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 why did the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters trade away arguably the best player on their team, if not in the entire Pacific League?
Last week, pitcher Mitsuo Yoshikawa became the first Pacific League MVP winner from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters since 2009. The last Fighters player to earn the honor was former ace Yu Darvish, who won in both 2007 and 2009. Yoshikawa’s triumph also marks ...
Japan manager Koji Yamamoto said his World Baseball Classic team would mirror previous Japan squads and be built around pitching and defense. An admirable ideal, if not for the small issue of his best pitcher not wanting to play. What’s more, the second or ...
Stretching on the field hours before Thursday’s Game 5 of the Japan Series, Hokkaido Nippon Ham outfielder Daikan Yoh smilingly said that he hoped to go to South Korea. That meant that he wanted to advance to the Asia Series in Busan by winning ...
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters youngster Kenshi Sugiya and his father, Mitsuru, are a unique father-son tandem. Both of them have been professional athletes. Mitsuru Sugiya was a Japan featherweight champion boxer, who also fought in a WBC world title match, in the mid-1980s. But ...
You could call it a coincidence, but going into Game 3 of the Japan Series on Tuesday there was a chance something uncanny could happen in baseball on both sides of the Pacific. Both the Giants of the United States and Japan had the ...
Despite a lopsided 8-1 loss to the Yomiuri Giants in Game 1 of the Japan Series, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama came out in front of the media throng in a cheerful mode before Sunday’s Game 2 at Tokyo Dome. And the ...
Perhaps Shuichi Murata is the one who’s psyched up the most on the 21-time NPB champion Yomiuri Giants in the Japan Series. The 31-year-old slugger joined the club via free agency before this season after playing for nine years with the always-struggling Yokohama BayStars. ...
The Yomiuri Giants wrapped up the Central League pennant last week. Now the spotlight shifts to the Pacific League race, which is getting tighter by the day. Entering this week, there are three teams — the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Seibu Lions and Fukuoka ...
Wladimir Balentien’s cousins began calling him “Coco” when he was 4-years old, because it was easier to say than his name, and the moniker stuck. The way he’s swinging the bat, opposing pitchers are now probably busy trying to come up with easier methods ...
After last season’s Japan Series, there were questions about whether or not Tony Blanco would be back with the Chunichi Dragons this year. When the club signed veteran first baseman Takeshi Yamasaki, who spent years starring for other teams after coming up in the ...
Toshiya Sugiuchi is a former Pacific League MVP and Sawamura award winner and has been among NPB’s elite pitchers for years. As good as he is under normal circumstances — and a 110-56 record with a 2.84 ERA and 1,677 career strikeouts say that’s ...
