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A communique issued by the RSS said the meeting focused on ways to strengthen India–Japan relations, with particular emphasis on civilisational ties, cultural cooperation and people-centric initiatives.
The Hague, Netherlands, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japan and seven other countries on Friday voiced their strong objections to U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands. In a statement issued by their foreign ministers, Japan, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain said, "As committed supporters of the ICC...
Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday expressed her deep concern over the U.S. government's decision to add the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, to its sanctions list. In a social media post, Takaichi said that the U.S. decision, announced earlier in the day, is "incompatible with" Japan's position. "Japan has consi...
A senior Japanese government spokesperson said it was regrettable that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office had requested that Dutch authorities extradite International Criminal Court president Tomoko Akane and eight other officials. “Time and again we have conveyed to the Russian side that measures targeting individuals connected to the ICC are unfair and unacceptable. We find it regrettable that the Russian side has nevertheless requested various nations to extradite these individuals,”...
US President Donald Trump pressed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during last month’s summit to end a deep freeze in relations with Japan’s Sanae Takaichi, the South China Morning Post reported. Trump raised Japan’s grievances over Chinese restrictions imposed following Takaichi’s comment in November that the Japanese military might intervene in the event of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, according to Thursday’s report, which cited people familiar with the discussions. Beijing regards Taiwan as...
Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court is expected to issue a unified ruling within this year over lawsuits demanding that the results of the 2025 election for the Senate, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, be invalidated due to large vote-value gaps. Final arguments over the case were made at the top court's Grand Bench, presided over by Supreme Court Chief...
US President Donald Trump pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to roll back China’s export curbs on Japan during their meeting in the US, urging talks between the Chinese and Japanese leaders as Tokyo seeks to manage mounting pressure from Beijing. People familiar with the discussions told the South China Morning Post that Xi also warned Trump about the growing risks of Japanese militarism during their sit-down in Washington last month. According to the people, while the issue was not one...
Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with Okinawa Governor Genta Koja in Tokyo on Wednesday and expressed her willingness to talk with the United States following the arrest of a U.S. Marine for allegedly murdering a woman in the southern Japan prefecture on Saturday. During the meeting at the prime minister's office, Koja said that the incident was "absolu...
Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering including in its three key security-related documents, slated to be revised by the end of this year, a plan to study whether the country should possess nuclear-powered submarines, government sources said Wednesday. The move comes as proponents argue that the introduction of such underwater vessels, which can remain submerged...
Tokyo, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering compiling a second supplementary budget for fiscal 2026 to cover about 300 billion yen in additional personnel costs and prepare for an increase in spending on recovery efforts following recent major natural disasters, government sources said Wednesday. The government plans to submit a second supplementary budget bill during...
Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japan's fresh sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are "ill-considered," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said, warning that Moscow will take "proportionate countermeasures" primarily in areas of interest to Tokyo. The Japanese government on Friday sanctioned 35 vessels in the so-called shadow fleet that transport Russian crude...
Tokyo, Oct. 5 (Jiji Press)--An extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, convened on Monday, setting the stage for the first parliamentary debate since the cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month. In the 222nd Diet session, scheduled to run for 69 days until Dec. 12, key agenda items will include legislation to cut the consumption tax on food and the rulin...
Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani agreed Friday to work closely together to address the situation surrounding Iran. Qatar has been mediating negotiations between Iran and the United States to resolve their conflict. In their talks in Tokyo, the Qatari leader explained to Takaich...
Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the deterioration in relations with Japan was caused by a change in Japan's stance. Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Moscow on Thursday, which brought together Russia experts from inside and outside the country, Putin said that there has been absolutely no change in Russia's approach over the past tw...
Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--A group of lawyers who studied under International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane have submitted a petition with over 170,000 signatures to the Japanese government, demanding action to realize the immediate lifting of U.S. sanctions on her. "Japan, which maintains a relationship of trust with the United States, can play a role in safeguarding the ICC's ind...
Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met with former Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and other lawmakers of the Asian country to discuss bilateral cooperation, the president's office has said. At the meeting in Kyiv on Thursday, Zelenskyy said that his country values all of the economic and humanitarian support provided by Japan. He also emphasi...
Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japan and Germany on Thursday signed a memorandum of cooperation on the evacuation of each other's citizens in the event of a conflict or disaster in a third country. The memorandum was signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and German Ambassador to Japan Petra Sigmund at the Foreign Ministry. It calls for the two countries to share information ...
Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Immigration Services Agency on Thursday tightened requirements for foreigners to obtain permanent residence by revising its guidelines, requiring applicants to maintain annual income above the average for Japanese households and possess a certain level of Japanese-language proficiency. The income requirement applies to applications filed on or after April...
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government has approved the lifting of sanctions imposed on 16 organizations linked to Syria. The decision on Tuesday came after Tokyo lifted sanctions on four entities in May last year, leaving 59 individuals and 15 entities still subject to Syria-related sanctions. Japan began imposing sanctions in stages on the regime of then-Syrian President...
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Japan’s former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is leading a 50-member delegation of corporate executives, in Beijing on Monday, marking the highest-ranking Chinese official reception for a Japanese visit in nearly a year. During the talks, Wang warned that bilateral relations were facing a “severe situation” and had “yet to be normalised” ahead of next year’s 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry. “A...
Beijing, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, urged Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to correct her remarks about Taiwan during his meeting in Beijing Monday with former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Japan's leader needs to correct mistaken remarks about the issue of Taiwan as soon as possible, said Wang, foreign minister ...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government told the Diet, the country's parliament, on Tuesday that an extraordinary session will be convened Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara conveyed the plan to the boards of the steering committees in both Diet chambers. The Diet session is expected to run for 69 days through Dec. 12. It will be the first time that full-scale po...
Japan risks being pulled into a spiral of online disinformation about foreign crime that is stoking xenophobia and playing into the hands of the far-right, researchers warn. The trend is reportedly deepening divisions within Japanese society and creating a feedback loop that experts say will be difficult to break. In August, Constella Security Japan, a Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm commissioned by the government to counter online disinformation, hosted a webinar for officials and media on fake...
Tokyo on Monday rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after he voiced opposition over the weekend to Japan’s drive for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, claiming the country was on a “path of militarisation”. Lavrov’s comments came as the security council, tasked with safeguarding peace, is facing calls for reform amid accusations it failed to prevent recent conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, due largely to the veto power of its five permanent members:...
Yokohama, Sept. 27 (Jiji Press)--Former Yokohama Mayor Takeharu Yamanaka, who resigned earlier in September over a harassment scandal, plans to run for re-election, sources said Sunday. Yamanaka, 54, is expected to announce his candidacy at a press conference as early as Monday. The mayoral election in the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, which neighbors Tokyo, is set to take place Oct. 18. ...
Tokyo, Sept. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is worried that fresh attention may be directed to the issue of money and politics in the extraordinary parliamentary session beginning on Oct. 5. Behind the worry are Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's controversial appointments of two lawmakers involved in her LDP's slush fund scandal as ministers. The two members of the House...
Tokyo, Sept. 26 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed that their countries will continue working together to address China-related issues including economic security and defense. In a 20-minute telephone conversation, Takaichi received a direct explanation from Trump regarding the results of his meeting with Chinese Presid...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is reportedly trying to arrange a phone call with Donald Trump following the US president’s nostalgic invocation of the alliance with China during World War II, references that sent shock waves through Tokyo. Trump made the references as he welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House on Thursday for his first state visit to Washington in over a decade. Both Trump and Xi repeatedly invoked their nations’ wartime alliance against Japan in their...
Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)--The upcoming extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, is set to run for 69 days from Oct. 5 until Dec. 12, it was learned Friday. Yoshihiko Isozaki, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Diet affairs chief in the Senate, the upper chamber previously called the House of Councillors, informed his counterpart at the opposition Constitutional Democrat...
Tokyo is raising the bar for permanent residency amid a broader rightward shift in the Asian nation's politics.