1. Hideki Matsuyama, Japan — Even though he couldn’t quite catch Justin Thomas last week in the final round of the SBS Tournament of Champions, Matsuyama remains the hottest player in the world with four victories and two runner-up finishes in his last six starts. No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Matsuyama has finished in the top 10 in his last seven outings dating to the Tour Championship in September. Matsuyama has never played well at the Sony Open in Hawaii in his four previous starts, but he has not come to Waialae with the form he has displayed in the last several months. He missed the cut in his first three appearances in the second event of the year and tied for 78th last year, when he showed he can play the course with a 4-under-par 66 in the second round.
2. Jordan Spieth, United States — Take away three big numbers and Spieth would have been right with his pal Justin Thomas, who captured the SBS Tournament of Champions last week. The fifth-ranked player in the world blistered Kapalua with a bogey-free 8-under-par 65 in the final round to finish in a tie for third in his title defense in the first event of the year. Spieth led the field with 26 birdies over 72 holes on the Plantation course and also had an eagle, but threw in two double bogeys and a triple bogey while shaking off the holiday rust. He recorded his first top-10 result of the new season after totaling 23 over the last two years. Spieth is making on his second start at the Sony Open in Hawaii, and three years ago he shot 70-71 — 141 to miss the cut by two strokes.
3. Jimmy Walker , United States — Although he couldn’t keep it after opening with a bogey-free 65 last week in the SBS Tournament of Champions, Walker got off to a solid start with a tie for ninth at Kapalua. The reigning PGA champion will play in one of his favorite PGA Tour events this week, the Sony Open in Hawaii, teeing it up for the 11th time at Waialae. In 2013, Walker birdied four of the last six holes while closing with a 7-under-par 63 to beat Chris Kirk by one stroke for his second PGA Tour victory. A year later, he repeated in Honolulu by playing the weekend in 62-63 to blow away the field, winning by nine strokes over Scott Piercy. Walker posted four rounds in the 60s last year in his double title defense to tie for 13th, and is 62-under in his last 16 rounds at Waialae.
4. Justin Thomas, United States — After losing all but one of a five-stroke lead down the stretch last week in the SBS Tournament of Champions, Thomas gave himself three-foot birdie putts on the last two holes to win by three over Hideki Matsuyama of Japan. It was his second victory in his last three starts, as he also defended his title in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia in November, when he also defeated Matsuyama by three shots. His latest victory lifted the 23-year-old Thomas to No. 12 in the world, and he has three top-10 finishes in the new season after recording seven in 2015-16. Thomas will make his third start in the Sony Open in Hawaii this week and has had mixed results in the first two. He shared the lead at 68-61 — 129 two years ago before slipping to a tie for sixth at the finish, and last year shot 70-71 — 141 to miss the cut by four strokes.
5. Paul Casey , England — Even though he did not win last season, Casey got his career back on track with seven finishes in the top 10 on the PGA Tour, including an impressive run at the end of the FedExCup playoffs, finishing second in the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Championship before he wound up fourth in the Tour Championship. Once No. 3 in the world, he is back up to No. 15, and posted three top-25 finishes in the early portion of the 2016-17 season, including third in the Safeway Championship. While also playing the European Tour, Casey made only two trips to the Sony Open in Hawaii, but now that he is strictly playing the PGA Tour he might make it to the islands more often. He tied for 30th two years ago at Waialae, fading after he shared the first-round lead with a 62, and shot 75-74 — 149 to miss the cut by seven shots in 2005.
6. Brandt Snedeker , United States — Snedeker got off to a bit of a disappointing start in 2017 when he tied for 14th in the SBS Tournament of Champions, as he was let down by his normally reliable putter, finishing at minus-0.899 in strokes gained-putting. However it probably was simply a bit of rust since he is one of the best putters in the game and is coming off a season in which he finished in the top 10 on seven occasions, and in the top 25 a total of 14 times. Snedeker, who will defend his eighth PGA Tour title at the Farmers Insurance Open in two weeks, is making his fourth appearance at the Sony Open in Hawaii and he had a great chance to win it last year. He led almost all the way after starting with a 7-under-par 63, but Fabian Gomez caught him with a closing 62 and beat him with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
7. Justin Rose , England — The Olympic gold medalist is making his first start of the 2016-17 on the PGA Tour, having played only once since the Ryder Cup in October and finishing in a tie for 36th in the UBS Hong Kong Open on the European Tour. Rose did not win on the PGA Tour last season, the first time that happened since 2009, coming closest in his five top-10 results when he finished third in the Wells Fargo Championship. The 2013 U. S. Open champion is hoping to start turning things around this week when he plays at the Sony Open in Hawaii for the fifth time, but the first since 2011. That year, he posted a tie for 13th when he slid down the leaderboard after being one-stroke out of the first-round lead with a 5-under 65. That came a year after Rose’s best finish at Waialae, a tie for 12th, when he shot 65 in the second round and 64 in the last.
