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August 14, 2026
 

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SPORTS

England¡¯s Bukayo Saka takes on France¡¯s Mike Maignan during the 2026 FIFA World Cup third-place match at Miami Stadium on July 18. England won the match 6-4.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2026
Half a month out, and England was a World Cup winner after all
The 2026 World Cup¡¯s success in the North American market may provide a template for the Premier League¡¯s future commercial management.
Clarisse Agbegnenou of France celebrates after winning her match against a disappointed Miku Takaichi of Japan during the judo mixed team final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 6, 2026
Â鶹´«Ã½ winning sports tradition shouldn¡¯t include abuse
Japan needs to establish an independent Safe Sport Center to address abuse in athletics and ensure that recent legal reforms translate into meaningful protections for athletes.
Major League Baseball¡¯s recent ban on AI assistants in dugouts overlooks that the technology is simply the next step in baseball¡¯s long tradition of using better information for competitive advantage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2026
Baseball¡¯s AI crackdown is an overreaction
Baseball has seen versions of this story before. For decades, the game has rewarded teams that use information better than their opponents.
Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece poses after setting a world record of 21.81 seconds in the men's 50-meter freestyle at the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas on May 24.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2026
Games that allow athletes to use drugs that boost performance
One justification for the Enhanced Games was that we would learn how to surpass the biological limits of human performance.
A man holds a banner criticizing South Korea men¡¯s national soccer team coach Hong Myung-bo as he waits for the coach¡¯s arrival at Seoul-Incheon International Airport on June 30. ?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 19, 2026
Strong soccer teams start with merit, not politics
Â鶹´«Ã½ treatment of the national team¡¯s head coach is worlds apart from that of his South Korean counterpart, who was forced into an indignant resignation.
Â鶹´«Ã½ head coach, Hajime Moriyasu, directs his players from the touchline during the 2026 World Cup round of 32 match between Brazil and Japan in Houston on Monday. Brazil won 2-1.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2026
Soccer¡¯s Asian century is still just a distant dream
Asian teams¡¯ underwhelming World Cup showings have raised questions about the region¡¯s potential, driven by a nascent soccer culture compared to Europe¡¯s more competitive systems.
A fan watches Japan's World Cup match against Sweden on a smartphone in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2026
World Cup offers chance to find right broadcasting balance for fans in Japan
The diversification of broadcasting methods for soccer, such as online streaming, could be a potential for further growth for the sport.
Japanese fans hold up their blue plastic bags before the start of the Group F match against Tunisia at the 2026 World Cup in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 20.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2026
The spotless World Cup stadium and the ¡®unseen sink¡¯
OECD data place Japanese men among the least domestically active in the developed world.
Folarin Balogun of the U.S. challenges Australia's Jacob Italiano during a Group D match at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Seattle on June 19.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2026
FIFA World Cup thrives on diaspora players
The tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams this year, creating space for more countries and for the transnational communities that define many of them.
Â鶹´«Ã½ Ritsu Doan challenges the Netherlands¡¯ Cody Gakpo during a FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage match in Arlington, Texas, on June 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2026
FIFA was right about ticket pricing
A nonprofit organization only in name, FIFA squeezes fans, host cities and partners for every last dollar
Japan's Junya lto challenges Netherlands' Nathan Ake for the ball during a World Cup Group F match in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2026
Trump¡¯s World Cup: A global stage for an anti-globalist
Past World Cup hosts have used major sporting events to project national image abroad, but under Trump the U.S. is treating the tournament more as a domestic political stage.
Executives of the Japan Volleyball Association bow in apology during a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday following the arrest of Shunichiro Sato, a member of the national volleyball team, on suspicion of cannabis possession.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 29, 2026
Japan national volleyball player arrested over suspected cannabis possession
Police allege that Shunichiro Sato, 26, had dried cannabis in his possession at a pachinko pinball parlor in Tokyo¡¯s Itabashi Ward on Wednesday afternoon.
A professional table tennis player competes against Sony AI autonomous robot Ace in December in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2026
Table tennis robot Ace makes history by beating top-level human players
The feat could presage an array of other applications for similarly adept robots.
An Argentina fan attends the March 2025 World Cup qualifier between Argentina and Brazil in Buenos Aires.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2026
Don¡¯t give up on getting World Cup tickets (yet)
But the price tag shock is also a stark reminder of the income disparities between U.S. consumers and Latin Americans.
Taiwan players celebrate their win over South Korea at Tokyo Dome on Sunday. A visit to Japan by Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai to watch the island¡¯s team play in the World Baseball Classic prompted an outcry from China.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 13, 2026
How a baseball game in Japan is testing China on Taiwan
The real significance of this WBC match lies beyond the stadium. It¡¯s a signal that Tokyo and Taipei are testing how much Beijing can practically control their engagement.
Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman is in action against India in the Asia Cup final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates on Sept. 28.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2026
The theater of the absurd that is India vs. Pakistan cricket
When politics interferes with sports, no one wins.
Nintendo¡¯s upcoming film, Super Mario Galaxy Movie, is positioned as a major 2026 soft-power moment for Japan, with expectations it could replicate the franchise¡¯s 2023 $1.36 billion box office success.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 29, 2025
Takaichi, Mario, baseball and the Year of the Fire Horse
2026 marks the Year of the Horse in Japan. It¡¯s one demographers have been awaiting for decades ¡ª the return of the Fire Horse.
Masahisa Takemi, a 50-year-old teacher at the Central School for the Deaf, played an instrumental role in the development of the "starting light" and the adoption of the device at sporting events.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 19, 2025
¡®Starting light¡¯ developer voices hopes for Deaflympics
Masahisa Takemi pursued a solution that could even the odds after seeing a deaf student of his struggle in track events in which a starting pistol is used.
An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
SPORTS / Longform
Nov 15, 2025
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
As Tokyo hosts the Deaflympics, organizers hope to further gains made in the realm of greater inclusivity throughout Japan.
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 qualifying countries scoured the streets of Shibuya for all manners of trash as part of the Spogomi litter-picking competition.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 9, 2025
Cleanliness gets competitive at Tokyo¡¯s Spogomi world cup
On Oct. 29, teams from 33 countries scoured Tokyo¡¯s streets for discarded wrappers, crushed cans and cigarette butts.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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