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Pope Francis’ fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped “liberate” a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican’s insistence that no such papal exorcism took place. The case concerns a 43-year-old ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“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, ...
Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It’s a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in ...
Tim Duncan saves the day as the Spurs hold off the Grizzlies in overtime
Late last year, in the mountains of Chiba Prefecture, hikers came across an owashi (Steller’s sea eagle) — a designated special natural treasure — that was unable to fly. The striken raptor was immediately sent to Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, into the charge of ...
Spending the day at the zoo isn’t one of the first things families think of any more when they’re looking for weekend recreation. As both new alternatives — from the recent upsurge of interest in soccer to the rash of flashy theme parks — ...
In the early morning of Dec. 1, the first “Hayate” shinkansen left Hachinohe Station in Aomori Prefecture. Its departure for Tokyo in a blaze of publicity signaled that Japan’s fastest express trains had a new northernmost limit — some 96.6 km further on the ...
The last trains have long gone and the stations are shuttered. Outside, it’s chilly and the streets are all but deserted. In a building in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward, though, it’s bright, hot and noisy. About 20 people pump iron, sweat on exercise bikes, and ...
A man carefully slices a loaf of rye bread. He piles lettuce leaves and slices of ham and cheese onto one slice, then tops it with another slice. The tasty looking sandwich finished, he cuts it neatly in two. Across from him, another man ...
“Have Japanese people already forgotten about soccer?” asks a recent advertisement for a satellite-TV station. The ad continues: “To all the Japanese people who were swept up in the soccer frenzy of the World Cup — have you forgotten about soccer?” But how could ...
As director of the university division of the higher education bureau at the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, Takafumi Goda is at the helm of national policy on university education. Recently, one of his chief tasks has been to oversee long-awaited reforms ...
Japan’s universities are at a crossroad. The notion has been voiced in some quarters for many years, but now — by common consent — the fact of the matter is impossible either to deny or to ignore. Why now, you ask? After all, commentators ...
Hiroshi Sato, 37, is an assistant professor of political science at a private university in Tokyo that, while not among the nation’s top-ranked seats of learning, nonetheless enjoys a high status and popularity. Sato’s career there spans almost 10 years, including two years’ research ...
Taxi driver Yoko Yamaoka finished working at 5 this morning. Tomorrow she will get up at 5 in the morning and start the day’s shift at 8. She usually works on a rotation of three days on and two days off. Yamaoka is one ...
Why, how, and even whether negative ions are beneficial to health may be the subject of highly charged scientific debate, but that’s done nothing to dampen a craze for products boasting this invisible asset that’s gripping the Japanese market. As the old saying goes, ...
Living with Tokyo Disney Resort in their midst, residents of Urayasu in Chiba Prefecture can enjoy its fireworks displays every night in summer. Even for them, though, the annual Noryo Fireworks Festival is something else altogether. From early afternoon on July 27, streams of ...