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 ...
When the bright lights are shining, no X League club rises to the occasion quite like the Obic Seagulls. Quarterback Shun Sugawara threw three touchdown passes, including two in the second half, and the Obic defense forced three costly turnovers as the Seagulls soared ...
Hideki Kuriyama is a man who thought it was good luck that he happened to see a fox on his way home from Sapporo Dome after Game 3 of the Japan Series, although maybe it was, the Fighters won 1-0 on a sayonara single ...
A number of former major leaguers have signed with Japanese teams this offseason, but they pale in comparison to the star the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles may have lured to Sendai. According to reports from Nikkan Sports, the Eagles have reached an agreement with ...
Curtis Granderson doesn’t have to be here. He’s got money; he’s got fame; he’s been an MLB All-Star three times; and, well, he’s a New York Yankee. So he would have been forgiven for staying home, relaxing, and nursing the bumps and bruises one ...
Two-time defending World Baseball Classic champion Japan has released its preliminary roster for the 2013 edition of the tournament, and as expected manager Koji Yamamoto will be relying on a young, domestic-based squad as he attempts to guide Samurai Japan to a third consecutive ...
The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association showed rare backbone two years ago when, in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the players banded together and succeeded in getting the start of the season pushed back as the nation dealt with the disaster. ...
Last week, pitcher Mitsuo Yoshikawa became the first Pacific League MVP winner from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters since 2009. The last Fighters player to earn the honor was former ace Yu Darvish, who won in both 2007 and 2009. Yoshikawa’s triumph also marks ...
Mitsuo Yoshikawa didn’t just come out of nowhere this season. That would be putting it too simply. Try nowhere taken to a whole new obscure level, then go even further. Somewhere on the outskirts of that is where you’d find Yoshikawa. Even that feels ...
In a year that will be remembered for the huge triumphs by the Giants of both NPB and MLB, Yomiuri catcher Shinnosuke Abe finally won the big prize. Abe’s spectacular 2012 campaign was capped on Wednesday when he was named the Central League MVP ...
Koji Yamamoto made it through his first two games in charge of the Japan national team with a pair of victories against Cuba, the world’s top-ranked baseball team. Now comes the hard part. Yamamoto made a succcessful return to the dugout after seven years ...
