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 ...
The Oita HeatDevils assembled one of the league’s top rosters, a smart collection of veterans, and produced nine victories over their first 14 games, fewer wins than only one club in the 10-team Western Conference — the perennial powerhouse Ryukyu Golden Kings. More of ...
Tracy Williams is the Saitama Broncos’ eighth head coach since the team entered the bj-league in 2005. Only ex-NBA forward David Benoit lasted more than one season during his time at the helm — 2006-08 — and the Broncos were 36-48 in those two ...
The Rizing Fukuoka have been on a roll over the past few weeks, winning five straight games and bouncing back from a three-game slide to start the season. Coach Atsushi Kanazawa’s club triumphed twice last weekend against the Takamatsu Five Arrows to jump into ...
The winless Gunma Crane Thunders, who have been handed 35-, 38- and 43-point losses, fired original coach Tadashi Hayashi and named Ryan Blackwell his successor, the Eastern Conference squad announced Thursday. Gunma (0-8) plays host to the Yokohama B-Corsairs (2-2) this weekend. Blackwell was ...
The Oita HeatDevils entered the 2012-13 having played 328 regular-season games over the past seven seasons. The HeatDevils lost 200 of those games — a nice round number — and won on 128 occasions. They’ve had one winning season, going 22-18 in 2006-07 under ...
Veteran forward Dameion Baker, who suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon on May 17, 2009, in the championship game at Ariake Colosseum, while playing for the Tokyo Apache and hasn’t played a pro game since then, will join the Saitama Broncos in the coming days, ...
The Yokohama B-Corsairs accomplished great things as an expansion franchise last season, defying the odds by reaching the Final Four. Power forward Justin Burrell received the regular-season MVP award, starting all 52 games and averaging 18.7 points and 9.8 rebounds. Reggie Geary earned the ...
Bob Nash has been around the game long enough to know that he doesn’t need to go out of his way to complicate things. His basic approach is this: Each day provides another opportunity to take one small step in the right direction. As ...
Shimane Susanoo Magic forward Michael Parker, the four-time reigning scoring champion, predicted on Monday he won’t win the scoring title this season. “I would be surprised if I am the top scorer again,” Parker told a news conference in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, where players ...
For Ryuji Kawai, his second season at the helm has the same aspiration as the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix’s daily message throughout the 2011-12 season: A championship is the only goal. And the high-profile team will aim for that target as a first-year member of ...
The Greek economy is in horrible shape. The eurozone has been on shaky ground for years. And, yes, the Greek League is barely surviving. “Teams are compiling huge debts even as player salaries shrink,” Ken Maguire wrote in an SI.com report in April. “Desperate ...
After another offseason of major changes, the bj-league is entering year eight of its curious existence. Preseason competition will get the wheels in motion for the 21-team circuit, featuring two expansion clubs (Tokyo Cinq Reves, Gunma Crane Thunders), a squad that went 2-50 a ...
