

The art of 'undiscovering' phantom islands

Centuries of maps include islands and isles that appear to only exist on atlases. This article explores the discovery and "undiscovery" of such landscapes, which still persist despite modern technology. As recently as 2012, Google Maps showed an...

'Lady Muraski' was a pen name

The author behind "The Tale of Genji" is still unknown. The woman's diary and some details about her aristocratic life have been found, but scholars have not yet pinned down her identity. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Women in WWII used tattoos to avoid capture

During World War II, Japanese soldiers kidnapped women from Southeast Asian countries and forced them into sexual slavery. But they hesitated to capture married women, a fact that women from the island of Timor exploited, painstakingly poking tattoos onto their bodies that marked them as married women.

Read a list of one digital nomad's favorite remote work locations

Roughly 18 million Americans travel the world while working remotely, hunting for hotels and cafes with solid Wi-Fi connections and weather. From Thailand to Greece, these digital nomads have worked all over the world in the years since remote work has become more popular.

Osamu Dazai's 'No Longer Human' found a new generation of readers, thanks to TikTok

The novel was published in 1948, a month after the writer's suicide, and went on to become a classic of Japanese literature. Decades later, an English translation gained popularity on TikTok, where younger readers praised the book for its handling of alienation. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

'Mystery hikes' were a popular attraction in the 1930s

Still reeling from the Great Depression, many Americans were looking for low-cost (or free) activities. Some travel agencies curated "mystery hikes," which offered intrepid amblers the opportunity to be set on a blind adventure.

The strange, unsolved story of Filippo Bernardini and the stolen book manuscripts

Over the last five years, a mysterious figure has been stealing manuscripts, often unpublished, from individuals and organizations in the publishing industry across three continents. The scammer, later identified as Filippo Bernardini, was an...

Korea's "real-life mermaids"

Explore the incredible world of Haenyeo, Korea's female freedivers who dive to depths of up to 60 feet without oxygen tanks. These amazing women have been practicing this ancient tradition for centuries, and yet, their story remains largely unknown.

The Japanese folklore that inspired Pokémon

Characters from the popular video game series appear to reference the yōkai from Japanese folklore, which first became popular during the country's Edo period, when art and literature became mass-produced.

Why Japan builds airports on water

Some of Japan's roughly 100 airports are built on water—that is, engineers have created new land in bodies of water specifically to construct airports. This six-minute video explains why the country is doing so despite the higher cost of such airports.

The surprising economics of sushi

How exactly does a patron of a sushi restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, get to eat fresh fish caught off the coast of Japan? This episode of the Freakonomics podcast answers this question and explains the impressive feat. Listen to learn about the tricky economics and time-sensitive process behind importing fresh catches to sushi-lovers across America.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

A downed Japanese pilot sparked a violent three-day standoff on the island of Niʻihau

After a Japanese pilot crash-landed on the Hawaiian island of Niʻihau, residents first sheltered him. Once news of the Pearl Harbor attack arrived, two locals tried to help him escape, leading to a violent struggle in which Native Hawaiians ultimately stopped and killed him.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Americans are reading fewer books than in the past

A 2022 Gallup survey found that Americans are reading fewer books than ever before. An additional study found that the time people spend reading has dropped over the last 20 years. The most compelling narrative for the shift? Screens have stolen potential readers, occupying the time that they otherwise would’ve spent with books.

'The Boy who Went to Heaven': A bestselling, but fabricated, story

In 2010, a book a boy’s experience of visiting heaven following a horrific car crash kicked off a surge of “heaven tourism” books. The account, however, turned out to be fabricated by his father, revealing a complicated mix of faith, greed, and a kid caught in the middle.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.