Kyodo News Digest: Oct. 3, 2024
Source: – Kyodo News+
(from L) Japan Association of Athletics Federations President Mitsugi Ogata, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike and World Athletics President Sebastian Coe pose for a photo in Tokyo on Oct. 2, 2024. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan’s new PM confirms close cooperation with other G7 leaders
TOKYO – Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday told his counterparts from the Group of Seven that cooperation among them is increasingly important as security issues of the Middle East, Europe, including Ukraine, and the Indo-Pacific region are closely intertwined.
After joining a call with other leaders of the major industrial democracies for the first time, Ishiba told reporters he had underscored that the group and all other parties involved should exercise the “utmost restraint and make every effort to calm the situation so that it does not escalate into an all-out war.”
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Japan SDF planes head for possible Lebanon evacuation mission
TOKYO – Two Air Self-Defense Force airplanes left Japan on Thursday in preparation for the possible evacuation of Japanese citizens from Lebanon, where tensions are mounting between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Two C-2 transport airplanes departed from Miho Air Base in the western prefecture of Tottori for Jordan and Greece to stand by, the Defense Ministry said. According to the Foreign Ministry, about 50 Japanese nationals are in Lebanon.
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BOJ should patiently maintain loose monetary policy: board member
TOKYO – A Bank of Japan board member said Thursday that the central bank should patiently maintain its loose monetary policy, a day after the country’s new prime minister said the current environment is not suitable for another rate hike.
“There still needs to be considerable time” to change Japanese consumers’ deep-rooted mindset that prices will not rise due to a long period of deflation, Asahi Noguchi said in a speech addressed to local business leaders in Nagasaki Prefecture.
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Japan’s Miyazaki Airport reopens after closure due to dud shell blast
MIYAZAKI, Japan – Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan resumed operations Thursday morning, a day after an explosion of a wartime dud shell on the taxiway forced the cancellation of more than 80 flights.
A Japan Airlines plane to Fukuoka departed around 7:40 a.m. in the first flight since the airport was shut Wednesday for an investigation of the incident and to repair the taxiway after a hole with 7 meters in diameter and 1 meter deep was found.
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Japan irked by Russia’s denial of alleged Sept. airspace breach
MOSCOW/TOKYO – Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi described Russia’s denial of an alleged airspace violation late last month as “extremely regrettable” during a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
Moscow had earlier claimed one of its military aircraft did not violate Japanese airspace near the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, with Maria Zakharova, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department, telling an online press conference on Wednesday that Moscow could not confirm the alleged flight over waters in the Sea of Japan by an IL-38 patrol plane on Sept. 23.
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Emmy-winning actor Sawai among Time’s 100 next-generation leaders
NEW YORK – Anna Sawai, who became the first Japanese to win an Emmy Award for best lead actress for her role in the U.S. television series “Shogun,” was selected Wednesday in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the next generation.
Sawai, 32, who plays a woman in a samurai clan in the feudal era of Japan, was picked in the Phenoms category of this year’s “Time 100 Next.”
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Japan’s new PM signals now not right time for further rate hike
TOKYO – Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Wednesday that he believes the current environment is not suitable for another rate hike, suggesting he does not want the Bank of Japan to rush into further tightening its policy, following his meeting with the BOJ chief.
Ishiba’s talks with BOJ chief Kazuo Ueda followed his earlier ambiguity, before being elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, about whether he would urge the BOJ to continue raising policy rates to curb the yen’s depreciation, which has driven up import costs.
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Japan’s antitrust watchdog launches risk study into generative AI
TOKYO – Japan’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it has launched an investigation into the rapidly growing generative artificial intelligence market, aiming to promote fair competition amid dominance by U.S. tech giants in semiconductors and specialized personnel necessary for development.
Fast-paced advancements in AI technology have prompted the Japan Fair Trade Commission to take the unprecedented step of releasing a document to preemptively address antitrust and competition risks as it seeks public input on the topic.
Video: Visitors pull on a giant rope as a ritual to pray for a rich harvest in the Kumano region
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