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Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's industry ministry said Friday that it has selected 18 regions as so-called green transformation strategy areas. The ministry will support the regions by easing regulations on land use and providing subsidies, aiming to attract companies and investment from Japan and abroad as part of efforts to strengthen the industrial competitiveness of regional econo...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Justice Ministry plans to launch a pilot program to track sex offenders on parole with GPS devices from as early as fiscal 2027, which begins next April, officials said Friday. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi told a press conference Friday that expenses related to the pilot program were included in the ministry's fiscal 2027 budget request. Only p...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The Bank of Japan plans to raise its policy interest rate by 0.25 percentage point to 1.25 pct, the highest level in about 31 years, at its policy-setting meeting next week, informed sources said Friday. The last time the BOJ policy interest rate stood at 1.25 pct was in April 1995. With underlying inflation approaching the BOJ's 2 pct target, the BOJ will r...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Finance Ministry said Friday that it will issue a commemorative 1,000-yen coin for the International Horticultural Expo 2027 in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. Priced at 33,500 yen, the coin's obverse design features the expo's mascot, Tunku Tunku, along with native Japanese plants that will adorn the event's venue, such as the golden lace and the golden-raye...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--A group of Japanese lawmakers urged the government on Friday to continue supporting the International Criminal Court after the United States sanctioned its president, Tomoko Akane of Japan. Yoko Kamikawa, head of the group, which consists of lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, the LDP's previous coalition partner, submitted an urgent...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The proportion of unmarried people in Japan who said they intend to marry eventually has fallen below 80 pct for the first time among both men and women, a survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research showed Friday. The result highlighted a declining desire to marry as more people see few benefits to marriage. "More people beli...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Digital Agency said Friday that about 246,000 sets of personal information, including the names and addresses of government employees, may have been leaked due to unauthorized access to a network system operated by the agency. So far, no secondary damage such as the misuse of the possibly leaked personal information has been confirmed. The informatio...
Tokyo police arrested two American women for allegedly smuggling US$1 million worth of cannabis, with one suspect claiming she was motivated by a free trip to Japan, an official and media reports said on Friday. The pair, both 25, arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport from New York last Saturday with two suitcases in which “cannabis-like dried plants were secretly stored”, a police spokesman said. Japan has some of the world’s strictest drug laws and smuggling or possession of illegal narcotics can...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese restaurant industry on Thursday called on the government to take steps to help it weather possible impacts of a planned consumption tax cut for food. Japan currently imposes the 10 pct consumption tax on meals served at restaurants while setting the rate for food, including takeout, at 8 pct. The planned tax cut calls for lowering the rate for food ...
Nagoya, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Chubu Electric Power Co. is planning to withdraw its application to restart the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, following a data cherry-picking scandal, it was learned Friday. Regarding the scandal, Chubu Electric said the same day that it had received a report from an investigative committee o...
Kumamoto, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Kumamoto Prefecture will launch a travel discount campaign on Tuesday to stimulate tourism demand following a powerful earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture in July, Governor Takashi Kimura said Friday. The discounts will apply to overnight stays in Kumamoto between Oct. 1 and Dec. 25. "We want many people to visit Kumamoto," Kimura sai...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday approved a tax system reform package featuring a food consumption tax cut plan and an income-linked benefit program, with the package expected to receive cabinet approval on Tuesday. The package was approved at Friday's joint meeting of the LDP's Research Commission on the Tax System and Research Commission on S...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--The father of a Japanese victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States reflects on his loss as 25 years have passed since the tragedy in which about 3,000 people were killed. "My sorrow and anger will persist until I die," said Kazusada Sumiyama, 89, whose first son, Yoichi Sugiyama, was killed in the attacks at age 34. "I don't know how to ...
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Yasuchika Hasegawa, former president of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and former chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, died at a Tokyo hospital July 3. He was 80. Born in Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, he joined the major drugmaker in 1970 after graduating from Waseda University. In 2003, Hasegawa took over t...
