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Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Dec 20, 2022

After World Cup, Qatar seeks Olympic gold

Qatar is ploughing ahead with its ambitions despite criticism of its rights record, with major sporting events including world championships packing the Gulf state's sporting calendar.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Dec 16, 2022

IOC at odds with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Russian athletes at Olympics

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the Olympics have a unifying mission when he spoke to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who called for a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes, the IOC said on Thursday.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Dec 14, 2022

Research shows new Olympic sports had high rate of injuries in Tokyo

More than 11,300 athletes from 206 national teams were monitored in Tokyo, with more than a thousand injuries recorded.
Breakdancer Shigeyuki Nakarai (left) and fencer Misaki Emura attend an opening event for an exhibition on Japanese Olympic athletes at the Paris Games at the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2024

Exhibition on Japanese Olympians at Paris Starts in Tokyo

The event showcases items of clothing and equipment used by the athletes during the Games.
Morinari Watanabe, International Gymnastic Federation president, attends a news conference in Aigle, Switzerland, in June 2022. Watanabe is set to stand in the election for the next International Olympic Committee president.
OLYMPICS
Sep 17, 2024

IOC member Morinari Watanabe enters presidential race

Watanabe, 65, is one of the seven candidates announced by the IOC to succeed Thomas Bach as president.
Tire giant Bridgestone has become the latest Japanese firm to end its Olympic sponsorship.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 2, 2024

Bridgestone becomes latest Japan firm to end Olympic sponsorship

Bridgestone struck sponsorship deals with the Olympics for 10 years in 2014 and the Paralympics for six years in 2018.
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, former chairman of publisher Kadokawa, said he is innocent of bribery allegations during his first trial hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024

Ex-Kadokawa chair pleads not guilty to bribing Tokyo Games executive

Fifteen people have been indicted over the Tokyo Games bribery scandal.
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, attends a spring garden party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo in April.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2024

Over 1,900 people invited to Japan's autumn imperial garden party

The list of invitees includes meritorious individuals and local government officials.
Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting battles Julia Szeremeta of Poland in the final of the women's 57-kilogram division at the Paris Olympics in August.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
Nov 28, 2024

Taiwan Olympic boxing champion quits event after gender questions

Lin, who was embroiled in a gender row at the Paris Olympics, was due to compete in the World Boxing Cup Finals in Sheffield starting Wednesday.
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 2, 2024

Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms

“Futehodo” — a nickname for a TV drama that depicts the generational gap between the Showa and Reiwa eras — has been crowned the most trending word of 2024.
Japanese creatives, athletes and activists saw their efforts recognized on the world stage in various ways this year. At the Oscars (left) Takashi Yamazaki and his team took a prize for “Godzilla Minus One,” while later in the year Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (center) took Emmys for their work in “Shogun.” Shohei Ohtani (right) was arguably the biggest Japanese star of the year.
CULTURE / 2024 in Review
Dec 4, 2024

Japan's soft power soared to new heights in 2024

From Oscars and Emmys to a Nobel Peace Prize, it was a year of awards and triumphs in key cultural fields.
Agnes Keleti performs a split in front of young gymnasts at a training center in Budapest on Jan. 16, 2016. Keleti, a 10-time Olympic medalist, died on Jan. 2 at the age of 103.
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Jan 3, 2025

World's oldest Olympic champion Agnes Keleti dies at 103

Keleti's life story, including surviving the Holocaust and Olympic glory, reads like a gripping Hollywood film script.
American Lindsey Vonn celebrates after finishing sixth in the women's downhill World Cup race on Saturday in St. Anton, Austria.
MORE SPORTS / Alpine skiing
Jan 12, 2025

Lindsey Vonn sixth in downhill return as veteran Federica Brignone wins

Vonn, 0.58 seconds behind after starting 32nd of the 51 starters, raised her arms as if she had won after her exhilarating effort.
A beachfront property destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen in Malibu, California on Sunday.
OLYMPICS / Swimming
Jan 13, 2025

Olympic chiefs vow to replace U.S. swim star medals lost in LA fires

Hall said he fled taking only his dog, the insulin he uses to treat his diabetes, a painting of his grandfather and a religious artifact.
The Dentsu Group's headquarters building (center) in Tokyo. Tokyo District Court ordered Dentsu Group to pay ¥300 million in fines on Thursday as sought by prosecutors over bid-rigging related to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 30, 2025

