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Alan Blinder
For Alan Blinder's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Rory McIlroy lines up his putt during the Ryder Cup in Rome on Oct. 1. The popular golfer has made no secret that the PGA Tour's secret talks with Saudi Arabia had blindsided and stung him.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Nov 15, 2023
Rory McIlroy resigns from PGA Tour board
The decision by one of golf's most popular athletes is a particularly public blow to the tour and its board.
Bianca Vara, a Democrat and grandmother of five, at the flea market where she runs a stall in Chamblee, Georgia, on Thursday. American voters’ broad discontent with the disarray in Washington transcends political parties, race, age and geography. "Disgust isn’t a strong enough word,” said Vara.
WORLD
Oct 7, 2023
Americans are too turned off by Washington to even complain
Griping about politics is a time-honored American pastime — but lately, the country’s political mood has plunged to some of the worst levels on record.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jun 15, 2023
Questions about potential LIV-PGA merger loom over U.S. Open
'We all want to know the why,” Colin Morikawa said. 'We’re so interested in the why. For us, for me right now, it’s just like what’s going to happen?'
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Apr 6, 2023
The tangled inner world of LIV Golf
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been a public cheerleader for LIV, which played two tournaments at his company’s courses last year.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 31, 2023
Trump courses will host three tournaments for Saudi-backed LIV Golf
The tour's schedule shows the Saudi-backed startup will remain allied with, and beneficial to, one of its foremost defenders and political patrons as he seeks a return to power.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jan 26, 2023
Barely still No. 1, McIlroy looks for the magic he conjured last year
The player is expected to play a competitive round for the first time in 2023 and give his sport a glimpse at whether he has the form seen last year.
Japan Times
SOCCER
Dec 10, 2022
U.S. soccer journalist dies in Qatar after collapsing during World Cup game
In recent days, longtime soccer writer Grant Wahl wrote about struggles with his health during a run of coverage that, he said, typically left room for about five hours of sleep a night.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Feb 13, 2022
China’s ice hockey squad shows a powerhouse’s weakness: team sports
The Chinese team in the Beijing Olympics could shock the Games. But it is more likely to underscore how little infrastructure the country has for team sports.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 4, 2022
In Beijing, the subject on everybody’s mind but not lips
Political activism has surfaced at many international events, including the Tokyo Olympics last summer, but no other host nation has been as strict as China in policing political dissent.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 30, 2021
This college bowl season, the toughest opponent is COVID-19
On Tuesday, hours before the scheduled kickoff in San Diego, UCLA announced that it would not be able to play North Carolina State in the Holiday Bowl.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 22, 2021
NHL players expected to skip Beijing Olympics
The decision could give the league additional flexibility as it tries to reschedule regular season games as it is expected to announce more postponements.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Apr 13, 2021
Hideki Matsuyama: A quiet Masters winner long lionized in Japan
In 2017, his penchant for privacy became clear: He announced that he'd married months earlier and that he and his wife had had a child.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 21, 2021
The NCAA sees its worst fears realized in a canceled tournament game
It was a Faustian bargain that college basketball made last autumn when it plowed ahead with a season into the headwinds of the coronavirus pandemic. There would be games, college sports administrators declared, because there needed to be a path to the NCAA men’s tournament, which the governing body could ill afford to have canceled for the second year in a row.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores