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August 26, 2025
 

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FOOTBALL

Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jul 1, 2025
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Growth of the sport is being seen in Japan and elsewhere, and some feel this could even benefit traditional gridiron.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes warms up before Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans last February. Flag football is set to debut at the 2028 Olympics — but if the NFL wants the sport to thrive globally, it should resist overshadowing it with high-profile pro players.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2025
NFL stars don’t belong on the Olympics' flag football field
If the NFL is really serious about growing football’s global footprint, it and its players should sit the Olympics out.
With a little dehydration and a few pinches of Japan's favorite mold, you've got yourself some game-ready wings with a Tokyo twist.
LIFE / Food & Drink / The Recipe Box
Jan 28, 2024
Recipe: Kickoff-ready glazed wings
These ponzu-glazed wings are a perfect finger food to enjoy alongside your early-morning football.
Phil Mickelson has lost $100 million betting on sports, according to a book released in August by Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Sep 19, 2023
Phil Mickelson: Gambling crossed the line 'into addiction'
The three-time Masters winner denied betting on the 2012 Ryder Cup.
Japan Times
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jul 19, 2023
Amateur sumo star embarks on journey made for Hollywood with NCAA football move
Hidetora Hanada will be joining the Colorado State Rams, marking another huge step in what has been a whirlwind 16 months for the university sumo superstar.
Japan Times
Rugby
Apr 14, 2023
U.S. President Joe Biden says rugby safer than football
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday told an Irish audience he would prefer his children to play rugby rather than football due to the risk of brain injuries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 12, 2023
Reina Iizuka: ‘Rugby and football are basically cousins’
She was the first woman to play university-level men's tackle football in Canada and now Reina Iizuka has come to Japan and joined a rugby squad.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / Football
Jan 24, 2023
Japanese football misses its big opportunity in Dream Bowl game
Frustration dominates after the Japan All Star team fell 24-20 to an Ivy League selection in a gripping and tightly fought match at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 6, 2018
Father of injured Kwansei Gakuin player speaks out in wake of illegal tackle scandal
Yasutoshi Okuno, the father of the Kwansei Gakuin University quarterback who was illegally hit from behind by a Nihon University defensive end during their exhibition game on May 6 in Tokyo, hopes the defender can begin playing football again.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
May 28, 2018
Let's discuss unfair play from Nichidai
The head coach of Nihon University's American football team says he will quit after apologizing to a Kwansei Gakuin University player over a controversial play.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 11, 2015
Fantasy sports websites to stop taking bets in New York state
The New York state attorney general on Tuesday ordered the fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel to stop accepting bets in New York, saying the operations are essentially illegal gambling, according to copies of letters to the companies seen by Reuters.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2015
China shows how to crack down on soccer
China's experience with its soccer federation shows that eliminating corruption from a sporting organization requires more than knocking off that organization's leadership.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2015
FIFA's shocking calls awakened a U.S. giant
American law enforcement is looking to dismantle the cozy old-boy hierarchy that Seth Blatter has learned to play since he joined FIFA in 1975.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2014
'Japanese Only' sign sparks bigotry debate
For nearly two decades, Shunji Usui has been a fixture at Urawa Red Diamonds matches at Saitama Stadium in the suburbs of Tokyo, a face in the crowd among the most avid — and sometimes rabid — fans of any Japanese soccer club.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2014
Pele, Maradona and Messi: soccer's holy trinity
With Lionel Messi's last performances, there should now be no doubt that he belongs in soccer's holy trinity with Pelu00e9 and Diego Maradona.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 2, 2014
Kemari: a whole old ball game
The year of FIFA World Cup is upon us, with Brazil getting ready to host, and Japan scheduled to go head-to-head against Cote d'Ivoire, Greece and Colombia in June for a spot in the final 16. If six months is too long to wait, though, check out the ancient sport of kemari, to be held in Kyoto's Shimogamo...
MORE SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Aug 13, 2013
It's not easy being 'Johnny Football'
Up front, I admit it: MAS has a huge man-crush on "Johnny Football."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 4, 2013
Puppy Bowl grows in leaps, bounds
When reporters from The New Yorker, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," "Good Morning America," The Associated Press and The Washington Post, have all converged upon one event, it must be important. An appearance by the president. A press conference about dignified matters, with plenty of throat-clearing...
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
Man arrested in Kobe stabbing had been staying at hotel near victim’s home
Masashi Tanimoto arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in Kobe, is sent to prosecutors on Sunday.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
Is the LDP’s catch-all approach to politics still effective?
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi visits Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15. Political commentator Toru Hashimoto has suggested that Takaichi ought to lead a group of like-minded hawkish politicians out of the Liberal Democratic Party and form their own party.

Podcast

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

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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