Transport authorities launched a full-fledged investigation Sunday into the derailment of a bullet train on the Akita Shinkansen Line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday afternoon.
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
SELLING WOMEN: Prostitution, Markets and the Household in Early Modern Japan, by Amy Stanley. University of California Press, 2012, 282 pp., $49.95 (hardcover) In the vast cultural landscape, Japan fascinates the mainstream with manga and anime, the martial arts, Zen and kimono. Of course, ...
Kenta Maeda shook off worries about his form with five shutout innings as Japan beat China 5-2 in first-round Pool A of the World Baseball Classic on Sunday at Fukuoka Dome. Japan improved to 2-0 following a tough win over Brazil in Saturday evening’s ...
It’s a long running stereotype: Japanese gamers like role-playing games (RPGs), and Western gamers prefer first-person shooters (FPS). That doesn’t mean hardcore FPS players don’t exist in Japan. They do. FPS games differ greatly from RPG games. In an FPS, action is gun-based and ...
A new PlayStation. A new Xbox. A new Wii. The last one is definitely happening with the upcoming Wii U and the others are no doubt being prepped for high-profile “reveals.” But what about a future with no consoles? None at all. For movie ...
Gamers know it: Every time Hideo Kojima finishes one of his “Metal Gear” stealth video games, he attempts to wash his hands of the wildly successful franchise and says, “That’s it. I’m done.” Yet, “Metal Gear” is to the famed game-creator as the mafia ...
Late last month, Nintendo signaled that for the first time in more than 30 years it was posting an annual loss — of $845 million — something that until recently had seemed virtually impossible. For three decades, Nintendo has been the company people associate ...
It’s that time of year again: Time to look back at all the games that were released in 2011 and sort out the best of the best. Which games won over gamers and stood out from the pack? This year saw the release of ...
On Dec. 17, the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s followup to its PSP gaming handheld, went on sale in Japan, and across the country gamers lined up to get their hands on one. Is it a worthy successor to the PSP? In two words: Oh yes. ...
For decades, Nintendo was known for its Mario games and Zelda games. Then something happened: Nintendo, which had long catered to traditional gamers, found a new audience that was not interested in Mario and didn’t care much for Link. Nintendo began making games for ...
Nov. 11, 2006, was one of the most stressful nights of my gaming life. That was the date the PlayStation 3 launched in Japan — and it was hell. Leading up to the PS3 launch, Sony had pushed a hype-fueled PS3 roll-out. Japanese gamers, ...
The problem with Japanese video games is that they take too damn long to make. The gestation periods are absurd. Sure, Western games also require time to make, as do films, but some Japanese game studios take way too long. There’s a reason for ...
Horrible natural disasters. Blackouts. Enduring hardships. This spring, as Japan was pulling itself out of earthquake and tsunami rubble, few thought there was going to be a Tokyo Game Show. Few thought about TGS at all. When the show’s floor plan was unveiled, it ...
