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 ...
Wily Mo Pena said he couldn’t remember the last time he was in an elimination game. He’ll have a hard time forgetting this one. Pena hit a two-run double in the fourth inning, Seiichi Uchikawa added an insurance run in the eighth, and the ...
A number of Seibu Lions fans spent their time outside Seibu Dome looking into a television camera and imploring their team to get a win. The Lions’ players weren’t quite ready for the season to end yet either. In the end, everybody got what ...
Shota Takeda has all kinds of talent. At the tender age of 19, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks right-hander made 11 starts this season, winning eight and finishing the year with a 1.08 ERA. It could probably be said that Takeda has more raw talent ...
Reliever Masahiko Morifuku made his first postseason appearance of the year in the ninth inning, with the bases loaded, nobody out, and his team clinging to a two-run lead in Game 1 of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series. Fukuoka Softbank ...
Tadashi Settsu was a long way from Fukuoka, wearing his road uniform and standing on the mound in another team’s stadium. Despite all that, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks ace felt right at home. Settsu threw eight scoreless innings, and reliever Masahiko Morifuku pitched out ...
After winning last season’s Japan Series the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks lost their three best pitchers and an All-Star shortstop. Instead of rebuilding, the Hawks reloaded, riding ace Tadashi Settsu and another strong year on the mound to a third-place finish in the Pacific League, ...
No matter what changes or how much time passes, it seems like the Chunichi Dragons find a way to make it into the Climax Series. The Dragons have a new manager and an aging roster, yet here we are talking about them entering another ...
Seibu Lions fans weren’t happy Saturday afternoon and they were letting Chiba Lotte Marines rookie pitcher Takahiro Fujioka feel the brunt of their vitriol. Fujioka wasn’t giving Hiroyuki Nakajima anything to hit, or anything even remotely close to the plate, and each ball he ...
Shinnosuke Abe perked up at the news the Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera had won the Triple Crown. “He did? I knew he was competing closely (with the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton), and leading by one (home run),” the Giants captain said. Cabrera’s accomplishment led ...
The final regular-season meeting between the Chunichi Dragons and Tokyo Yakult Swallows was a largely uneventful affair. When they get together again next month, the stakes will be much higher. Takahiro Donoue drove in a pair of runs, and the Dragons got off to ...
