World News by Wild Rose

With China flexing its naval power across the Pacific and bilateral tensions running high, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is weighing a move long viewed as taboo – nuclear-powered submarines for the Maritime Self-Defence Force fleet. “We will seriously consider [the possibility] in a concrete and realistic manner,” Takaichi told the Japanese parliament on October 14. Yet with Tokyo set to revise its core security documents by year’s end, the proposal is dividing the ruling coalition. The...

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)--Public prosecutors in Okinawa Prefecture indicted U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, on Sunday on robbery and murder charges after a 39-year-old woman was found dead in the southwestern Japan prefecture earlier this month. According to the indictment and other sources, Ballard allegedly strangled the woman with a telephone cord in a ho...

Tokyo, Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)--U.S. Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, condemned Russia's recent detention of a Japanese journalist as unacceptable, during an interview with Jiji Press in Tokyo this weekend. "I don't think there's any place where it's acceptable for them to detain reporters," Bera said while referring to past cases involving American...

Tokyo, Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)--Opposition party officials demanded Sunday that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi clearly explain her government's consumption tax cut legislation in the Diet herself. During a televised debate, opposition representatives questioned the lack of details about a planned benefit program included in the legislation, as well as the uncertain economic impact of c...

Nagoya, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--The 2026 Asian Para Games came to a close on Saturday after Japan, which hosted the para sports event for the first time, won a record 64 gold medals. At the Aichi-Nagoya Games, a total of about 3,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions competed in 18 sports, mainly in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. The host nation won 186 total medals, finishing second on...

Tokyo, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan's four major beer companies, suspected of price collusion, kept shipping prices unchanged after the 2023 tax cut of 19 yen per liter of beer, citing higher costs, it was learned on Saturday. Meanwhile, they all implemented a price hike of 20 yen per liter in 2025, according to informed sources. The Japan Fair Trade Commission is investigating a possible...

Japan’s centuries-old festivals are facing renewed scrutiny after a series of fatal accidents in recent weeks, raising questions over how communities can preserve their cultural traditions without putting lives at risk. Three people have been killed and more than a dozen injured in accidents at autumn festivals across the country in recent weeks. Meanwhile, organisers of another major festival, where two men died in February, have cancelled next year’s event, citing public safety concerns. The...

Tokyo, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan's revised Imperial House Law came into effect Saturday, allowing male, paternal-line descendants of former Imperial Family branches to be adopted into the Imperial Family, and female Imperial Family members to remain within the family after marriage. The government has stressed the significance of the law in addressing the declining number of Imperial Fami...

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese and South Korean governments have been unable to identify five sets of remains found at an undersea mine in western Japan where a fatal flooding accident occurred during World War II, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Friday. The accident took place at the Chosei coal mine in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, on Feb. 3, 1942, killing 136 people from the K...

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, will visit Singapore on Nov. 17-21, the government said Friday. Princess Aiko was invited by Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as this year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The trip will be the princess' second official overseas ...

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--Renowned Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami died Saturday. He was 74. Murakami, born in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, was known for his works such as "Almost Transparent Blue" and "Coin Locker Babies." In 1976, Murakami won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for his debut novel "Almost Transparent Blue," which he wrote ...

Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government highlighted the urgent need to fundamentally strengthen the country's energy supply-and-demand structure to prepare for future emergencies in its fiscal 2025 white paper on energy, adopted at a cabinet meeting on Friday. The white paper noted that, in response to the deterioration in the Middle East situation, Japan was the first in the w...

Japan’s key price gauge rose above the Bank of Japan’s target level for the first time this year, supporting the case for a widely expected BOJ interest rate hike in December.

With one eye on her baby in a stroller, Minae Kamata operates an arcade machine in a Tokyo suburb, manipulating a claw to grab not a stuffed toy but a pack of toilet paper. As inflation weighs on Japanese households, huge arcades on the outskirts of major cities are installing claw machines filled with eggs, rice, laundry detergent and other necessities. The “shop-and-play destinations” merge essential buying with entertainment so that families do not feel a choice between bringing home the...

