Currently, the workshop produces thousands of hat styles, with an annual output ... including US, Europe, Japan and South Korea. To scale up operations and create jobs, the factory has adopted ...

YAMATOKORIYAMA, Nara -- The date of a traditional festival at a shrine ... the shrine grounds wearing "yukata" summer kimono and straw hats. The event has become a fixture attracting visitors ...

Last summer, the organizer of the Yamagata Hanagasa Festival discovered that the traditional flower ... historically been skilled in making straw hats, the Japanese festival successfully overcame ...

Spokesperson Kotoji Ishida, 49, said, "We hope people feel cheerful and positive when they don a straw hat." (Japanese original by Yuichi Nakagawa, Osaka Photo Department) ...