“Hold on!!”  As your kayak surges into clear air from the top of a rushing 20-foot waterfall, now is about the right time to start thanking whoever you pray to that your new flying instructor is a qualified outdoor guide. For many outdoor adventure operators in Japan, business is much more than a mere nine…

Twenty-three-year-old wrestler Kotooshu breathed some much-needed life into the stagnant sumo competition last year with a couple of upset victories over grand champion Asashoryu and promotion to the rank of ozeki in record time. Is he the Great White Hope that sumo has been waiting for? Keith Robson reports…   The recent actions of the…

Rob Gilhooly spurns the renowned comforts of a ryokan in a bid to get a taste of Japan’s great outdoors. While idling away some dead time on a station platform several years ago, my wife and I played one of those write-and-tell games centering on the theme of an ideal holiday. While her list included…

A popular Japanese outdoor pastime offers participants the chance to get well and truly off the beaten track, writes Robert Cameron. It’s summer – time to hit the streams for some sawanobori.  This popular and uniquely Japanese sport, sometimes translated as stream-climbing or river-tracing, is virtually unknown outside of Japan, but is extremely popular here….

Sleep is likely to be in short supply this month as the country follows Japan’s progress in the 2006 Football World Cup in Germany. As the team heads to Europe, Jon Day asks national captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto what the stalwart defender hopes to take away from soccer’s glamorous tournament. When Japan’s first game at the…

Japan’s tennis hot shot is continuing a career in which she’s risen from strength to strength. J SELECT found Ai Sugiyama courtside to talk about her recent volley into the women’s world top ten ranking. When people discuss Japanese professional athletes who have made an impact on the world stage, it’s usually names like Matsui,…

Japan, with its population of 127 million, is set to go down in history in 2019 as the first Asian country to ever host the most coveted quadrennial tournament in the world of rugby: the Rugby World Cup. Following the country’s exceptional performance in the 2015 world cup in England, immortalized by its stunning win…

Officials in the hallowed halls of FIFA have once again decided to tinker with the format of the association’s annual Club World Cup, the final of which is scheduled to take place in Yokohama on December 16. The FIFA Club World Cup, which used to be called the FIFA Club World Championship, is a football…

The America’s Cup is arguably the most difficult trophy in sport to win. In more than 150 years since a yacht named America, representing the New York Yacht Club, beat the best the British could offer and win the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 100 Guinea Cup, only three nations other than the United States Australia, New…

Ice hockey, considered by most to be the purview of toothless Canadians, black-eyed Minnesotans and bloodied Russians has been popular in Japan for years and its popularity has been spreading both in Japan and throughout Asia. Asia League Ice Hockey was formed in 2003 when the Japan Ice Hockey League expanded to other Asian countries…