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April 05, 2025
 

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Andrew MCKIRDY

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Andrew MCKIRDY
Andrew McKirdy is a sports writer for The Japan Times. His main beat is soccer, but he has also covered rugby, tennis, volleyball, golf and even tug-of-war. A native of the Scottish Borders, he has written for The Scotsman newspaper and organized filming for a program on Japanese soccer for ITV television.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Mar 12, 2015
JFA confirms Halilhodzic as new national team manager
The Japan Football Association officially named Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic as Japan's new national team manager on Thursday.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 7, 2015
Frontale dominate opener against F. Marinos
J. League
SOCCER / J. League / 2015 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Mar 6, 2015
Gamba aiming to stay clear of chasing pack
The following is the second of a two-part preview for the upcoming J. League season. Team-by-team previews of the nine highest-ranking teams competing in the first division are listed.
SOCCER / J. League / 2015 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Mar 5, 2015
Vissel eyeing J. League upset
The following is the first of a two-part preview for the upcoming J. League season. Team-by-team previews of the nine lowest-ranking teams competing in the first division are listed.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 4, 2015
Gamba looking for more success after glittering 2014
Gamba Osaka surpassed all expectations by winning the treble last season, but manager Kenta Hasegawa believes there is still room for improvement in 2015.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 3, 2015
Goal hero Yamagishi determined to keep Montedio up
Norihiro Yamagishi is happy to keep talking about the goal he scored to put Montedio Yamagata into last season's J. League promotion playoff final, but the goalkeeper would rather discuss what his team can achieve in its return to the first division.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 2, 2015
Dethroned Sanfrecce looking to reclaim J. League title
Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Hajime Moriyasu believes his team paid the price for its own success in failing to land a third straight J. League title last season, but the 46-year-old insists that this year will be different.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 28, 2015
Gamba blank Reds to usher in season
Gamba Osaka added another title to their bulging collection with a 2-0 win over Urawa Reds in the Fuji Xerox Super Cup on Saturday.
SOCCER
Feb 17, 2015
Reysol triumph in extra time against Thai side Chonburi FC
Brazilian striker Leandro scored a 116th-minute winner to send Kashiwa Reysol into the Asian Champions League group stage after shaking off Thai Premier League side Chonburi FC 3-2 in extra time on Tuesday night.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 12, 2015
JFA leaders take voluntary pay cut in aftermath of Aguirre ouster
Japan Football Association president Kuniya Daini will take a voluntary 50 percent pay cut for four months as a show of responsibility for the short-lived reign of scandal-tainted manager Javier Aguirre.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Feb 11, 2015
Fallout from Aguirre affair likely to have limited reach at JFA
The hiring and firing of Javier Aguirre has left the Japan Football Association with a severe bloody nose, but it remains to be seen if anyone at the governing body will pay for it.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 3, 2015
JFA fires embattled manager Aguirre
Javier Aguirre was fired as Japan's national team manager on Tuesday after a match-fixing case naming him as a defendant was accepted by a Spanish court.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 31, 2015
Nishikawa motivated by past failures
Urawa Reds and Japan goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa has urged his teammates to seize the moment over the year ahead after suffering disappointment for both club and country in the last two months.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jan 28, 2015
JFA right to pass up convenient opportunity to fire Aguirre
It remains to be seen how much longer Javier Aguirre will continue as national team manager, but at least the Japan Football Association did not use last week's early exit from the Asian Cup as an excuse to fire him.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 24, 2015
New Marinos manager Mombaerts ready to get ball rolling
New Yokohama F. Marinos manager Erick Mombaerts says his players have exceeded expectations after one week on the job, and is determined to make a swift start to the 2015 J. League season.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jan 21, 2015
Japan gathering steam as Asian Cup gets down to business
There is certainly room for improvement as Japan takes the defense of its Asian Cup title into the quarterfinals on Friday, but the way the team has improved with each performance so far in Australia suggests the best is yet to come.
SOCCER
Jan 15, 2015
JFA won't answer to reports on match-fixing case involving Aguirre until after Asian Cup
The Japan Football Association will wait until Japan's ongoing Asian Cup campaign has finished before responding to reports that a match-fixing case involving manager Javier Aguirre will go to court, JFA president Kuniya Daini said Thursday.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 12, 2015
Houllier challenges Japan to raise game
Former Liverpool and France manager Gerard Houllier has urged Japan to cast aside its inferiority complex and close the gap on the world's leading soccer nations.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 12, 2015
Houllier challenges Japan to take next step
Former Liverpool and France manager Gerard Houllier has urged Japan to cast aside its inferiority complex and close the gap on the world's leading soccer nations.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jan 7, 2015
Japan looking to put troubles on back burner at Asian Cup
Preparations could hardly have been more disrupted as Japan gets ready to defend its Asian Cup title, but that is all likely to be forgotten once the tournament kicks off on Friday.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
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