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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, resolved to end nearly two decades of deflation and revive the economy, explains his economic and fiscal policies to his fellow G-8 chiefs, turning "Abenomics" into an international commitment in the process.
About 45 minutes from Tokyo’s skyscrapers, resting in the hinterlands of Tachikawa there is a land of mist and dragons. It’s a place where rolling hills tumble toward an Aztec pyramid, and children bounce on clouds. The place is called Showa Kinen Koen, and ...
Edward Snowden, the fugitive former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked secrets about America’s spying operations, often hung out online with foreigners in Japan who shared his interests in anime, video games, martial arts, the stock market and the expat lifestyle. Snowden, who ...
Across the colorful show floor at last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, there were games on display where players could become all manner of things, like a throat-slashing 18th-century pirate, zombie killer, a guardian of the last city on Earth, music-making sorcerer, ruthless Roman general, ...
Tuukka Rask watched most of the action at the other end of the ice. And when the Blackhawks did make a late charge, he was ready. The Bruins goalie stopped 28 shots for his third career playoff shutout, helping Boston beat Chicago 2-0 on ...
Gail Hopkins, the first baseman on the 1975 Hiroshima Carp Central League championship team, returned to Japan last month for some business and reminiscing about his days with the team. Old-timers will remember Hopkins and Richie Scheinblum were recruited to play for the Carp ...
Reader and fan of Japanese baseball Leon DeHaven in Arizona wants to know if the proposed 2014 season-opening series between the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers in Southern California (Baseball Bullet-In, April 28) is still going to happen. “I’m ready to rent a room ...
There were high hopes for the Hiroshima Carp heading into the 2013 NPB season but, almost a third of the way into the schedule, the results so far might well be described as a still wait-and-see situation. The Carp are in the middle of ...
He wasn’t the best foreigner to ever play in Japanese baseball, but Brad “The Animal” Lesley was surely one of the most colorful and unforgettable characters to ever put on the uniform of a Central or Pacific League team. The news of his death ...
What do you make of the idea to have the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers open the 2014 Japanese baseball season in the U.S.? The tour is reportedly in the works and an official announcement should be coming sometime during May. Preliminary plans call ...
In response to my column of March 17, a couple of readers have come in with suggestions on how to pick up the notoriously slow pace of Japanese baseball games. From the Bay Area, fan Mike Colegate sent the following e-mail. I know that ...
Happy days are here again — or so it would appear — for the hitters in Japanese baseball. The ball is flying once more, as shown by the number of home runs being hit in the early going this season. No one is saying ...
Will the Saitama Seibu Lions be sold? I surely hope not. Despite the problems of its parent company, the franchise has had a colorful 34-year history, and I would like to see it continue. Apparently, former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle feels the same ...
The third World Baseball Classic is now history, and congratulations to the Dominican Republic on the victory. The WBC has gotten better each time, I believe, and it has become an excellent showcase for the game on a worldwide basis, especially since baseball was ...
The March 7 decision by Japanese baseball’s executive committee to drop the 3½-hour time limit on extra-inning games came as welcome news. We have observed the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, the subsequent tsunami and nuclear power ...
No doubt the Hanshin Tigers are the more popular of the two Japanese professional baseball teams in the Kansai area. Their games at historic Koshien Stadium between Osaka and Kobe draw packed crowds most of the time, and the fans are arguably the most ...
While Japan and the rest of the baseball universe are deep in the World Baseball Classic fever, the conventional major league and Japanese teams are going about their business getting ready for their respective April 1 and March 29 opening days. In the U.S., ...