Sushi's humble beginnings in Tokyo are of only passing interest to University of Wollongong academic Matt Allen and colleague Rumi Sakamoto...the academics' real interest lies in its culinary colonisation of the world in the past 20 or so years and how this has been influential back in Japan.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan offered a renewed apology to South Korea on Tuesday for Japan’s brutal colonial rule, as part of a statement marking the 100th anniversary of his nation’s prewar annexation of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Friday with the United States represented at the ceremony for the first time...The United States...sent a representative to the ceremony for the first time, reflecting President Barack Obama's push to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The bento-bako, or Japanese lunch box, is enjoying great popularity overseas, with many retailers abroad even marketing the product under its Japanese name.

The US military is using manga-style comic books to promote to Japanese children its view on the importance of Washington and Tokyo's half-century security alliance...The United States is publishing the Japanese-language comic as both nations mark the 50th anniversary of their security treaty, and two days before the 65th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

"Once one starts listing the examples of Japanese culture infiltrating the United States, it's pretty hard to stop," wrote Entrepreneur.com's Laura Tiffany in 2008... Of the ten bestselling graphic novels in US bookstores in November that year, six were Japanese...

Every year for the past two decades, legions of young Americans have descended upon Japan to teach English. This government-sponsored charm offensive was launched to counter anti-Japan sentiment in the United States and has since grown into one of the country's most successful displays of soft power.

We arrived yesterday, and the city seems very, very peaceful," said Japanese delegate Yoshiki Oi, who attends the University of Tokyo. "We are going to big cities, but this allows us to have a good perspective of America. If all we saw were the big cities, we would not learn about all of America.