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 ...
Usually, if someone tells you their Wii is all red, you’d suggest they see a doctor. Thankfully, Nintendo’s new red Wii is more cause for celebration than medical scare. The Kyoto-based company is marking the 25th anniversary of one of its most popular games, ...
Most readers in Japan will be familiar with the local phenomenon of purikura. Translated as “print club,” they are small, user-decorated photographs with sticker backings. These personalized stickers are quite popular among young girls in Japan, who will often plaster them all over notebooks ...
While this columnist is admittedly upset that Mouse Computer named their latest product after my old college dorm room without attribution, it’s certainly very exciting to see an Android-based competitor for Apple’s “revolutionary” iPad coming out of Japan. The LuvPad AD100 is a 10.1-inch ...
One of the more popular items to come out of Japan last year was Kotobukiya’s “Star Wars” Light Saber Chopsticks, which made the rounds on popular tech blogs such as Gizmodo, Wired and TechCrunch’s CrunchGear. And while they might not have “the force” (nor ...
From high atop the summit of Mount Fuji last summer, despite miserable weather and poor visibility, 32-year-old tech enthusiast Joseph Tame sent video coverage of a spectacular solar eclipse live to the Internet from an impromptu mobile-broadcasting studio. With little more than a laptop ...
In November, more than 100 people met in Yokohama for a daylong “unconference” on technology and the Internet. Attendees addressed each other on topics of their choosing — the roster of speakers determined solely by whoever signed up fastest for time slots on a ...
Speaking on the sidelines at the CEATEC technology conference in Chiba on Friday, Takahito Iguchi made a bold statement: “We will make a new environment.” Iguchi is the CEO of TonchiDot, the company behind Sekai Camera, a much-hyped program that lets users digitally tag ...
Thousands of goose-stepping troops, rumbling rows of tanks and floats celebrating China’s achievements paraded proudly in front of Tiananmen Square last week, all intended to convey the message that Beijing has everything under control. However, there’s everything but control on the Internet. Ironically, behind ...
Apple’s “It’s Only Rock and Roll” music-technology event last week was closely watched by Apple fans in Japan, where many consumers have anointed the iPod and iPhone as their music players of choice over the past few years, even over homegrown competitors such as ...
