In his Olympic year, Oscar Pistorius steadily became an avid firearms collector, joining a gun-collecting club and purchasing a collection of firearms that included a .500 Magnum pistol and a civilian version of a military assault rifle.
It’s a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chugoku no gunkan (中国の軍艦, Chinese warships) in the Higashi Shina Kai (東シナ海, East China Sea) challenged Japan’s Kaijo Jieitai (海上自衛隊, Maritime Self Defense Forces, MSDF) patrols in a manner deemed kyōiteki (脅威的, threatening). And on Feb. ...
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, ...
Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa is back with a bang, becoming the first Asian player to score a hat trick in the English Premier League.
Concerned about Egypt’s political instability and the U.S. budget crunch, a growing number of American lawmakers are challenging the wisdom of providing $1.3 billion a year in military aid to Cairo, arguing that the policy is overdue for a wholesale review. Lawmakers say that ...
The Bank of Japan’s options to reinforce its monetary easing grip will probably be limited even if Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda, a strong advocate of aggressive easing, takes the BOJ helm in March. The government’s nomination of Kuroda, 68, apparently reflects its ...
The U.N. human rights chief declared recently that it was time for a “long overdue” investigation into what she called unparalleled rights abuses in North Korea. The probe, unprecedented in scope, could help establish whether Pyongyang’s leaders are committing crimes against humanity. Navi Pillay’s ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s trip to Washington was interpreted by some political analysts as confirmation that his second stint at the government helm has gotten off to a strong start. On Friday, Abe agreed with U.S. President Barack Obama to bolster the bilateral security ...
Despite skepticism from G-20 countries, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may continue his extreme monetary easing until the Upper House election to maintain his approval rating.
In power for barely more than a year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has adhered overwhelmingly to the policies of his father, using a familiar mix of internal repression and nuclear showmanship while all but dashing hopes he would emerge as a Deng ...
The way North Korea sees it, only bigger weapons and more threatening provocations will force the U.S. to come to the table to discuss what Pyongyang says it really wants: peace. It’s no coincidence that the North’s third underground nuclear test — and by ...
North Korea’s nuclear test Tuesday could push China to take a tougher stance against its longtime ally. Beijing had earlier signaled a growing unhappiness with Pyongyang by agreeing to tightened U.N. sanctions after the North’s rocket launch in December, surprising China watchers with its ...
After a series of embarrassing missteps — including multiple wrongful arrests — police investigating a high-profile cybercrime case Sunday took into custody a 30-year-old man previously convicted of a similar crime on suspicion of using hijacked computers to threaten murder. Yusuke Katayama was convicted ...
Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa’s planned early exit, almost three weeks before his term runs out, will accelerate a leadership transition that is likely to aid Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign for aggressive easing, analysts say. Shirakawa, 63, said Tuesday he will exit ...
As France’s airstrikes in Mali push back Islamist militants, the challenge now is to secure peace in the arid north by enlisting the support of nomadic Tuaregs whose bid for a separate homeland sparked the yearlong crisis. Talks with the Tuaregs are considered crucial ...
China’s demographic time bomb is ticking much louder with the first fall in its labor pool for decades, analysts say, highlighting the risk that the country grows old before it grows rich. The abundant supply of cheap workers in the world’s most populous nation ...
