Asia Pacific

Bangladesh disaster probe blames owner

The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...

An overture to Pyongyang

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent an aide, Mr. Isao Iijima — a former secretary to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi — to North Korea last week in an effort to make progress on unresolved bilateral issues, including the past abduction of Japanese nationals by North ...

Food & Drink | JAPANESE KITCHEN

Springtime beans aim for the sky

by Makiko Itoh

Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...

Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT

Fear and incarceration, from Kampala to Nagoya

by Stephen Carr

“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, ...

Stage

Shizuoka theater festival courts the avant-garde

by Nobuko Tanaka

Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...

Baseball | SPORTS SCOPE

Fighters rookie Otani makes solid impression in mound debut

As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

More Sports

Ando awaits shoulder surgery

Kyodo News

Figure skating world champion Miki Ando said Friday she intends to undergo surgery for a shoulder injury after the end of the current season. Ando plans to have surgery possibly in April — after the World Figure Skating Championships to be held in Goteborg, Sweden, in March — at a hospital in Japan. She dislocated a right shoulder during the national championships in December 2006 and aggravated the injury at the Japan-U.S. team competition last October. Ando said the decision to undergo surgery is aimed at enhancing her performance level in time for the start of the next Grand Prix season and Winter Olympic Games. “I want to get Biellmann spins and other things (that strain skaters’ shoulders) done ahead of the 2010 Olympics (in Vancouver),” said Ando.