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April 15, 2025
 

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BASEBALL

Japanese Baseball

MLB
Japanese Baseball
Giants fans cheer during an exhibition game against the Dodgers at Tokyo Dome on March 15.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
NPB can learn from MLB amid backlash to its new social media policy
Arguing that the rights of NPB and its broadcasters are in peril because fans upload short videos from games is a hard sell.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Tony Blanco remembered in Japan and Dominican Republic after nightclub tragedy
Blanco, who spent eight seasons in Japan with three NPB clubs, is remembered as a 'great guy' with a tremendous sense of humor.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Rookie duo off to hot starts at plate in new NPB campaign
Seiya Watanabe and Rui Muneyama both have at least 10 hits so far this season.
The Hawks' Ryoya Kurihara fields a ball during spring camp in Miyazaki on March 7.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 27, 2025
Incumbent Hawks face fresh challenge from rising Fighters in Pacific League
By Jason Coskrey
Flamboyant manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo and his up-and-coming Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters may finally be ready to pose a challenge for the favored Hawks.
Giants ace Shosei Togo is expected to get the start on opening day.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 26, 2025
Big-spending Giants aim to hold off BayStars and Tigers in competitive Central League
By Jason Coskrey
The Giants spent big as the club aims to win its first Japan Series title since 2012. But can the BayStars or Tigers spoil the Kyojin's fun?
The Tigers Teruaki Sato (center) celebrates with his teammates after their win over the Dodgers.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 17, 2025
NPB clubs show there's more to Japanese baseball than MLB stars
By Jason Coskrey
The four exhibition games between the MLB and NPB clubs showed that the well of talent in Japan runs deeper than the nation’s big leaguers.
The BayStars used data analytics to inform the decision to have Hayato Horioka pitch against the Giants last fall. The bet paid off, with Horioka helping to seal the game and Yokohama advancing to the championship.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 17, 2025
'Moneyball' disciples aim to upend Japanese baseball for second year
By Yuki Furukawa and Haruka Iwai
Yokohama is honing its indicators that predict how well a pitcher will perform at any given moment.
Swallows mascot Tsubakuro performs during a game at Jingu Stadium in June 2023.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Feb 21, 2025
Swallows employee who portrayed popular mascot Tsubakuro dies
By Jason Coskrey
Tsubakuro became a ubiquitous presence at Jingu Stadium after his debut in 1994.
Tigers players toss manager Yoshio Yoshida into the air after the club clinched its first Japan Series title, on Nov. 11, 1985.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Feb 5, 2025
Hanshin Tigers legend Yoshio Yoshida dies at 91
During his 17-year playing career, Yoshida appeared in 2,007 games and recorded 1,864 hits. But he was perhaps most notable for leading the Tigers to the 1985 Japan Series.
Masahiro Tanaka signed with the Giants in December.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Feb 3, 2025
Star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka looking to revive glory days with Giants
By Jason Coskrey
Masahiro Tanaka is one of the most recognizable faces in Japanese baseball, but sightings of the new Giants pitcher were few and far between in 2024.

A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
Japan doesn’t plan to use U.S. Treasurys as tariff talk leverage
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera speaks at LDP headquarters in Tokyo last October.
Osaka Expo throws open its doors as mega-event kicks off
People visit the Osaka Expo on the first day it opened to the public, in the city of Osaka on Sunday.
Japan’s population shrinks for the 14th consecutive year
Japan’s population has been falling year on year since 2011 after peaking in 2008.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Two-thirds of fourth to sixth graders in Japan use social media, survey finds
The survey showed that more children are starting to use social media at an earlier age.
Osaka Expo-bound? Take your pick of the city’s new luxury hotels.
The Four Seasons Hotel Osaka opened in 2024, just one of many new luxury accommodations the city boasts ahead of the 2025 World Expo.
Heaven from hells: The sulfuric pleasure of Unzen Onsen
While Unzen Onsen's "hells" can be visually striking, locals describe them and their effects as "a source of emotional healing."

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

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