For those who still take in movies at theaters it’s a great season for garbage, and I’m not talking about the usual summer blockbuster fare. Last month, Fatih Akin’s documentary “Garbage in the Garden of Eden” (aka “Polluting Paradise”), about a landfill project in ...

One thing about having a nuclear accident in a rich country is that at least there is going to be good medical care and long-term monitoring. The repair and clean-up operation is another matter, of course — which is why Japan is currently under ...

“Emperor,” a film directed by Peter Webber that takes up the subject of Emperor Showa and the postwar occupation period, has been showing at local theaters since July. The film’s protagonist is Gen. Bonner Frank Fellers, who served as a subordinate to Supreme Commander ...

Photographer Noriko Hayashi has won the top award for feature reporting at an international photojournalism festival in Perpignan, southern France. Hayashi, a 29-year-old freelancer who lives in Tokyo, won the Visa d’or Feature Award on Friday at the Visa pour l’image festival for a ...

Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose, at his final news conference before the selection of the host city for the 2020 Summer Olympics, blasted media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and said people should not believe scare stories. He also stressed that the central government ...

Rochus Misch, who spent five years as Adolf Hitler’s square-jawed bodyguard, courier, telephone operator and all-around attendant and was widely believed to be the last surviving veteran of the Nazi leader’s bunker as the Soviet Army closed in on Berlin, died Thursday at the ...

A U.S. judge was blocked Friday from increasing the controversial one-month prison term he imposed on a teacher convicted of raping a 14-year-old student. Montana’s Supreme Court said Judge G. Todd Baugh could not annul the 31-day sentence he imposed on teacher Stacey Rambold ...

Sixteen-year old ballerina Miko Fogarty may be an American teen prodigy, but despite hailing from that land steeped in stardom culture, she seems to have none of the usual celebrity trappings — or to be particularly interested in them. When we met recently on ...

Unlike the stereotype of your average American teen, Miko Fogarty (16) is not talkative or exuberant. In this way she seems somewhat shy and reserved, almost as if she leans toward the Japanese part of her lineage despite being brought up in the United ...

The horn blast from the incoming ferry echoes clearly through the top-floor hall of Hirado Castle. From the donjon’s vantage point, my husband and I can clearly see the large passenger ship as it enters the sheltered bay of Hirado’s port, marking the end ...

I don’t remember hearing the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis in March, or any of his fellow Argentinian Jesuits when I was in Buenos Aires in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They seemed strangely silent in such harrowing times when ...

Recording their 12th and last studio album was nothing short of “torture” for The Beatles, said John Lennon in a tape-recorded interview coming up for auction this month. The Fab Four had just completed “Let It Be” in 1969, but had yet to break ...

Kashiwa Reysol ended a turbulent week on a resounding high with a 4-0 Nabisco Cup semifinal first-leg win over Yokohama F. Marinos on Saturday. Reysol went into the match at Hitachi Stadium after a chaotic seven days, with manager Nelsinho abruptly offering his resignation ...

Shuichi Murata hit a two-run homer off teenage rookie Shintaro Fujinami (10-5) in the fourth inning, and Hisayoshi Chono hit another in the fifth as the CL-leading Yomiuri Giants rallied from a run down to beat the second-place Hanshin Tigers 4-1 on Saturday. Matt ...

Hanshin Tigers outfielder Shinjiro Hiyama, a 22-year veteran who ranks second in the Central League in career pinch hits, said Saturday this will be his final season. The 44-year-old, who entered play on Saturday with a career .260 batting average over 1,945 games, has ...

Hideki Matsuyama set himself up for his third win of the season on Saturday after a bogey-free 5-under-par 66 saw him take a four-shot lead into the final round of the Fujisankei Classic. Matsuyama, who has enjoyed an excellent rookie season that has also ...

When Randy Bass hit his 54th home run of the year, he thought he would have a decent shot at the Japan single-season record. With two games remaining in the 1985 season — both against the Yomiuri Giants — Bass needed two home runs ...