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 ...
While all eyes have been on Sony because of the security breaches on its PlayStation Network recently, the company also quietly rolled out a device for all you audiophiles out there when it announced two new speaker-dock systems made for Apple’s iPhone and iPods. ...
One of the fun things about writing about Japanese technology is that every once in a while you come across a device that elicits both genuine admiration and a jaw-dropping reaction. And I’m delighted to report on two such gadgets today, both of which ...
It was not without a little sadness that we witnessed the end of Sony’s Walkman cassette model last year. Sure it was a long time coming, but the Walkman brand is only rivaled by the iPod in the history of portable music. Thankfully, the ...
Summer is just around the corner, and office workers are starting to don their lighter “cool biz” clothing in order to beat the heat. Japanese gadget-maker Cube Works (you may know them from the infamous humping dog USB stick) has rolled out a series ...
The tablet market continues to be increasingly crowded as the recently launched iPad 2 fends off a veritable Android army. And Taiwanese hardware-maker Acer made the fight even more interesting when it threw its hat into the ring this month, with the announcement that ...
You could be fooled into believing that necono, from superheadz, is simply a decorative cat figurine to dangle from your key chain. It is, however, a quirky digital camera. and may just be the thing to coax a few smiles out of any camera-shy ...
At the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 in Las Vegas earlier this year, Sony previewed its new line of BRAVIA LCD televisions, and the company has now announced that they will be released at the end of April. The most fascinating aspect of this new ...
Over the past week we’ve seen a stark contrast in how the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been reported. “Panic” read the New York Daily News. “Get out of Tokyo Now” said The Sun. One expects that of tabloids, yet more credible media also described ...
In the wake of the tragic earthquake and subsequent tsunami last Friday, people in Japan — and indeed all over the world — have been scrambling to sort through the news in search of information they can trust. In the first few hours after ...
Last month we brought you a double feature from toy giant Takaratomy. This month we look at another pair of fun products, courtesy of Thanko — the most notable of all the wacky gadget-makers in Japan. Recently Thanko rolled out the mini-cam to out-mini ...
