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 ...
HOLLYWOOD — “My next movie is a sequel to the one I did where I play a guy trapped inside a video game,” says Jeff Bridges, veteran of over 60 films. The film he’s referring to is “TRON: Legacy,” a sequel to “TRON,” from ...
HOLLYWOOD — “The politest thing I can say is, ‘It’s about bleeping time!’ ” says Drew Barrymore with a giggle reminiscent of Gertie, the “E.T.” role that made her famous back in 1982. The actress, recently turned director, is talking about the 2010 Oscar ...
HOLLYWOOD — Tim Burton, the filmmaker who gave a new spin to the classic children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” has now taken up the challenge of a greater classic, “Alice in Wonderland.” Both films feature his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp, who played ...
HOLLYWOOD — “Boy, you’re bringing back an experience where I got fed up and pretty tired of myself!” exclaims Sam Rockwell on the topic of the sci-fi cult film “Moon,” which he dominates more than any other single actor has done in a movie ...
HOLLYWOOD — Sacha Baron Cohen is perhaps the unlikeliest British movie star since the plain, self-effacing and rather asexual Sir Alec Guinness. But like the brilliant knight — who happened to be half-Jewish — Baron Cohen seemingly becomes the character he plays, even to ...
HOLLYWOOD — Kathryn Bigelow is only the fourth woman ever to be nominated for the Best Director Academy Award — and only the second American female. The first two nominees were Italian Lina Wertmuller and Australian Jane Campion; the third was Sofia Coppola. And ...
HOLLYWOOD — When one beholds the billboards touting the first movie in the new “Sherlock Holmes” franchise, one sees the slim, natty, Anglo-looking Jude Law and imagines he is Holmes and that the less buff, older and somewhat rumpled Robert Downey Jr. is his ...
HOLLYWOOD — It’s no surprise Johnny Depp is starring in a fantastical new movie titled “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” which opens in Japan on Saturday. Born John Christopher Depp II, the ever-youthful actor — now a surprising 46 — is known for taking ...
HOLLYWOOD — ‘I think ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ is a fantastic book,” says writer-director Spike Jonze. “Not just fantasy — fantastic. One plus is that it’s open-ended, (which is) possibly the reason it’s become a classic and is still riveting children. It lets ...
HOLLYWOOD — The year 2012, according to the ancient Mayas, is the year Earth destructs and a new cycle of life begins. (The Aztec and other pre-Columbian American calendars also held a cyclical view of the universe, sort of a reincarnation of planets at ...
