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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Kaz Nagatsuka is a staff writer covering Japanese sports, including Japanese professional baseball, basketball, American football and individual sports. He has covered big sporting events such as the World Baseball Classic, the NFL Super Bowl and soccer’s World Cup. He also works as a freelance sports writer/translator for Japanese magazines and websites. He has college degrees in commerce and journalism.
For Kaz Nagatsuka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Lightly laughing, Mizuki Noguchi insisted that aging isn’t necessarily so bad. The injury-prone runner said so because she thinks she is in her best physical condition in years. It’s not that she’s fortunate or anything, but she now can distinguish what kind of status ...
He grabs rebounds and blocks shots inside, he sprints as fast as anyone else and he hits jumpers with a silky shooting touch. That’s what 18-year-old Yuta Watanabe does. He does it all and has everything a basketball player could hope to have, and ...
They certainly have a physically demanding and dangerous job, but they don’t rest even off duty. The Eagles are unique bunch in the X League, Japan’s top football circuit. The players are officers in the Ninth Riot Squad of the Metropolitan Police Department, which ...
Sydney Olympic gold medal-winning marathoner Naoko Takahashi has an objection, saying a Japan Association of Athletics Federations decision takes irreplaceable opportunities away from the runners. The decision? On Thursday, the JAAF announced that its national marathon and race walk race squads for the IAAF ...
The Japan Association of Athletics Federations announced the selection of eight marathoners and seven race walkers for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Thursday. Popular runner Yuki Kawauchi headlines the men’s marathon squad, while Ryoko Kizaki and Athens Olympic gold medalist Mizuki ...
The Aisin Sea Horses beat the Toshiba Brave Thunders in Game 5 of the JBL Finals to clinch the championship for the first time in four years.
Aisin center J.R. Sakuragi scored 13 of his 25 points in the final quarter to lead the Sea Horses to a 74-65 victory over the Toshiba Brave Thunders in Game 4 of the JBL Finals at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2 on Sunday afternoon. ...
The Toshiba Brave Thunders had a strong late-game surge and prevailed in overtime in Game 2 of the JBL Finals on Thursday night, tying the best-of-five series at one win apiece with a 65-61 victory over the Aisin Sea Horses. Just like in Wednesday’s ...
The powerhouse Sea Horses withstood a tough challenge by Toshiba, but came through down the stretch as Aisin defeated the Brave Thunders 77-71 in Game 1 of the JBL Finals on Wednesday night. Center J.R. Sakuragi had a team-high 20 points and 12 rebounds ...
The Aisin Sea Horses have inarguably been the team to beat in the JBL in recent years, but they aren’t about to rest on their laurels. The Aichi Prefecture-based club finished atop the regular season standings, going 34-8, for the sixth straight season, but ...
After a dismal 2011-12 campaign, the Toshiba Brave Thunders are the JBL’s undisputed Cinderella team this season The addition of frontcourt standouts Nick Fazekas and Mamadou Diouf was one of the biggest factors that sparked their rapid rise. Takuya Kita, the club’s second-year head ...
The Kajima Deers are known as one of the powerhouse teams in the X League, Japan’s corporate football circuit. But they will no longer go with the name “Kajima” after this year. The club announced Wednesday that the 2013 season would be the last ...