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Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2022

Mets' Kodai Senga well equipped to meet MLB challenge

“He's got Ohtani stuff on the mound. He's not hitting home runs, but on the mound, pitch-for-pitch, they have the same stuff.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 16, 2022

Red Sox introduce Masataka Yoshida

Masataka Yoshida helped lead the Orix Buffaloes to the franchise's first Japan Series title since 1996 this season. The Boston Red Sox haven't waited nearly as long for an MLB crown, but Yoshida wants to help add another to the trophy case at Fenway Park all the same.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 28, 2022

World Series between Astros and Phillies first without any U.S.-born Black players since 1950

'I don't think that that's something that baseball should really be proud of,' Astros manager Dusty Baker said Thursday.
Japan Times
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 26, 2022

Japanese pop culture in China: It’s complicated.

Japan and China recently celebrated 50 years of relations and, since then, Japanese art, film and music has had a major impact on Chinese society. Recently, however, the Chinese market has become increasingly difficult to navigate.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 14, 2022

MLB's playoff series set to swap cities in drama packed weekend

It will be the Phillies' first home playoff game since 2011 when they ultimately fell in five games in the NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 4, 2022

Roki Sasaki and Munetaka Murakami highlight Samurai Japan's November squad

Manager Hideki Kuriyama's men will face the Fighters and Giants at Sapporo Dome on Nov. 5 and 7, respectively, before a pair of games against Australia on Nov. 9 and 10.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Oct 4, 2022

Munetaka Murakami earns place in NPB history with dominant season

The Swallows slugger broke new ground for a Japan-born player on Monday when he finished the regular season with his 56th home run, wrapping up the Triple Crown in the process.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 16, 2022

Tampa Bay Rays make history with all-Latin American lineup

The milestone also coincided with Roberto Clemente day, which honors the first Latin American player to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2024

Sapporo Snow Festival opens with food areas coming back

Set to run until Feb. 11, this year's festival features a total of 196 snow and ice sculptures at three venues.
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Super Bowl 58 will be held on Sunday. The city is promising a spectacle around the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers showdown.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 6, 2024

Las Vegas planning Super Bowl supernova to cement sports hub status

The spectacle could be biggest television event in the United States since Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969.
Chelsea defender Alfie Gilchrist celebrates after scoring the club's sixth goal during their English Premier League football match against Everton on April 15.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2024

Arsenal? Liverpool? Chelsea? Help me pick my 'football' team

This writer’s been in England for six years. It’s time he backed a club.
Four girls congregate at an empty swimming pool at their high school and discuss their lives in “Swimming in a Sand Pool.”
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2024

‘Swimming in a Sand Pool’ takes rare dive into gender issues

Nobuhiro Yamashita draws appealingly natural performances from his cast of newcomers in the film adaptation of an award-winning play.
Daichi Nomiyama, 30, had posed as a reporter from the Asahi Shimbun since April, conducting interviews with members of various university cheerleading teams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2024

Kamakura firefighter arrested for impersonating Asahi Shimbun reporter

The 30-year-old man passed himself off as a reporter for the newspaper to secure interviews with university baseball cheerleaders.
Amid AI chip juggernaut Nvidia's staggering successes, startups seeking the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are being asked to innovate — but without a clear indication of where the next chapter of AI will be written.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jun 23, 2024

Beyond Nvidia: the search for AI's next breakthrough

Startups are being asked to innovate — but without a clear indication of where the next chapter of AI will be written.
You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 4, 2024

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Summer music festivals are back, but for how long? Climate change is putting the heat on our favorite outdoor entertainment.
Holly Graham's bartending journey has literally taken her around the world, and her latest stop is Azabu-Juban's Tokyo Confidential.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Jul 28, 2024

The star-studded bar ‘so incoherent that it’s coherent’

Tokyo Confidential is a buzzy new watering hole launched by ascendent bartender Holly Graham in the capital’s upscale Azabu-Juban neighborhood.
The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / Longform
Jul 26, 2024

Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports

At risk of sunburns and heatstroke, principals across Japan are trying to protect students' health as well as their athletic opportunities.
Randhir Singh attends the opening ceremony for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in September 2023.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 7, 2024

More sponsors and better marketing top agenda for new Asian Games chief

A five-time Olympic shooter, Randhir Singh is the lone eligible candidate for the OCA president's post and his elevation will be confirmed Sunday.
Redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien district has trees in the area marked according to their status — trees marked in red were to be cut down in the original plan while those in blue were to be transplanted. In the updated plan, trees marked in red will no longer be felled, and those in blue will remain where they are.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 9, 2024

Updated Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan to keep more trees

Fewer trees will be felled and more new ones planted, while construction will also take place further away from the park's iconic ginkgo trees.
James Earl Jones in the Broadway revival of "Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater in New York in March 2012. Jones, once a stuttering farm child who became a voice of rolling thunder as one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career that plumbed race relations, Shakespeare’s rhapsodic tragedies and the faceless menace of Darth Vader, died on Monday at his home in Dutchess County, New York. He was 93.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2024

James Earl Jones, actor whose voice could menace or melt, dies at 93

He gave life to characters like Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King,” and went on to collect Tonys, Golden Globes, Emmys and an honorary Oscar.
Former tennis player Andre Agassi (right) presents the U.S. Open trophy to Jannik Sinner in Flushing Meadows, New York, on Sept. 8.
TENNIS
Sep 17, 2024

The key to Agassi’s reentry: Don’t be too busy, and don’t be too bored

One minute, the former player was in the tennis wilderness in Nevada. The next, he was at the Australian Open.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog, Dekopin, who delivered the ceremonial first pitch prior to a game against the Orioles on Aug. 28
MORE SPORTS
Oct 6, 2024

The furry performance-enhancers that are sweeping the world of sports

Athletes from Shohei Ohtani to Naomi Osaka are using dogs to reduce stress and help enhance performance before and during high-stakes competitions.
While baldness can often be the butt of jokes in Japan, it can also be a powerfully freeing act of self-acceptance for those struggling with hair loss.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 16, 2024

Thinning up top? Hair loss in Japan is not the end.

Among Asian countries, Japan has the highest rate of alopecia at around 26%, as well as 7.8% of women experiencing some form of hair thinning.
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.
Manabu Sasaki, who runs a painting company, is one of four suspects arrested on suspicion of murdering 56-year-old Osamu Takano.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 10, 2024

Victim of alleged staged suicide was subjected to years of abuse

Tokyo police arrested four men on Sunday on suspicion of murdering a colleague by staging a "suicide" on a railway crossing.
Actor Sadao Abe accepts the 2024 U-Can New Word and Popular Phrase Award for ふてほど (futehodo), the abbreviated title for his series, “Futekisetsu nimo Hodo ga Aru!” (“Extremely Inappropriate!”).
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2024

How often do Japan's buzzwords make it into the vernacular?

We crown a new one every year, but trendy terms tend to disappear from public consciousness if they're related to pop culture.
The head priest of Kiyomizu Temple writes the kanji "kin," which was chosen by the public as the character that best represents 2024, on Thursday in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024

'Kin' selected as the kanji of 2024 after strong year for Japanese athletes

The choice also reflected the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush-fund scandal and the spate of robberies involving shady part-time jobs.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will likely aim at maintaining the status quo, avoid new trade issues and ensure Japan isn’t targeted by tariffs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2025

A new golden age for U.S.-Japan? I don’t think so.

Ishiba won’t be looking for any great breakthrough, a dramatic defense re-posturing, or support for any of his long-held foreign policy goals
U.S. President Donald Trump (center), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attend a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
May 1, 2025

Trump's Cabinet shrugs off economic contraction, at odds with pledges

Figures show U.S. gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami