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Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, winner of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, is seen outside Andersen's house in Odense, Denmark, in October 2016.

Japan’s Haruki Murakami withdraws from consideration for alternative Nobel award

Japanese author Haruki Murakami has asked for the withdrawal of his nomination for an alternative to the Nobel Prize in Literature, postponed this year over a sexual misconduct scandal, saying he wanted to concentrate on his writing. One of Japan's most successful literary exports, Murakami's No...

National basketball team players (from left) Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato and Keita Imamura, along with Japan Basketball Association Chairperson Yuko Mitsuya, face reporters in August.

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Japanese athletes under fire after Asian Games scandal

by Philip Brasor

When four members of Japan's national basketball team were sent home from the Asian Games last month for patronizing prostitutes, the resulting scandal capped almost a year's worth of bad publicity for sports in Japan. Over this time we've had allegations of "power harassment" raised against the ...

JR gestures

by Alice Gordenker

Dear Alice, Until recently I lived in Tokyo and commuted on the JR Chuo Sobu Line from Kameido Station. I made it a practice to ride in the last compartment of the train, just so I could enjoy the spectacle of the driver making those sincere hand gestures at each and every station. I've seen the ...

Akira Horiuchi (right), who won the Ig Nobel in medical education, demonstrates his self-colonoscopy technique during the annual awards ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

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Do-it-yourself colonoscopy wins Japanese doctor one of 10 2018 Ig Nobels

A Japanese doctor was recognized Thursday with an Ig Nobel prize, which honor comical but practical scientific studies, for devising the most comfortable colonoscopy technique by using himself as a test subject. Akira Horiuchi, a 57-year-old head of the digestive disease center at Showa Inan G...

Naomi Osaka is congratulated by her mother, Tamaki, on Sept. 8 in New York after winning the singles title at the U.S. Open.

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Naomi Osaka is Japan’s tennis darling, but could she eventually decide to play for the U.S.?

by Sarah Suk

Amid the excitement of Naomi Osaka winning the women's title at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last weekend, some in Japan are wondering whether she will continue to compete for their country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 20-year-old has dual nationality — Japanese and American — and under ...