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April 04, 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.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 14, 2011
Barcelona prepares for tough foe in semifinal
Barcelona midfielder Javier Mascherano is expecting a hard physical battle against Qatari side Al Sadd in Thursday's Club World Cup semifinal, but the Argentine insists his team has no plans to deviate from the fast-passing style that has brought it so much success in recent years.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 13, 2011
Barcelona wary of jet lag after touching down in Japan
Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola has urged his players to fight through jet lag and become world champions for a second time at the Club World Cup in Japan this week.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Dec 8, 2011
Reysol ready to take on world after shock title
It would have taken a brave person to tip Kashiwa Reysol for the 2011 J. League title before the season had begun. But as the newly crowned champions prepare to take on Auckland City in the Club World Cup on Thursday, it would take an even braver person to deny they deserved it.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 4, 2011
Reysol complete storybook season
Kashiwa Reysol captured their first-ever J. League title just a year after winning the second division with a 3-1 victory over Urawa Reds on the final day of the season on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 27, 2011
Reysol stay on course to earn J. League title
J. League front-runners Kashiwa Reysol fought back from a goal down to keep their title destiny in their own hands going into the final week of the season with a 1-1 draw with Cerezo Osaka on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 24, 2011
Weekend fightback gives Reysol one hand on league title
Nagoya Grampus will fight to the last breath to defend their J. League title, but there can be little doubt now that the 2011 championship is Kashiwa Reysol's to lose.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Nov 10, 2011
Home comforts in short supply as Japan aims for final round
Tajikistan and North Korea might not be the strongest of opponents, but conditions away from home will certainly make Japan's bid to secure an early place in the final round of World Cup qualifiers difficult over the coming week.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 4, 2011
Reysol, two rivals still in hunt for title
Kashiwa Reysol kept their noses in front in the J. League title race with a 4-0 win over Albirex Niigata on Thursday as all three championship contenders claimed victories going into the final three games of the season.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 3, 2011
Everything to play for as three-way title race gets serious
Nagoya Grampus won the J. League title a full 10 points ahead of second-place Gamba Osaka last season, but as the 2011 campaign enters the final stretch, the situation is anything but cut and dried.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 30, 2011
Antlers edge Reds in final
Kashima Antlers came through a tense war of attrition to beat Urawa Reds 1-0 after extra time and win the Nabisco Cup for a record fourth time on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 29, 2011
Yamada hoping Nabisco final can spark Reds' survival
Urawa Reds head into Saturday's Nabisco Cup final against Kashima Antlers looking for a rare moment of joy in an otherwise troubled season, but midfielder Naoki Yamada admits the specter of relegation is casting a large shadow over the occasion.
JAPAN / Media
Oct 23, 2011
Pele's message of solidarity in Tohoku
In world sports, there are few names more iconic than that of Brazilian soccer legend Pele.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 23, 2011
Stojkovic works magic with late-game changes
Defending J. League champions Nagoya Grampus dug deep to beat Omiya Ardija 3-2 on Saturday and keep themselves firmly in the title shakeup going into the final four games of the season.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 16, 2011
Struggling Urawa falls into relegation zone
J. League heavyweights Urawa Reds slipped into the relegation places with five matches remaining after a 1-0 derby-day defeat to Omiya Ardija on Saturday.
SOCCER / World cup
Oct 13, 2011
Kagawa heads back to Germany with confidence restored
Out-of-sorts Borussia Dortmund star Shinji Kagawa hopes to turn his stuttering season around after hailing his two-goal contribution to Japan's 8-0 rout of Tajikistan as a psychological breakthrough.
SOCCER / World cup
Oct 12, 2011
Havenaar, Japan pulverize Tajikistan in 2014 World Cup qualifier
Japan found its scoring touch to thrash Tajikistan 8-0 on Tuesday and stay on course for a place in the final qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup.
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Oct 6, 2011
Japan looking for attacking balance without talisman Honda
Vietnam and Tajikistan are unlikely to ask too many questions of Japan's defense over the coming week, but a Keisuke Honda-sized hole in attack could prove to be more of a problem for national team manager Alberto Zaccheroni.
Japan Times
TENNIS
Sep 29, 2011
Kanepi upsets Wozniacki
World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki crashed out of the Pan Pacific Open after a shock 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 loss to Estonian Kaia Kanepi on Wednesday.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 25, 2011
Vegalta hand title-chasing Marinos demoralizing defeat
Vegalta Sendai dealt Yokohama F. Marinos' J. League title ambitions a heavy blow with a come-from-behind 3-1 win on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 24, 2011
Tashiro, Antlers not ready to relinquish J. League crown
Kashima Antlers would need a miracle to end the season with their fourth J. League title in five years, but that does not mean striker Yuzo Tashiro is prepared to write the campaign off as a bust just yet.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
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.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
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.
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.
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).
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.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

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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