News On Japan

Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP, cuts Martin’s championship lead to 10 points

Oct 07, 2024 (Al Jazeera) - Reigning MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia has won the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi to complete a weekend double and cut his gap to rival Jorge Martin at the top of the world championship down to 10 points.

The Ducati Lenovo factory rider, who qualified in second after dominating practice and won Saturday’s sprint, kept Martin at bay for 20 laps on Sunday to clinch an eighth win of the season for the first time in his career.

Martin’s second-place finish on Sunday moved him up to 392 points while Bagnaia is second on 382, with four races left in the 2024 championship season. ...continue reading

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Typhoon No. 9 (Bavi) caused widespread transport disruption across Okinawa on July 11, grounding hundreds of flights, suspending ferry services and delaying mail and parcel deliveries as violent winds and dangerous seas continued to affect the prefecture's southern island chains.

Large and powerful Typhoon No. 9 (Bavi) continued moving northwest on July 11, bringing violent winds, torrential rain, and widespread power outages to Okinawa as authorities warned that dangerous conditions would persist well into the afternoon despite the storm's center gradually moving away.

A wave of bear sightings across Japan has forced the cancellation of traditional summer events, while one animal entered a home and came within inches of a sleeping resident's face.

Japan is expected to remain under intense summer heat through next week as the Pacific high-pressure system continues to dominate the country, bringing widespread temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius and increasing the risk of heatstroke.

Akie Abe, the wife of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has said she is only now becoming able to grieve honestly over her husband’s death, four years after he was shot and killed during an election campaign speech in Nara.

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Waseda Jitsugyo held off a ninth-inning rally by Hachioji to win a first-round showdown between two schools with Koshien experience in the West Tokyo high school baseball tournament on July 10.

Japan national soccer team coach Hajime Moriyasu, captain Ko Itakura of Ajax, Daizen Maeda of Celtic, Yukinari Sugawara of Bremen and Japan Football Association President Tsuneyasu Miyamoto visited Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Yohei Matsumoto on July 8 following Japan's campaign at the FIFA World Cup hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first Japanese player to reach 300 career home runs in Major League Baseball, hitting a solo shot in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies in Los Angeles on July 7.

Shonan Galleon, a 210 million yen colt by Flightline, made a striking debut at Hakodate Racecourse on Sunday, July 5, winning the fifth race over 1,800 meters on turf in record time for a 2-year-old on the course.

Two yokozuna seeking to rebound after time away from the ring drew loud cheers from about 5,000 spectators on July 4 as they performed the traditional ceremonial ring entry at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya ahead of the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament.

Some names change the game, and Conor McGregor is one of them.

Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

The Asian Games, opening on September 19, will be held without a traditional athletes village, with organizers instead planning to accommodate athletes and officials in container-style housing, a cruise ship and hotels across Nagoya and surrounding prefectures.