Japan

[ad_1] Former star soccer player Keisuke Honda, a rare Japanese athlete-turned-angel-investor, is in talks to raise as much as ¥15 billion ($100 million) for his first fund wholly dedicated to startups in his home country. The X&KSK Fund plans to invest in about 30 Japanese startups. It seeks to identify at least one that will eventually reach a valuation of $10 billion, Honda said in an interview."I realized I’m getting […]

[ad_1] SAGAMIHARA, Kanagawa Prefecture – An early four-try blitz and a late go-ahead try were not enough for the Sagamihara Dynaboars as the Tokyo Sungoliath snatched a late 36-34 win Saturday in Japan Rugby League One.The Sungoliath, who came back late to beat Shizuoka BlueRevs a week earlier, repeated the trick for their fifth win from six games, leaving the Dynaboars wondering how they failed to secure their third victory.The […]

[ad_1] SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Japan's Miho Takagi won the women's 1,500 meters at the Four Continents Speed Skating Championships on Friday in a time of 1 minute, 52.37 seconds. The 29-year-old, who won silver over the distance at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics, finished comfortably ahead of second-placed Mia Manganello, who crossed in 1:55.11, with another American, Greta Myers, in third in 1:55.86. Japan's Sumire Kikuchi was […]

[ad_1] Doha – Japan was tipped as the favorites to win the Asian Cup but a shock defeat to Iraq has exposed cracks in coach Hajime Moriyasu's previously well-oiled machine.The 2-1 loss leaves Samurai Blue facing a potential last-16 match with South Korea, assuming Japan still qualifies from its group.Even a draw on Wednesday against Indonesia would allow Japan to progress, but after Friday's reality check against a side ranked […]

[ad_1] Former ozeki Asanoyama held onto the outright lead with his seventh straight win, while lone yokozuna Terunofuji suffered his second loss, at the hands of rank-and-file opponent Shodai, Saturday at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament.Asanoyama, currently ranked as a No. 7 maegashira, defeated No. 9 Meisei to remain the only unbeaten competitor through seven days at Ryogoku Kokugikan. He has a one-win buffer over four wrestlers including ozeki […]

[ad_1] MELBOURNE – Top seed Iga Swiatek tumbled out of the Australian Open on Saturday, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Czech teenager Linda Noskova in the third round as her bid for a maiden title at Melbourne Park and fifth Grand Slam trophy fell apart.The Pole, more accustomed to breezing past opponents with the odd "bagel" 6-0 scoreline thrown in, had struggled in Melbourne, enduring a first-set tiebreak in her […]

[ad_1] A week of Tory rebellions and cataclysmic polls has left members of U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s governing party plumbing new depths of despair over their prospects of staying in power at a general election in the next year.The Conservatives have trailed far behind the opposition Labour Party in polling for more than a year, leading to internal debates about whether they are headed for defeat on the scale […]

[ad_1] The record-low public support rate for the Liberal Democratic Party in recent polls has shocked the ruling party.According to a survey released Thursday by Jiji Press, support for the LDP dropped 3.7 percentage points from the previous month to 14.6%, the lowest rate since the news agency started the monthly survey in 1960, excluding periods when the LDP was an opposition party.The falling support for the LDP is primarily […]

[ad_1] Doha – The stands of the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium rocked to the beat of Indian drums as the country's often overlooked soccer fans lit up the Asian Cup in Qatar.About 750,000 of the Gulf state's three million people are Indian, according to the latest figures, many of them migrant workers who form the backbone of the economy."It looks like it's not Qatar, it looks like it's India," said […]