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 ...
So far 16 political parties are fielding candidates for the Dec. 16 Lower House election. While polls say that voters are likely to return to power the nearly 60-year-old Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled for most of the postwar period, this year’s election is ...
The Ishiharas trail the Hatoyamas 2-0 in prime ministers. But when it comes to the variety, prominence and celebrity of each individual member, not many families in Japan today can compete with the Ishihara bunch. Following are questions and answers regarding the Ishihara family, ...
It used to be that pouring cash into public works projects was deemed the best way to kick-start an ailing economy. Those days are long gone. Now the government is more bent on cutting spending to ease the bloated national debt. In its quest ...
Softbank Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son took the world by surprise last month by announcing a $20 billion buyout of U.S.-based Sprint Nextel Corp. In 1980, his startup firm was a two-man computer wholesaler. Now through vigorous mergers and acquisitions it’s angling to be the ...
The triple-meltdown crisis that began last year at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant jarred the public out of its complacent attitude toward nuclear power and every other assurance made by the government and Japan Inc. Suddenly, thousands of people were fleeing their homes ...
Tokyo Station is a major commuter hub that draws throngs of people who visit every day just to admire the Marunouchi side’s century-old red-brick and stone facade or stay in its nostalgic hotel. After undergoing a 5½-year renovation, the historic landmark formally reopened on ...
For the first time ever this month, shale oil was extracted from a Japanese oil field. Although the Ayukawa oil and gas field in Akita Prefecture likely doesn’t hold vast quantities, its yield is still good news for a nation seeking new energy resources ...
Oct. 15 will mark the 10th anniversary since five Japanese citizens were repatriated from North Korea after being abducted by Pyongyang’s agents in the 1970s. The government claims that the North has failed to properly address the fate of 12 more Japanese abductees that ...
After months of preparation, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s new political party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), was formally inaugurated at a mid-September gathering that drew more than 3,000 supporters. The country’s only national political party based outside of Tokyo aims to field ...
It’s been 18 months since the Fukushima nuclear disaster contaminated much of the prefecture and beyond, and reports are still coming in about radiation in food exceeding the government limit. In late August, Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced that heavily contaminated “ainame” (greenlings) had ...
Under the government’s new energy strategy, announced last week, Japan will aim to end its reliance on nuclear energy during the 2030s. But the public was quick to spot a contradiction, as the strategy states that the nation’s contentious nuclear fuel cycle policy will ...
The nation’s territorial disputes heated up in August when the South Korean president made an unprecedented visit to the Takeshima Islands, which his country holds, and Chinese activists briefly landed on the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands. In July, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medevedev toured the ...
