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SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Sep 4, 2001

Far and away: The story of Japan's World Cup venues

Last weekend, I was on tour in China with British Football Club Tokyo. We played so badly in the annual Shanghai Sevens tournament that I decided to give poor Shunsuke Nakamura a break in this week's column (something about the pot calling the kettle black).
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 26, 2001

Between Sonic rock and a hard place

At first glance, the biggest thing happening in Makuhari last weekend was the sale at the local outlet mall. No banners. No bullhorns. No hype. Just a silent, eerie cityscape of hotels and empty family restaurants. In short, there was nothing to indicate that Summer Sonic, Japan's second-biggest music...
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2001

No answers in Nepal

The mountainous little Himalayan country of Nepal exploded into the headlines last week on the strength of an incident as bizarre, as mysterious -- and as bloody -- as the final scene of "Hamlet." On Friday, June 1, Nepal's King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was shot to death along with his wife and seven...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 19, 2001

Dancing with rubbish leads to dancing with rice

It is easy to pick out dancer Firak di Bello in a crowd. Slight of build and all skin and bone, his shaven head mirrors the sun. Equally distinctive are his eyes (as wary as they are warm and all-seeing), the hawklike nose (which leads the way) and a gait that bobs rather than glides.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2001

One person killed family, police say

Police investigating the brutal murder of Mikio Miyazawa, his wife and two children in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, now believe that one person was responsible for the killings, based on blood samples taken from the site of the crime.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 15, 2000

Knife-wielding nutters, karate chop cocktails and ueberbabes

"There's nothing for kids to do in Nagoya except sit around all day drinking and taking drugs," says pal Hiroshi, who spent three years there at college.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 1, 2000

Hard training is its own reward as big event looms

Note: By the time you read this you're still probably suffering a hangover with the force of two stars colliding in a distant galaxy (courtesy of Fuji Rock Festival): far out and painful, in other words. Well, this article concerns the Fuji Rock warmup weekend, an annual ritual where Fuji Rockers imbibe...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2000

Aborigines raise their cause's profile

SYDNEY -- On its way from Greece to the Sydney Olympics 2000, the Olympic flame this week passed by Uluru, a huge rock rearing up out of the vast emptiness of the "dead heart" of Australia. Watching it were Aborigines, this country's inhabitants for the past 50,000 years, to whom Uluru is sacred.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2000

Fashion segueing into sound

A special guest at a Ryuichi Sakamoto concert summons a host of international possibilities -- David Sylvian or Bowie, perhaps? Instead, the audience at Sakamoto's recent Christmas concert got designer Yohji Yamamoto clutching an acoustic guitar. Yamamoto's foray into music (he has recorded with rootsy...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 14, 1999

The Worldwide Music Expo embraces roots and Internet

For anyone involved in any aspect of world music, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) has become an essential date on the calendar. After a few years of internal wrangling, at the end of October, WOMEX returned to its original home at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany, where from now on it will...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jun 18, 2023

Three teams drop out of Tour de Suisse after cyclist’s death

The Tour de Suisse cycling race resumed its multistage competition on Saturday, one day after a rider died from injuries he sustained in a crash during a high-speed mountain descent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 5, 2023

The farewell tour: Amid rising costs, a Canadian doctor ends his Japanese music festival

Once dubbed the 'patron saint of Japanese indie,' Canadian Steven Tanaka is ready to settle down for some 'me' time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / Longform
Jun 4, 2023

'Stakeout Diary': A killer on the run, two postwar gumshoes — noir at its finest

When a photographer was given rare permission to follow two detectives through Tokyo on a murder case, who’d have known he’d gather a legion of fans decades later.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
May 31, 2023

G7 '23: Kishida's pumped from a Zelenskyy bump

Another year, another G7 summit done and dusted. How did Prime Minister Fumio Kishida do? Well, he’s thinking of an early election if that’s any indication.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 21, 2023

No joke: China's backlash against stand-up stirs fear of comedy clampdown

A Beijing-based comedian said a number of their shows had been canceled in the wake of a joke about the military.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 3, 2023

Wagner group claims 'legal' capture of Ukraine's Bakhmut

The Wagner group has supported Russian troops throughout the offensive to surround the city, the fight for which both sides have invested in heavily.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 9, 2023

Spurred by wave of protest, children of Iran’s revolution face ghosts of brutal past

While Iran tries to suppress the biggest challenge to its authority since the revolution 44 years ago, many younger Iranians are interrogating the Islamic Republic’s version of history.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 17, 2023

Superbike rider Haruki Noguchi dies after crash in Indonesia

Noguchi broke into the motorcycling scene with his 2021 win in the Superstock 600 category at the All Japan Road Racing Championships.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Aug 23, 2023

A closer look at sumo's 'hot hand' after Hokutofuji's Nagoya run

Hokutofuji’s career best 12-win outing in July not only came out of the blue, but was his first winning record of any kind since the previous September.
The incoming and outgoing presidents of Johnny & Associates, Noriyuki Higashiyama and Julie Keiko Fujishima, bow at a press conference on Sept. 7.
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny’s talent agency has admitted to a past of abuse. What next?

Karin Kaneko joins the show to update us on how the story is unfolding.
A performer going by the name “Tanefukube” leads shishi-odori dancers during Tono Meguritoroge’s grand finale at Rokko-shi shrine.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 30, 2023

Dancing with ghosts at Tono’s rural folk festival

The Tono region is Japan’s go-to setting of scary stories to tell in the dark.
A screen grab obtained from a social media video shows the scene of the stabbing of an Israeli Embassy staff member, in Beijing on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 14, 2023

Israeli Embassy employee attacked with knife in Beijing

A 50-year-old male relative of an Israeli diplomat was stabbed by another foreign national outside a supermarket in Beijing, authorities said.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 17, 2023

Marines and Carp hope to maintain Climax Series momentum

The CL and PL league champions, the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes, will enter the fray with places in the Japan Series on the line.
Nurses and university students majoring in nursing hold up signs that read "Nurse act", during a protest against President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoing a nursing act that defines the roles and responsibilities of nurses, in Seoul on May 19.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Oct 19, 2023

Why South Korea has so many protests, and what that means

Born during South Korea’s difficult march toward self-governance in the 1980s, protest rallies are a fixture of Asia’s most vibrant democracy.
A festivalgoer walks along the water near Kyotophonie’s Beach Stage. Despite rain on the second day of the festival, attendees and musicians maintained a lively atmosphere until the nighttime finale.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 21, 2023

An intimate bazaar of music and magic at Kyotophonie

The biannual music festival brought soulful sounds to Amanohashidate, a sandbar famed for having one of Japan’s three most beautiful views.
Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh (left) and the former emir of Qatar arrive at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new Hamad residential neighborhood in Gaza in 2012.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2023

Israel-Hamas war escalation puts Qatar’s clout to the test

The nation has positioned itself as an key go-between, but has been criticized for housing Hamas leaders while maintaining channels to Israel.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Nov 22, 2023

Takakeisho falters as sumo’s wait for next superstar continues

The good news for Takakeisho is that slip-ups elsewhere mean he remains in the title race.
Terry Gou, Foxconn founder and then-presidential candidate (left), former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou (center), Hou Yu-ih presidential candidate of the main opposition Kuomintang attend a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 25, 2023

Taiwan opposition cracks apart, and invites the cameras in

The split over a proposed joint ticket bolsters the governing party candidate’s chances in the coming presidential election. That won’t please Beijing.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 12, 2023

Funding scandal deepens as parliament session draws to a close

The probe into a Liberal Democratic Party funds scandal looks likely to deepen in the coming days, making the political scene increasingly unpredictable.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?