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 will be interesting to see how far the 3-D bandwagon can chug along before it runs out of gas. Consumers don’t seem too excited about 3-D TVs or 3-D personal computers anymore, but nevertheless, Panasonic hopes that its new Lumix DMC-3D1 camera will ...
Japanese company Thanko, the creator of an assortment of crazy — if not always practical — gadgets, has recently released an intriguing device targeting iPhone users. The iPhone Mini Projector is tiny, at 48 × 58 × 16 mm, and weighs only 32 grams. ...
Last week, Canon announced its new EOS-1D X DSLR camera, the latest addition to its 1D series, replacing both the EOS-1Ds Mark III and Mark IV models. The 1D X is Canon’s top-of-the-line offering, targeting professionals and high-end photographers. With a hefty price tag ...
Nostalgic gaming fans old enough to remember “Space Invaders” no doubt look back on it as one of the most memorable video games of years gone by. Japan’s Taito Corporation created the arcade game back in 1978, and it has been a classic ever ...
It has been a rough year for Sony after its PlayStation Network security breach this past spring. But it has enjoyed a bit of a respite after rolling out its new pair of tablets this past month, as well as showing off its forthcoming ...
For many consumers, compact cameras have gone the way of the dinosaur thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones. Why take a camera around in your right pocket, when you already have a camera phone in your left? Indeed, the term “camera phone” is ...
It’s obvious that tablet computers are making their mark on the electronics world, with Hewlett Packard this past week citing “the tablet effect” as a reason to consider a spinoff of its PC business. That’s big. Especially as the company also said that it ...
Now that we’re into August, many of us here in Japan are looking for new ways to beat the summer heat. Some people have purchased “green curtain” kits, growing walls of goya vines to cool their homes or offices. Others are opting for “Super ...
Japanese camera maker Pentax made the news earlier this month, having been acquired by Ricoh for ¥10 billion. But just prior to that, Pentax rolled out what it hailed as the world’s smallest and lightest interchangeable-lens digital camera: the Pentax Q. The body measures ...
The 2011 International Tokyo Toy Show was held last month at Tokyo Big Sight, and Japanese toy-makers were in attendance to show their wondrous wares to potential buyers, not to mention a veritable army of kids. This year saw everything from figures to remote-control ...
