Japan

[ad_1] GLENDALE, Arizona – Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was seen working out at the Los Angeles Dodgers' Arizona spring training facility Tuesday as he prepares for his first season in North America. The 25-year-old Yamamoto, who achieved nearly unprecedented success in the final three years of his seven seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, arrived at around 8:30 a.m. and spent around five hours at the facility outside Phoenix. Yamamoto, whose […]

[ad_1] Major telecom carrier KDDI is planning to raise its stake in Lawson to 50% to jointly run the convenience chain with the aim of taking advantage of the latter's nationwide retail store network and customer base while offering technology to transform its business model, the two firms said Tuesday.KDDI currently holds 2.1% of Lawson shares but will invest about ¥500 billion ($3.4 billion) to increase its stake through a […]

[ad_1] Inter Miami's Lionel Messi pleased Tokyo fans on Wednesday in a friendly match that ended in a 4-3 penalty shootout loss to Vissel Kobe after the game ended goalless.It came days after his absence on the pitch in a recent Hong Kong friendly had angered fans there.He started on the bench in Inter Miami's pre-season game against the 2023 J. League champions, worrying 28,614 spectators at National Stadium, who […]

[ad_1] Nippon Steel is on track to finalize its planned $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by the end of September as it steps up talks with key stakeholders, particularly labor unions, an executive said on Wednesday.The deal by the world's No.4 steelmaker to buy U.S. Steel has drawn criticism from some Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers and the powerful United Steelworkers (USW) union.Former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose protectionist […]

[ad_1] Taipei – Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike agreed with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an on Wednesday to exchange experiences and cooperate on urban governance, with their talks covering issues such as disaster prevention and climate change. During her first official trip to Taiwan since assuming office in 2016, Koike told reporters after a closed-door meeting with the mayor that she addressed common issues affecting both cities, including declining birthrates and the […]

[ad_1] Scrutiny from the opposition intensified in Wednesday’s session of a Lower House committee after it became clear that education minister Masahito Moriyama had received electoral support in 2021 from an association affiliated to the religious group formerly known as the Unification Church.The Asahi Shimbun reported on the same day that, in the run-up to the Lower House election of October 2021, Moriyama signed an agreement with the group that […]

[ad_1] Taylor Swift will celebrate making Grammys history with a run of concerts in Tokyo starting Wednesday, kicking off a month of sold-out shows in Asia that will include a quick run home to see her boyfriend contest the U.S. Super Bowl.Excited fans lined up in the cold from morning to buy merchandise at Tokyo Dome before the first of four Tokyo shows, part of the megastar's global Eras Tour […]

[ad_1] A train scraped a car after a railroad crossing gate in the city of Osaka opened before the train passed through, authorities said Tuesday. No one was injured. The incident occurred near the Nishi-Tengachaya Station on the Koya Line operated by Nankai Electric Railway. The gate had opened before the train passed through, and the car entered the crossing. According to the railway operator, the train driver, who was […]

[ad_1] Though you wouldn’t know it after a heavy snow storm rolled through Tokyo earlier this week, winter is almost over.In just a matter of weeks, spring will be here, and with it the usual flurry of graduation ceremonies, moves to new schools and companies and preparations for cherry blossom-viewing parties.March in sumo means the Osaka tournament. With spring traditionally marking the start of the new year in many cultures […]