When Wayne Douglas arrived home in New Zealand from Japan in early 2001, his own mother didn't recognize him at the airport. "She said that I looked like a half-dead zombie," Douglas recalls. "My mother had to drive me to the doctors' rooms, which were ...
Elementary school student Jian Macdonald had always thought policemen were cool — especially ones that rode fast motorcycles. In September last year, Jian was riding through Ueno on the back on his father's motorbike when they spotted a traffic cop at the side of the ...
As an 8-year-old in Indiana, William first became curious about Japan when he made friends with a Japanese guy called Hideki who introduced him to Super Mario and the magical world of Japanese video games. As he grew older, his interest in Japan broadened and ...
On Bruce Gherbetti's right forearm, the names of his three lost children are permanently inscribed in a swirling script of dark blue tattoo ink. "They go with me everywhere I go," he says, smiling. "It is a physical representation of the fact that my children ...
Myanmar's one-time military generals, who have miraculously transformed themselves into benign politicians, really do seem to be taking remarkable steps to restructure both the domestic and foreign policy of that fragile nation. U Thein Sein's new administration recently released approximately 208 out of the country's ...
Sung Won, the father of Hoon "Scott" Kang, the Korean-American tourist who died in mysterious circumstances in Shinjuku last year, arrived in Tokyo this week to continue his fight to seek justice for his son. Family spokesman Ray Wozniak, who accompanied Mr. Kang to Tokyo, ...
An historic meeting June 29 between parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Makiko Kikuta and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon highlights Japan's increasing willingness to look beyond its self-interest and promote democracy in the region. Kikuta is the first high-level Japanese envoy to meet with ...
Nine months after their only son, Hoon "Scott" Kang, a Korean-American tourist, died from severe head injuries sustained in the stairwell of a building in Kabuki-cho, his family and friends are still no closer to understanding how he died. Although the Shinjuku police have officially ...
A Japanese journalist was arrested in Myanmar at 9 a.m. Sunday while reporting on the election in the border town of Myawaddy. Forty-nine-year-old Toru Matsumoto, who works for the Tokyo-based APF news agency, was believed to have been taking photographs at the time of his ...
Most foreigners in Japan know the horror of waiting for a residency permit or visa. A few hours in the queue at the Shinagawa immigration office can feel like a lifetime. But for Iranian national Jamal Saberi, "waiting a lifetime" has become more than just ...