8. Pat Perez , United States — Playing perhaps the best golf of his career at the age of 40, Perez is third in the 2016-17 FedEx Cup standings after three strong results. He claimed his second PGA Tour victory in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and tied for seventh in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in November, then started the new year last week with a tie for third in the SBS Tournament of Champions. That has come after he was out most of the 2015-16 season because of a shoulder injury, which caused him to miss the cut in eight of the 11 tournaments he played. Perez will make his 16th consecutive start at the Sony Open in Hawaii and his best result was a tie for fourth in 2008, when he finished six strokes behind winner K. J. Choi. He also tied for ninth in 2013, when he shot 7-under 63 in round two, tied for 12th the following year and tied for 10th in 2007.
9. Russell Knox, Scotland — Coming off a season in which he claimed his first two victories on the PGA Tour in the WGC-HSBC Champions and the Travelers Championship, Knox has kept it going by finishing in the top 10 in three of his first four events of the new season. He missed only last week in the SBS Tournament of Champions, where he seemed headed for a fourth in a row only to close with a 73 at Kapalua and slip to a tie for 17th in the winners-only field. Knox will try to get back on track this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he has not had too much success in his previous five appearances. He has missed the cut four times, including last year, but in 2015 he seemed to have figured out Waialae when he posted four rounds in the 60s and wound up in a tie for 13th.
10. Zach Johnson , United States — Following his victory in the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews, which with his 2007 Masters victory gave him half of the Career Grand Slam , Johnson has gone into a bit of a slump. He finished in the top 10 only five times in 24 starts during the 2015-16 season, and the highlight probably was a tie for eighth in the U. S. Open at Oakmont. Johnson played only once in the Fall portion of the new season and missed the cut in his home event, the RSM Classic. He’s hoping to start turning things around this week at the Sony Open in Hawaii, which he captured in 2007 for one of his 12 victories on the PGA Tour, beating Adam Scott and David Toms by two strokes. Johnson is playing at Waialae for the 12th time and he also tied for eighth in 2014 and tied for ninth last year.

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One of the longest careers in soccer has been extended after 49-year-old striker Kazuyoshi Miura renewed his contract with second-division J-League club Yokohama FC on Wednesday.
Miura, who will turn 50 on Feb. 26, will enter his 32nd season this year.
Miura played in 20 league games last year and scored twice. On Aug. 7, he scored in a match against Cerezo Osaka to make him the J-League’s oldest scorer at 49 years, 5 months, 12 days.
Miura played for Brazilian club Santos and in Italy with Genoa early in his career, and represented Japan’s national team 89 times, scoring 55 goals, but never played at the World Cup.

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TOKYO — The handwritten note was short, just three sentences long.
But it had a profound effect on Ayaka Shiomura, a legislator in Tokyo who had been taunted publicly by male colleagues for speaking out about the problems of working mothers in Japan .
“We never know when our actions will have the greatest impact,” Caroline Kennedy , the United States ambassador to Japan, wrote, “and it’s often not when we expect.”
That note two years ago, Ms. Shiomura recalled, “really helped me.” It lifted her from a depression over the criticism she faced from political rivals and on social media and inspired her to continue to fight for women’s rights. Months later, at a reception at the ambassador’s residence for female leaders, Ms. Kennedy greeted her with raised fists and told her, “Don’t let these troubles get you down.”
In multiple moments like these, Ambassador Kennedy, who will depart Japan next Wednesday after three years here, sought to convey to women across the country a quiet message of empowerment.
Dozens of American envoys will leave office next week , but few of them are as prominent as Ms. Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy. Over the last three years, she helped manage relations with one of America’s most important allies, but her status as the first woman to hold the post may have been just as consequential for traditionally male-dominated Japan.
“I just think being a woman ambassador, and I think visible women in positions of leadership, does help change attitudes,” Ms. Kennedy said in an interview this month in her office at the United States Embassy in Tokyo.
The historic nature of Ms. Kennedy’s tenure is evident in an alcove down the hall from her office, where 30 portraits of past American ambassadors hang in three neat rows. Going all the way back to Townsend Harris, the first envoy to Japan in 1856, they are all men.
In Japan, where few women hold positions of authority and married women cannot use their original surnames , Ms. Kennedy, a trained lawyer and mother of three, was a role model for combining power and family as well as a vital supporter of the agenda of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has said he wants women to play a larger role in business and politics.
Her influence as ambassador stemmed from who she was — not just a woman, but the daughter of President Kennedy, a beloved figure here as he is in the United States.
Among skeptics, her celebrity raised questions about her fitness for the job. She had no formal diplomatic experience before moving to Japan in late 2013, nor did she have special expertise in Japan.
A 2015 report by the Office of Inspector General highlighted Ms. Kennedy’s unfamiliarity with “leading and managing an institution the size of the U. S. Mission to Japan” and criticized a lack of communication within the embassy. On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald J. Trump mocked Ms. Kennedy , claiming “she’ll do anything they want, anything!” in reference to the Japanese government.
But those who have worked with her say she leveraged the good will associated with her family name — as well as her close ties to President Obama — to build strong relationships with people in the Japanese government, business community and broader public.
