Long before becoming an international sport, lacrosse was played for centuries by Native American communities in North America. It was often a ritual game, staged on vast fields with large teams, carrying spiritual and social meanings linked to warfare, celebration, or conflict resolution. The name “lacrosse” was coined by seventeenth-century French missionaries, who noted the resemblance between the curved stick used in the game and a bishop’s crozier. Over time, this ancient practice evolved into a modern, codified sport, spreading widely in the United States and Canada and gradually gaining ground in Europe and Asia. Fast-paced, physical yet regulated, and driven by the continuous movement of a small ball passed and caught with sticks, lacrosse is one of the most dynamic sports to watch. Its inclusion as an Olympic sport marks a significant milestone for a discipline that for a long time remained outside the global spotlight. From 24 July to 2 August 2026, Tokyo will host the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship, one of the leading events on the international calendar. The Japanese capital will welcome the world’s top teams in a tournament that highlights both elite competition and the rapid growth of women’s lacrosse, one of the most energetic and forward-looking sectors of the sport today. For Japan, the championship also represents a strategic opportunity to strengthen the sport’s presence in Asia and introduce new audiences to a discipline that is still relatively unknown but highly engaging. With lightning-fast passes, aerial plays and an intense rhythm that leaves little room for pause, the Tokyo championship promises to be not just a major sporting event, but an ideal gateway into a sport that blends ancient tradition with contemporary excitement.
The New National Theatre Tokyo presents a new production of Richard Strauss’s Elektra. The opera condenses a tragedy of obsession and violence into a single, intense act, driven by an extreme orchestral language. The performance is sung in German with surtitles and supported by audience-focused services.
The National Museum of Western Art presents the complete series of Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from the Iuchi Collection. The prints depict Fuji as a shifting presence, seen from multiple viewpoints and embedded in everyday life. A unified project that reshaped the visual language of landscape.
The National Art Center in Tokyo presents an exhibition on British art of the 1990s and the Young British Artists. The show reconstructs a decade of experimentation and cultural change. A complex portrait of a scene that reshaped contemporary art.
.jpg/jcr%3Acontent)
-(1).jpg/jcr%3Acontent)
