Simon Denyer

TOKYO — A day after the Tokyo Olympics concluded, social media posts in Japan showed photos and videos of a man believed to be Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee’s president, strolling through Ginza, a popular shopping district in…

SEOUL — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Tuesday that Pyongyang could move to bolster its nuclear and conventional weapons program in response to a major joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea…

TOKYO — The flame that burned throughout one of history’s most controversial Games was extinguished Sunday as Japan brought the curtain down on the Tokyo Olympics with Closing Ceremonies that were as unusual as the event itself. Most of the athletes…

TOKYO — Japan’s capital logged a record number of coronavirus cases this week, burdening the hospital system amid a slow vaccine rollout, an increasingly apathetic public and the government’s unsuccessful efforts to restrict the rapid spread of the…

TOKYO — DJ Daisuke Kikyo jumped in the air, pumped his fists and blasted hits such as “La Bamba,” “YMCA” and “Call Me Maybe” to hype up the mood at the beach volleyball match held at Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park on Thursday. The video screen instructed fans…

TOKYO — In the months leading up to the Olympic Games, the citizens of Tokyo became extremely worried about the possibility of tens of thousands of foreigners coming in and infecting them with the coronavirus. Their concerns may have been…

TOKYO — For a moment at the start of Friday’s Opening Ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics, members of a crowd gathered outside National Stadium gasped as fireworks lit up the sky and reflected off the glass front of a nearby building. But the gasps soon…

“We had doubts every day,” Bach said Tuesday. “We deliberated and discussed. There were sleepless nights. Like everyone else in the world, we did not know — I did not know — what the future would hold.” If Bach indeed had sleepless nights in the…

TOKYO — When Tokyo staged the Olympics in 1964, the Games marked Japan’s reemergence from the ashes of defeat in World War II and symbolized its readmission in the post-war international order. It was a moment of immense national pride. The Games…

TOKYO — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach added to his already shaky public image in Japan on Tuesday by inadvertently referring to the Japanese people as “Chinese” at his first public appearance since arriving in Tokyo last…

TOKYO — Japan will bar spectators from all Olympic events held in and around Tokyo, organizers announced Thursday, as the government imposed a fresh state of emergency to cover the capital during the Games. “This is a sorry message that we have to…

The marathon is among the Olympics’ most iconic events: crowds of cheering fans metaphorically carrying runners through the pain barrier, culminating in the famous finish in the Olympic stadium to close out the track and field program. The races,…

TOKYO — North Korea supreme leader Kim Jong Un has chastised ruling party officials for failures in their anti-virus work that created what he called a "grave incident" that caused a "huge crisis" in the country's battle against covid-19, state media…

“His majesty is very worried about the current infection situation of the covid-19 disease,” Yasuhiko Nishimura, grand steward of the agency, told a regular news conference on Thursday, the Kyodo News agency reported. “I suppose that he is concerned…

TOKYO — Olympic organizers will allow spectators at this summer's Tokyo Games but cap attendance at 10,000 people or 50 percent of a venue's capacity, whichever is smaller, they announced Monday. The upper limit will not include VIPs, officials and…

TOKYO — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the country's food situation "tense," state media reported Wednesday, amid mounting reports of shortages. Opening a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s central committee, Kim claimed that…

TOKYO — Olympic athletes and officials breaking strict coronavirus rules could face a range of punishments ranging from warnings to disqualification, organizers of the Tokyo Summer Games said Tuesday. The International Olympic and Paralympic…

TOKYO — There will be joy and drama, glory and grief, among Olympic competitors. But this summer's pandemic-era Games in Tokyo are destined to go down as the most joyless of modern times, with athletes sequestered and cheering banned. In the past few…

TOKYO — The International Olympic Committee this week unveiled updated plans for holding the Summer Games in Japan, meticulous “playbooks” that promise to ensure the safety not only of the athletes taking part but also of the Japanese public during a…