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9 stories set here.

The Cabinet July 25, 2026 · Sengakuji temple, Tokyo

The Forty-Seven Ronin, Who Avenged Their Lord in 1703 and Were Sentenced to the Death They Expected

In 1701 Lord Asano drew his sword against the court official Kira inside Edo Castle and was ordered to die the same day. His leaderless samurai — ronin — waited nearly two years, then stormed Kira's mansion in the snow, took his head to their master's grave, and surrendered. The shogunate's verdict: honourable seppuku for all 46 who stood trial. Japan has argued about them ever since.

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The Coroner’s Report July 25, 2026 · Tokyo

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1 September 1923, Which Burned Tokyo and Killed 105,000 People

At 11:58 on 1 September 1923, two minutes before noon, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the Tokyo-Yokohama region as the city's lunch fires were lit. Firestorms did most of the killing — including some 38,000 people incinerated by a fire whirl at a single open square. Around 105,000 died; in the chaos, mobs massacred thousands of Koreans.

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The Footnote July 25, 2026 · Mejiro police station, Tokyo

The Honjo Masamune, Japan's Greatest Sword, Handed to a Police Station in 1945 and Never Seen Again

The Honjo Masamune — masterwork of Japan's greatest swordsmith, heirloom of the Tokugawa shoguns, a designated national treasure — was surrendered to occupation authorities via a Tokyo police station in December 1945, signed for under a garbled American name, and vanished. It remains the most famous missing sword in the world.

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The Coroner’s Report July 25, 2026 · Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

Minamata Disease, the Mercury Poisoning That Chisso Denied for Twelve Years While It Kept Dumping

From 1932 the Chisso Corporation discharged methylmercury into Minamata Bay, Japan. The neurological disease it caused was officially identified on 1 May 1956; Chisso's own physician proved the cause by 1959 and was silenced. The dumping continued until 1968. Thousands were certified as victims; the true number is far higher.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Fukushima Daiichi

The Japanese Nuclear Plant That Lost Cooling Power Forty-One Minutes After the Tsunami Hit

The 11 March 2011 earthquake off northeastern Honshu produced a 14-metre tsunami that overwhelmed the seawall of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant at 15:41 local time. Backup diesel generators flooded within minutes. Without cooling, three reactor cores went into meltdown over the substantial subsequent four days. The displaced population was about 154,000.

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The Coroner’s Report June 27, 2026 · Hiroshima

The First Atomic Bomb in Combat Was Dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on 6 August 1945 and Killed Approximately 140,000 People by the End of the Year

The American B-29 Enola Gay dropped a uranium-235 fission bomb on Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on 6 August 1945. The bomb detonated approximately 580 metres above the city centre and killed approximately 70,000 people instantly. By the end of 1945 the cumulative death toll from blast, burns, and acute radiation sickness had reached approximately 140,000. Japan surrendered nine days later.

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The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Shiroyama, Kagoshima

The Senior Samurai of the Meiji Restoration Who Helped Modernise Japan and Then Was Killed Leading the Rebellion Against It

Saigō Takamori was the senior military commander of the 1868 Meiji Restoration that overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate and dragged Japan into industrial modernity. He resigned in 1873 over the abolition of the samurai class, led the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion against the government he had built, and died at Shiroyama on 24 September 1877 with about 40 samurai facing 30,000 government troops.

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