Major League Baseball's latest effort to reduce the prices it pays for Japanese players will not affect this year's expected posting of slugging ace pitcher Shohei Otani, a source within Nippon Professional Baseball said Saturday. Yet, Japanese baseball executives believe there is little choice but ...

Should Shohei Otani move to the majors via the posting system, as informed sources said Tuesday he expects to do, it will be a rare case where money will not be a primary factor in negotiations. Now 23, a fifth-year pro, and the Pacific League's ...

The Japan Rugby Top League unveiled its 2017-2018 season on Monday in an event revealing both ambition and concern as it builds toward the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. "In this, our 15th Top League season, we are playing toward 2019 and the Rugby ...

It was a record that was bound to fall to the right man in the right circumstances, and on Sunday the mark for career games pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball was eclipsed by Chunichi Dragons lefty Hitoki Iwase, Japan's all-time saves leader. The previous mark ...

Despite the hype surrounding his bad right ankle and missing out on this month's World Baseball Classic, Shohei Otani rates his offseason a success and remains adamant about his dual pursuits of hitting and pitching. "Because of the perception of my not being fully fit, ...

While it is not certain Japan will even bid for the 2026 Olympics, Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto said his city is ready to host its second winter games, provided it can avoid the problems that have plagued Tokyo in the lead-up to the 2020 ...

When Taira Uematsu returns home after the big league season, the San Francisco Giants' bullpen catcher spends a lot of time teaching baseball, and the most important lesson may be, "Have fun." Uematsu rediscovered that fun for the game in the U.S. after three years ...

For four years, Shohei Otani burned to help Samurai Japan reclaim the World Baseball Classic title it booted away in San Francisco in 2013, but the fire that empowered the slugging pitcher came at a cost. The pitcher hurt his right ankle during October's Japan ...

Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo is banking on team-building rather than flexibility as he heads into the World Baseball Classic next month. On Sunday, Kokubo clarified the seemingly peculiar choice of naming only one active pitcher on his roster as a member of the team's replacement ...

After making adjustments to Japanese baseball as a hitter that few foreign players could match, Alex Ramirez told Kyodo News last month about the different adjustments he had to make as a first-year manager. Between skepticism over his entering the job without having coached at ...