Female of the species

In winter, Japan’s northernmost main island Hokkaido is a place of snow-covered forests and white-crested volcanoes mirrored in glacial lakes. It’s also the land of the Ainu, an Indigenous people intimately connected to the environment through their hunting, fishing and storytelling traditions, and animist beliefs

The soundtrack to Japanese politics was once “quiet, calm, ambient”, says The Economist. No longer. New prime minister Sanae Takaichi, a one-time heavy-metal drummer, is setting a new beat that is “br

The good times are rolling again in Tokyo, where the Japanese stock exchange has extended its record rally, fuelled by what UBS calls the “Takaichi trade”, says MarketWatch. But if new PM Sanae Takaic

Unfairly maligned as a sneaky troublemaker, the quicksilver ferret is a characterful, curious and highly intelligent creature–with fascinating regal and cultural trappings to boot, writes Octavia Pollock

RED FOX

SARAH DITUM