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 ...
There’s this guy I drink morning coffee with. Like me, he came to Japan as a young man and now wonders where the decades have flown. We sit at the window and watch the people rush past, so much like the years of our ...
You’ve heard it . . . Japanese can take an idea and improve upon it, but they can’t come up with the idea themselves. A tiresome notion that needs to be washed away by all the abundant evidence to the contrary. For the Japanese ...
The warmth of the holiday season often cooks up a nice story — a helping of good will to be served with turkey and plum pudding, osechi and omochi or whatever other delicacies might grace your international table. And that’s what I’ve got this ...
Here it comes, the eternal question . . . Why did the gaijin cross the road? Today’s answer: To get to the yakitori bar. On the other side. And if you’re wondering about that other eternal question — which came first, the chicken or ...
First, let’s clarify the term, “pet peeve.” It’s not like they’re actual “pets.” No one wants to hold one in their laps. Or tease one with a squeaky toy. They’re not kittens, they’re not poodles, they’re not bunny rabbits. They’re peeves. And as peeves, ...
Japan is fond of buzzwords and perhaps one of the buzziest of the last two years has been the term “danshari.” It leapt into Japan’s ever-fickle public limelight in 2010 and continues to cast shadows even now. Each “danshari” syllable can be tracked to ...
“The reason I love zombies . . .” The speaker has skin the hue of a soft-shell taco. At his jaw line, the taco has been ripped away to expose bleeding gums and skeletal teeth. His right cheek has been chewed into hamburger, the ...
Sound cannot travel in a vacuum and perhaps that explains the growing silence in the Japanese spirit. For we are entering a vacuum. A hero vacuum. Yes, Japan is running short on heroes. This has happened before. And when it does there is always ...
Two years ago I had a bet going with my younger son about who could lose 10 kg the fastest. So I bought a Wii Fit unit. Now I admit I am nothing but a grunt in the army of the techno-challenged. When it ...
Japan is a fortunetelling nation and so, to start, here is Truman Capote’s famous line about fortunetellers . . . They lie. Which is not quite true. Actually, Capote said . . . They fib. And it wasn’t really him. It was a character ...
