Andrew McKirdy is a sports writer for The Japan Times. His main beat is soccer, but he has also covered rugby, tennis, volleyball, golf and even tug-of-war. A native of the Scottish Borders, he has written for The Scotsman newspaper and organized filming for a program on Japanese soccer for ITV television.
For Andrew McKirdy's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
"Kana," to call him by the nom de guerre he uses when he is competing in arcade game tournaments, is so good at The King of Fighters '97 that he can beat most other players one-handed. Even with that self-imposed handicap, the 37-year-old clothing company ...
Cicadas — known as semi in Japanese — are a superfamily of insects with around 2,000 known species worldwide, around 35 of which live in Japan.
Takeru Kobayashi, the "godfather of competitive eating" recounts how he devoured the American dream, until it chewed him up and spat him out again.
The art of dressing up as characters from anime, manga, video games or TV shows has evolved into a global phenomenon.
With his single sequined glove, sparkly jacket and sharp moonwalk dance moves, the man on stage could be no one else. Or could he? "The good thing about being a Michael Jackson impersonator is that I play a global superstar," says Kazushi Yabe, who has ...
Rugby World Cup 2019 organizers on Monday unveiled their ticket designs for matches for the tournament, bringing a traditional Japanese flavor to what will be Asia's first-ever hosting of the event. Tickets for the Sept. 20-Nov. 2 tournament will feature rugby action scenes drawn in ...
Kenzo Takeba picks a loquat out of his basket, unwraps it from its paper cover and expertly begins to peel off the delicate orange skin with his fingers. He bites into the soft flesh, scoops out the chunky brown seeds with a flick of his ...
Fifty-three-year-old Kenji Yamase doesn't fit the traditional image of a hikikomori, but then perceptions of Japan's social recluses are changing. "People think of hikikomori as being lazy young people with personality problems who stay in their rooms all the time playing video games," says Yamase, ...
Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg admits the autumn heat in Japan could hamper his team's chances of claiming a Rugby World Cup quarterfinal spot at the host nation's expense later this year. But he also warns that the Scots are quick learners. "We played Japan in 2016 ...
Trainer Chuck Johnson explains what it takes to get a piece of the action in this rough-and-tumble world of stunt performers.