Dentsu Group ordered to pay ¥300 million over Tokyo Games bid-rigging

The Tokyo District Court also sentenced the former assistant head of the sports department of core subsidiary Dentsu to two years in prison suspended for four years.
Akinori Nakayama, who has died at the age of 82, won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Mar 18, 2025

Japanese gymnastics great Akinori Nakayama dies aged 82

Nakayama won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
Newly-elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry during her first news conference in Costa Navarino, Greece, on Thursday.
OLYMPICS
Mar 21, 2025

Kirsty Coventry enjoys 'extraordinary moment' as she becomes IOC's first female leader

The 41-year-old from Zimbabwe is also the youngest person to hold the most powerful position in sports governance.
Yuma Kagiyama performs during the men's free skate at Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki in November.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Mar 23, 2025

Top skaters prepare to do battle at worlds as 2026 Olympics loom

From Kaori Sakamoto to the "Quad God," here are five skaters to keep an eye on over the next week in Boston.
Morinari Watanabe speaks during a news conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Jan. 30.
OLYMPICS
Mar 25, 2025

Watanabe stresses significance of his IOC presidency bid

Watanabe, who became the first Japanese to seek the top IOC post, earned only four of the 97 valid votes in the election last week.
Italian Paralympic athlete Martina Cairono holds the torch for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games during a ceremony at the Italy Pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka on Monday.
OLYMPICS
Apr 15, 2025

Winter Games torches unveiled in joint ceremony in Milan and Osaka

The torches were presented in a theater at Milan's Triennale art and design museum and the Italian pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka.
The Tokyo High Court in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The court also upheld the Tokyo District Court's sentence of 18 months in jail, suspended for three years, for Kenichiro Yokomizo, the former president of a Hakuhodo group firm.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 9, 2025

Hakuhodo's appeal dismissed in Tokyo Games bid-rigging case

It is the first high court ruling in a series of bid-rigging cases related to the Tokyo Games, held in 2021.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach waves to the crowd during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games in August 2021.
OLYMPICS
Jun 22, 2025

Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach faced mammoth challenges

From state-sponsored doping by Russia to the COVID-hit Tokyo Games, the 71-year-old German lawyer faced many challenges during his time in power.
Australian Arisa Trew won gold in the women's skateboarding park competition at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
MORE SPORTS / Skateboarding
Jul 3, 2025

Teenage skateboarding star Arisa Trew has no plans to slow down

Trew is set to defend her Olympic title at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 at age 18.
Argentina's Lionel Messi is presented with the World Cup trophy by Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamil bin Hamad Al Thani and FIFA president Gianni Infantino at Lusail Stadium on Dec. 18, 2022.
OLYMPICS
Jul 23, 2025

Qatar bids to host 2036 Olympic Games in Doha

Should it be chosen, Qatar would become the first country in the Middle East to host the Olympic Games.
Lazizbek Mullojonov of Uzbekistan poses with his heavyweight boxing medal at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Aug. 9, 2024.
OLYMPICS / Boxing
Jul 30, 2025

Olympic champion Mullojonov provisionally suspended for banned substance

The 26-year-old Uzbek boxer tested positive for methasterone, a synthetic anabolic-androgenic steroid associated with the promotion of rapid muscle growth and increased strength.
A Tokyo court has upheld a lower court ruling ordering Dentsu to pay a fine for rigging Olympic-related bids.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 31, 2025

Tokyo court upholds fine of ¥300 million for Dentsu in Olympic bid-rigging case

The high court also upheld a ruling that sentenced the former assistant head of the sports department of Dentsu to two years in prison, suspended for four years.
Fred Kerley celebrates with his 100m bronze medal at the Stade de France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
OLYMPICS / Athletics
Aug 13, 2025

Olympic medalist Kerley provisionally suspended for whereabouts failure

Kerley took 100m silver in Tokyo and bronze last year in Paris as well as the 2022 world 100m crown.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif attends the ChangeNOW 2025 summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on April 25, 2025.
OLYMPICS / Boxing
Aug 21, 2025

Olympic champion Khelif denies 'malicious' claims of retirement

Khelif has not competed since winning Olympic gold in Paris.
Gable Steveson of the United States poses with his gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Aug. 6, 2021.
OLYMPICS / Wrestling
Aug 21, 2025

Olympic champion wrestler Steveson set for MMA debut

Steveson won a gold medal in the super heavyweight category at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past