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government, in a rare move, has repeatedly urged people to take precautions after critical vulnerabilities were detected in the PHP programming language, which is widely used for websites. The moves reflected concerns that a delayed response could deal a blow to the economy and society, especially given the recent string of personal data breaches ca...

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan will switch to a post-departure refund system for consumption tax for travelers from abroad on Nov. 1, following a series of cases in which purchased tax-free goods were resold in Japan at prices including tax. Foreign visitors can currently buy goods at prices excluding the consumption tax at tax-free shops in Japan. Under the new system, which is inte...

An electricity symposium in Tokyo this week was crowded with global investors looking to make money.

Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese women's gymnastics team won an all-around bronze medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Wednesday, marking the Asian country's first podium finish for the event in 60 years. The five-member team racked up a total of 164.063 points across the four apparatuses. Japan finished behind champio...

Sao Paulo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori is scheduled to visit Japan on Nov. 19-20, the Nippon Foundation, a Japanese philanthropic group, said Wednesday. The visit will mark Fujimori's first trip to Japan since she took office in July. She is scheduled to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 18-19. Fujimori, a third-ge...

BNP Paribas Asset Management has been raising its positions in long-dated Japanese government bonds, attracted by a steep yield curve and signs that domestic demand is returning to the market.

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government will cut its subsidies for the purchase of eco-friendly vehicles, including electric and fuel-cell vehicles, to 60-80 pct of their current levels next year, the industry ministry said Wednesday. The reduced subsidies will apply to cars registered from Jan. 1. The ministry is expected to temporarily stop accepting subsidy applications a...

Tokyo, Oct. 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Police Agency plans to introduce cashless payments for minor traffic violations from July 2027, allowing offenders, including cyclists, to pay fines by credit card, smartphone payment services or other cashless means, agency officials said Thursday. The system will be rolled out nationwide in phases. The agency will solicit bids for a contractor...

Japan and other major iron ore buyers risk becoming price takers as China’s state-backed purchasing company seeks greater influence over how the steelmaking ingredient is priced, according to consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

Tokushima, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokushima prefectural police arrested on Wednesday four Japanese men who have been detained by Vietnamese authorities for their alleged involvement in a special fraud scheme operating from a base in the Southeast Asian country. The fraud suspects, aged between 27 and 61, were sent to Japan by air. They include Masami Maegawa, a 61-year-old self-proclaimed co...

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's administration has steadily delivered on its promises to the public over the past year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Wednesday, the first anniversary of her taking office. "We have worked boldly to build a strong economy and establish strong diplomacy and national security, steadily delivering on what we pro...

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in September dropped 5.0 pct from a year earlier to 3,103,700, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday. The decline reflected rising airfares due to a deterioration in the situation in the Middle East and typhoon-caused flight cancellations. The cumulative number of such visitors in the January-...

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Personal information on some 125,000 police officers and staff members in Japan may have been compromised following unauthorized access to cloud service operator Arcadia Inc., National Police Agency officials said Wednesday. Over 18,000 email addresses of citizens and companies registered for a security notification service may have been exposed as well. Twen...

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japanese new agriculture minister Arata Takebe on Wednesday apologized over a weekly magazine report about his alleged receipt of a political donation from a public works contractor. "I instructed relevant officials to promptly investigate the facts and take action to return the money or correct the political funds disclosure report accordingly," Takebe told rep...

Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japan won its second straight men's team all-around title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Tuesday, clinching its eighth title overall. The team scored a total of 251.928 points across the six apparatuses, 1.599 points ahead of second-place Russia, while China placed third. The top three teams q...

Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Major Japanese banks are increasingly shifting their identity verification methods for applicants to open accounts online to scanning of integrated circuit chip-embedded cards, following a series of data breaches. Japan will enforce in April 2027 new regulations under the revised law to prevent the transfer of criminal proceeds, requiring financial institutions a...