In Japan, where the birthrate is dropping and the elderly population is rising, more schools are closing than opening. But in Kumamoto prefecture on the nation's southernmost island, Kyushu, the city of Uto was faced with an aging elementary school and nearly 800 youngsters to educate.

Soft concrete may be an oxymoron, but Ellipse Sky, a four-story residential building designed for an obstetrician, his family, and several tenants, deftly pokes holes in that notion.

Meiji is Japan's largest chocolate manufacturer, and its 100% Chocolate Café, designed by the Tokyo-based firm Wonderwall, is a cocoa connoisseur's dream come true.

Located at the edge of Tokyo, the Futakotamagawa Rise Galleria had the misfortune of being completed just six days after the Great Hanshin Earthquake jolted Japan on March 11, 2011.

There's no running around naked in Sosuke Fujimoto's House NA. The 3-D matrix of tiny rooms and exterior terraces—all located on different floor levels—is encased almost entirely with see-through glass.