Japan’s government bonds slumped on Friday, tracking a selloff in the US bond market after escalating Middle East tensions drove up oil prices.
Maya Funaki, a Hong Kong-based portfolio manager at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, is leaving the firm, according to a spokesperson for the investment arm of Royal Bank of Canada.
Japan’s hugely popular Sapporo Snow Festival is shifting its focus towards protecting the environment and sustainability, with a climate expert warning that global warming and reduced snowfall across Hokkaido will make it increasingly difficult to stage the event. In August, organisers unveiled a new logo, official mascot and revised concept for the 77th snow festival, an eight-day event running from February 4 next year. The updated branding expresses appreciation for the annual snowfall the...
Nagoya, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. has released an entry-level racing kart for users ranging from children to adults under its GR motorsports brand. The GR KART, which has a suggested retail price of 385,000 yen, is the world's first racing kart produced by an automaker, officials said Thursday. It can be driven at kart courses across the country. No driver's license is requir...
Prices for Japan’s corporate goods rose at a faster pace than expected in August, supporting the case for the Bank of Japan to keep raising interest rates to stem upside inflation risks.
Tokyo, Sept. 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Crown Princess Kiko, the wife of Crown Prince Akishino, turned 60 on Friday. "I am grateful to have reached this day, and I hope that I can take on new activities," Crown Princess Kiko said in written responses to questions from the press. She mourned the victims of recent natural disasters, including a major earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southw...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Since its birth around 4.6 billion years ago, Mercury's radius has shrunk by over 10 kilometers as the inside of the planet cooled down, a team from Japan's Hokkaido University has found. The team's findings were published in the U.S. science journal Geophysical Research Letters on Thursday. Mercury's radius currently stands at some 2,440 km. Observations by...
Nagoya, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Aichi Financial Group Inc. in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, and San ju San Financial Group Inc. in neighboring Mie Prefecture said Thursday that they have agreed to terminate a basic agreement on their merger. Though they had been negotiating the merger scheduled for April 1, 2027, they concluded that reaching a final agreement expected for the end of this m...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport aboard a government plane on Thursday after attending a funeral for the late King Harald V of Norway. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess attended the funeral held at Oslo Cathedral on Wednesday. According to Japan's Imperial Household Agency, they took part in a funeral pro...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday that it aims to increase its annual vehicle production in Japan to 1 million units by reorganizing its domestic production operations around three key manufacturing facilities. The company expects to significantly increase domestic output from some 700,000 units in the previous fiscal year, anticipating growth in...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government decided Thursday to designate 19 municipalities in the Tokachi region of the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, including the city of Obihiro, as national strategic special zones to promote AI-powered agriculture. The government will apply special deregulation measures to the areas, including simplifying procedures needed to operate ro...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government said Thursday that it has lowered its travel alerts for some areas in Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. The government judged that the Middle East situation has been relatively calm, despite ongoing exchanges of attacks between the United States and Iran. In Iraq and Lebanon, where the highest alert of Level 4, wh...
Japan’s plan to develop tactical satellites equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) would boost its long-range offensive strike capabilities and pose a serious threat, Chinese state media has warned. The Japanese Nikkei newspaper reported last week that the planned AI-equipped satellites would be capable of analysing surveillance intelligence in space. The aim is to speed up targeting decisions and strengthen the country’s “counterstrike capability”, such as missile guidance. According to the...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, the Japan Innovation Party, have no need to revise their coalition agreement reached in October last year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Thursday. Noting that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's term as LDP president was two years when the agreement was signed, Kihara said, "We set out in the agr...
Tokyo, Sept. 10 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government said Thursday that it has demanded a correction to an Equal Earth world map on a website, claiming that the map uses the same color for Russian territory and the four islands disputed between Japan and Russia. The correction demand was made to the operator of the website showing the map via the Japanese Embassy in the United States, acco...