“She transformed herself from a celebrity into an influential public figure and statesman who became trusted, respected, liked and listened to,” said Daniel R. Russel, assistant secretary at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the State Department.
Ms. Kennedy won public appreciation as she traveled across the country, visiting 35 of 47 prefectures. She rode in bicycle races in the Tohoku region devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and showed a playful side when she appeared in a Santa hat in a wildly popular video (more than six million views and counting) mimicking dance moves from a popular Japanese television series.
When talking at conferences about women’s equality, one of her favorite causes, Ms. Kennedy did not hector her audiences, said Kathy Matsui, chief Japan equity strategist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo and an adviser to Mr. Abe on women’s issues.
“She always talked about the history of women’s empowerment in the United States, which wasn’t always a stellar track record either, to say how far everybody has come,” Ms. Matsui said.
Ms. Kennedy acknowledged the slow pace of change in Japan on such practical matters as insufficient day care slots and labor law reform. “I don’t blame people for being frustrated,” she said. “But I feel that there is a real commitment here.”
While Japan has been one of America’s strongest allies since the end of World War II , Mr. Abe is a conservative, nationalist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party that has traditionally felt more aligned with Republicans in Washington.
“One of the things that she did behind the scenes was to make sure there was greater connectivity between these two ideologically opposed governments,” said Michael J. Green, a former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Mr. Trump has not officially announced a new ambassador, but some news organizations have reported that William Hagerty , a Tennessee businessman, will be nominated. Ms. Kennedy, who once flirted with running for the United States Senate, will return to New York. Aides say she has no fixed plans, although they expect she will remain interested in Japan.
Mr. Trump has spooked some here with comments about trade and complaints about American military costs in Japan. Ms. Kennedy said the alliance between the two countries would remain strong.
“If I’ve learned anything,” she said, “it’s that this relationship is bigger than any one person.”
During her time as ambassador, Ms. Kennedy’s Japanese counterparts viewed her as someone who would listen to their perspective but fight hard for American interests.
“I think most people don’t know about this, but Ambassador Kennedy was an exceptionally tough negotiator,” Fumio Kishida, Japan’s minister for foreign affairs, wrote in an email. “When I could persuade her, I could persuade Washington, D. C., as well. On the contrary, when she gave me a firm negative response, I thought it was time for the Japanese side to come up with an alternative idea.”
Advisers to Mr. Abe showed her drafts of important speeches, including the prime minister’s speech on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war and his remarks at Pearl Harbor last month.
Ms. Kennedy said she pointed out what American audiences “might be listening for,” particularly when talking about wartime history.
It was in the area of historical reconciliation that Ms. Kennedy exerted her biggest sway. She played a central role in pushing for and organizing President Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima last May.
“She was relentless,” said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, who said Ms. Kennedy emailed him about the visit “multiple times a week for months.”
As for many American ambassadors in Japan, one of Ms. Kennedy’s biggest challenges came in dealing with the complex dynamics of Okinawa, which hosts nearly half of the roughly 50,000 American troops in Japan.
In December, Ms. Kennedy presided over a ceremony in which the United States officially returned nearly 10,000 acres of land in Okinawa to Japan. The handover upset some residents because the Japanese government agreed to build six new helicopter landing pads on the acres that the United States retained to use in jungle warfare training.
Some residents in Okinawa said they had hoped Ms. Kennedy would be more sympathetic to protesters who want the American military to greatly reduce its footprint.
“We had a hope when she was appointed as the U. S. ambassador to Japan, as a daughter of the symbol of democracy,” said Tomohiro Yara, a freelance writer and activist in Okinawa. “Sorry, the symbol was only a symbol.”
Ms. Kennedy said she understood the anger. “You may not hear it, but I think that certainly we did take actual practical steps,” she said, including the return of other land on Okinawa and moving an aircraft hangar to reduce noise. “So hopefully people will see that the U. S. is committed to making progress, reducing our presence.”

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China has ordered all schools to teach pupils that its 20th-century war with Japan lasted 14 years rather than eight, the education ministry said Wednesday, to “strengthen patriotic education”.
Chinese textbooks currently date the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression” to July 7, 1937 and the Marco Polo Bridge Incident which heralded Japan’s full-scale invasion.
But new guidelines call for all curriculum materials at schools and universities across the country to push back the start to the Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931, after which Tokyo’s forces occupied Manchuria in northeastern China.
The initial years of Japanese regional occupation and the wider later struggle were “parts of the same whole”, the ministry said, adding that the change was intended to “strengthen patriotic education”.
Beijing in 2015 commemorated the 70th anniversary of Japan’s Second World War defeat with a spectacular military parade in Beijing, with state media barely mentioning the roles of other allies or the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Course materials must all “fully reflect how the Chinese Communist Party was a tower of strength during the war” and “highlight how the Chinese people were not afraid of ferocious adversity”, the ministry said.
Speaking at a regular press briefing Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said the change would help younger generations remember their past.
“I want to emphasise that to change this is not to carry forward hatred,” he said.

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