Japan

[ad_1] Former Springboks captain Victor Matfield will reunite with Eddie Jones in a coaching role for the Japanese national rugby team, South African media reported Sunday.In an interview with Afrikaans-language newspaper Rapport, the 46-year-old Matfield said he will be a consultant to the Brave Blossoms as they prepare for their upcoming slate of test matches.Matfield was a star second-rower for the 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning Springboks team that employed Jones […]

[ad_1] Las Vegas – The Super Bowl got an early jolt of excitement on Sunday when enormous TV screens around the cavernous Allegiant Stadium showed pop superstar Taylor Swift arriving about two hours before kickoff.Swift is in Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers, ending the questions about whether she would attend that dominated the lead-up to the […]

[ad_1] Face-altering cosmetic procedures — the irresistible nectar of showbiz, late-night talk show celebrity guests and part-time drag queens like me.Fortunately, those of us in Japan are uniquely positioned between two opposing hot spots of the beauty industry: Seoul and Tokyo.South Korea is the world’s No. 1 consumer of elective plastic surgeries, with one study finding that as many as 31% of women between ages 30 and 39 have had […]

[ad_1] More than 80% of major firms saw male employees take child care leave of less than three months over the past year while female employees got longer leave times, a recent Kyodo News survey showed, underscoring the dominant role women continue to play in child-rearing in Japan.In the survey that covered 113 companies between November and December, around half of them reported in their securities filings that at least […]

[ad_1] Lusail, Qatar – Qatar successfully defended its Asian Cup crown after beating Jordan 3-1 on Saturday at Lusail Stadium, where Akram Afif converted three penalties as the host nation won its second continental title.Jordan was playing in its first Asian Cup final and seeking its first major trophy, but it was Qatar that prevailed in front of 86,492 fans, including Qatar's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and FIFA […]

[ad_1] Fujitsu has held more than £3.4 billion ($4.3 billion) of active contracts with parts of the British state including the Bank of England since 2019, despite its role in the U.K.’s Post Office scandal.A parliamentary committee said £1.4 billion of those contracts were awarded after a 2019 court ruling which associated Fujitsu with the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of local branch managers for theft and fraud. The Japanese technology […]

[ad_1] Everyone knows you’re not supposed to bet on a bubble, but what about a potential bubble?As the S&P 500 Index climbed above 5,000 on Friday, many of us found ourselves wondering what exactly we should call this market: a bubble or a durable new bull? Are we reliving 1995 — when, coincidentally, a previous "soft landing” economy pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 5,000 en route to a […]

[ad_1] Many listed Japanese firms have reported robust earnings for the nine months to December, with their bottom lines improving thanks to price increases.Of 786 component firms of the broad Topix index that had announced their April-December results as of Wednesday, 455 companies, or nearly 60% of the total, reported higher net profits year-on-year, according to SMBC Nikko Securities.The number of companies that raised their net profit forecasts for the […]

[ad_1] URASOE, Okinawa Pref. – Third baseman Munetaka Murakami is eager to put his anti-climactic 2023 season behind him and put the Tokyo Yakult Swallows back on track with another Triple Crown this year.Two years ago, Murakami led the Central League with 56 home runs, 134 RBIs and a .318 batting average to power the Swallows to a second straight pennant. Afterward, he received a three-year contract and spoke of […]