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June 02, 2025
 

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BASEBALL

Japanese Baseball

MLB
Japanese Baseball
Fighters starter Hiromi Ito pitches against the Hawks in Fukuoka on April 29.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Fighters already showing last season's playoff run was no fluke
Nippon Ham manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo has dialed back his antics lately, and perhaps with good reason — because it looks like the players are ready to take center stage.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Can the Central League hold out against designated hitters?
There have been plenty of calls for the league to adopt the DH over the years. But some prefer the status quo.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Giants' Trey Cabbage not weighed down by pressure to replace Kazuma Okamoto
Cabbage has taken the majority of the at-bats in the cleanup spot since Okamoto suffered an elbow injury on May 6.
Tigers slugger Teruaki Sato knocks in a run during Hanshin's win over the Swallows at Koshien Stadium on Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 6, 2025
Confident Hanshin slugger Teruaki Sato taking game to next level
By Jason Coskrey
Even with everything Sato, a three-time All-Star, has already accomplished, his start this year has some wondering if he has finally put everything together.
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows' Munetaka Murakami bats during spring camp on March 14 in the city of Urasoe, Okinawa. Murakami returned from a spring injury on Thursday but was taken off the roster again the next day.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Apr 21, 2025
Munetaka Murakami's return cut short as Swallows’ struggles deepen
By Jason Coskrey
The Tokyo team’s star slugger returned on Thursday but was taken off the roster again the next day.
BayStars pitcher Andre Jackson throws during Game 1 of the Japan Series on Oct. 26 last year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 16, 2025
Baystars pitcher Jackson 'honored' to wear No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day
By Jason Coskrey
The stars almost aligned perfectly on Tuesday night for the American, who pitched six strong innings on the day that the baseball world celebrates the Dodgers legend.
Giants fans cheer during an exhibition game against the Dodgers at Tokyo Dome on March 15.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Apr 14, 2025
NPB can learn from MLB amid backlash to its new social media policy
By Jason Coskrey
Arguing that the rights of NPB and its broadcasters are in peril because fans upload short videos from games is a hard sell.
Tony Blanco played in Japan for eight seasons and hit 181 home runs in NPB. The Dominican slugger was among more than 200 killed when the roof of a popular nightclub collapsed on Tuesday in the Dominican Republic.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 12, 2025
Tony Blanco remembered in Japan and Dominican Republic after nightclub tragedy
By Jason Coskrey
Blanco, who spent eight seasons in Japan with three NPB clubs, is remembered as a 'great guy' with a tremendous sense of humor.
Eagles rookie Rui Muneyama (center) poses with pitcher Takayuki Kishi (right) and infielder Hideto Asamura after a win in Sendai on April 3.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Apr 7, 2025
Rookie duo off to hot starts at plate in new NPB campaign
By Jason Coskrey
Seiya Watanabe and Rui Muneyama both have at least 10 hits so far this season.
The Giants' Gakuto Wakabayashi (right) celebrates with Giants manager Shinnosuke Abe after his game-winning hit against the Swallows at Tokyo Dome on Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 28, 2025
Giants rally to beat Swallows in dramatic season opener
By Jason Coskrey
The Giants rallied from three-runs down in the ninth inning.

Western businesses will not return to Russia
A McDonald's restaurant sits shuttered in Moscow in May 2022 as a result of Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Japanese customers brave the rain to line up for cheap stockpiled rice
Iris Ohyama began sales of government-stockpiled rice at a home center location in Chiba Prefecture on Saturday morning.
Hegseth to prioritize China and more allied spending in Asia — but questions remain
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrives for a trilateral meeting between Japan, the U.S. and Australia at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore on Saturday.
Lessons from India-Pakistan war: Were China's arms overrated?
A Chinese J-10B fighter jet is put on display at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, China, in October 2016. The short May conflict between India and Pakistan became a live trial for Chinese arms, exposing vulnerabilities in its fighter aircraft and air defense systems.
Former Japanese princess Mako gives birth to first child
Mako Komuro (right), the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, left the Imperial Family after marrying Kei Komuro, a former schoolmate at International Christian University in Tokyo, in October 2021.
Atsuko Okatsuka brings big 'dad' energy to new special
Atsuko Okatsuka tries out some of the jokes from her new special, “Father,” at the Tokyo Comedy Bar in Shibuya in January.
How ‘hikikomori’ shut-ins ‘start to have dreams for the future’
Located in Nagano Prefecture, Samurai Gakuen tries to help young and old individuals who have withdrawn from society rediscover their places out in the world.
Halt of U.S. visa process puts Japanese students' futures in question
People hold up signs during a rally in support of international students at the Harvard University campus in Boston on Tuesday.
Anime's big night out is getting bigger — and more surreal
Anime director Shunsuke Nakashige accepts the anime of the year award for “Solo Leveling” at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
Mateusz Urbanowicz: ‘Miyazaki inspired me to put the audience first’
Mateusz Urbanowicz’s recent book “Imaginary Storefronts” collects his illustrations of the mundane Japanese street scenes that have given him immense inspiration.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?
By Eric Margolis

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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