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.
When it comes to gender equality, Japan has never failed to disappoint.
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori have set the stage for talks over the sovereignty of the Northern Territories.
Big problems — from child sex-abuse cases to Vatican politics — probably proved too much for an aging academic theologian like the outgoing pope.
In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Feb. 22, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed the audience of officials, experts and journalists that Japan is “back” and will not stand down in its ongoing sovereignty dispute with China ...
In one of Moscow’s central subway stations — Arbatskaya — the escalator leading up to the city exit ends in a spacious vestibule. On the front wall, a classic frame several meters high is covered with white plaster. It bears no image, and the ...
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday delivered his second policy speech during the current Diet session. He started his speech with the phrase “a strong Japan.” He seems to have strong attachment to the word “strong.” At the outset of his speech, he said ...
The Democratic Party of Japan, which suffered a severe setback in the Dec. 16 Lower House election, on Feb. 24 held a party convention aimed at laying the foundation for its resuscitation. Although it adopted a party platform and a seven-point declaration, it is ...
The education ministry on Feb. 20 revised an ordinance to exclude so-called Korean high schools or pro-North Korea high schools from the government’s tuition-waiver program. This change will cause various problems. First of all, the revision violates the principle of an education program designed ...
A Justice Ministry advisory panel outlines a proposed revision to the Juvenile Law that would add years to baseline detentions of young lawbreakers.
Park Geun Hye, South Korea's first female president, has taken the reins of a country beset by stubborn internal as well as international problems.
Two extraterrestrial objects intruded into the presumed order of our daily lives this month, one sideswiping the planet, the other impacting in Russia.
Contrary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's claim, Japan has not received a clear assurance from the U.S. that it can continue to retain high tariffs on such sensitive agricultural products as rice as a condition for joining the TPP talks.
Japan should provide whatever technical assistance it can to a China now facing air pollution problems that have unleashed strong public criticism.
A labor force survey shows the number of people employed in Japan's manufacturing industry dipping below 10 million for the first time since 1961.
Details of the brutal physical and verbal abuse by the basketball coach of an Osaka high school boy who committed suicide have finally been released. The external independent panel found that coach Hajime Komura repeatedly and consistently used corporal punishment and verbal abuse on ...
How long will English last as a major world language? The answer must be: a very long time. How long will English remain dominant worldwide as a second language in schools and universities? I believe it will be for one more generation — max. ...
A report just released by the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan states that there were 2,754 civilian deaths and 4,805 civilian injuries in that country during 2012. Unmentioned is a serious side effect of the conflict: the high number of opium-addicted children in Afghanistan. ...
It will be hard finding a replacement for the late Dr. Mineo Nakajima, who oversaw the development of a prestigious university in Akita Prefecture.
Leon Panetta's failure to accommodate a rapidly changing world will be his most important, and disappointing, legacy as U.S. secretary of defense.
As China catches up with the West in technology and relies increasingly on cyberspace for business and security, it may seek a cyberspace detente.
Unlike China, which has shown clear signs of economic stabilization since mid-2012, India has been slow to recover amid delay of necessary reforms.
Is Afghanistan in store for an Iraq-style "soft partition," with protracted strife eventually creating a "hard partition," after U.S. military forces go home.
