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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...
Washington, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--The leaders of the Quad, a collaborative framework among Japan, the United States, Australia and India, are expected to meet in Manila next month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with Indian media on Tuesday. The summit will be held on the sidelines of meetings related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Rubio told the me...
Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government has announced a plan to provide Malaysia's navy with a counterdrone system under its official security assistance framework to provide defense equipment free of charge to like-minded countries. Under the plan, announced Tuesday, the government will spend 1,650 million yen on the system, marking its third provision of OSA to Malaysia. F...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Leading-edge Semiconductor Technology Center, or LSTC, whose members include chipmaker Rapidus Corp., and other entities said Tuesday that they will jointly develop an artificial intelligence-based medical image-processing system. The project members, also including Hokkaido University and Fujifilm Corp., aim to realize real-time image processing required...
Japan says it has spotted PLA aircraft, spy drones and warships, including a supply ship that could support the Liaoning aircraft carrier, in recent days as Tokyo and Washington started drills focused on a potential Taiwan contingency. Three People’s Liberation Army military aircraft – two drones and a reconnaissance plane – flew through international airspace between Japanese islands into the Pacific before heading back towards mainland China on Monday, prompting Japan to scramble fighter jets,...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japan's education ministry on Tuesday urged the University of Tokyo to review whether the selection process for its next president was appropriate, in response to doubts raised both within and outside the school. This marked the first time the ministry has requested a university to verify the new president selection process. Tetsuo Goda, director-general of t...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--A Chinese artificial intelligence tool called Artex is likely to have been used in cyberattacks targeting Japanese companies, an investigation by a Japanese cybersecurity business has found. GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae Inc., a subsidiary of GMO Internet Group Inc., traced cyberattacks targeting Japanese companies to six servers, all of which used Artex, an AI-pow...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--The personnel commissions of Japan's 47 prefectures have recommended higher monthly salaries and bonuses for prefectural government employees for fiscal 2026, a survey showed Tuesday. It marked the fifth consecutive year that all prefectural commissions have made such recommendations. If the hikes are implemented as recommended, the average annual salary will...
Anna Edwards, Guy Johnson, and Paul Dobson break down today's key themes for analysts and investors on "Bloomberg: The Opening Trade." (Source: Bloomberg)
A Chinese student who draped himself in the Japanese rising sun flag in a Russian university classroom has been expelled and asked to leave the country, according to state-run newspaper Global Times. The flag was used by the Japanese military during its imperial expansion and is still used by Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force. It remains a symbol of Japanese militarism and aggression in China and other parts of Asia. Moscow State University made the decision after the student was criticised by...
Tsu, Mie Pref., Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Tsu District Court on Tuesday sentenced a former truck driver to seven years in prison for an expressway crash that killed six people, including three children, in Mie Prefecture, western Japan, in March. The seven-year sentence for Mitsuyo Mizutani, 55, came as requested by the prosecution. According to the ruling, Mizutani was driving a truck at ab...
Japanese investors’ purchases of domestic government bonds climbed to the highest in 17 years in the fiscal first half, a move that some analysts said reflected an attempt by pension funds to rebalance their portfolios.
The arrest of a Japanese journalist in Russia has finally woken Tokyo up to the fact that Moscow is playing hardball in their diplomatic relationship, and the country’s apparent unwillingness to push back with commensurate force could encourage the Kremlin to test its neighbour’s resolve, analysts say. Japan lodged an official protest with the Russian ambassador in Tokyo on Wednesday, a day after Moscow announced the arrest of Yuki Imai from the Hokkaido Shimbun Press on suspicion of espionage....
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Empress Emerita Michiko turned 92 on Tuesday, enjoying a peaceful life with her husband, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, also 92. Her advanced age has caused a decline in her physical strength and made her get tired more frequently than before, which has led her to go on shorter walks. Still, there is no major change in the Empress Emerita's overall health co...
Tokyo, Oct. 19 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, plans to develop a new medium-term vision in light of an accelerating decline in the country's population and the spread of artificial intelligence, its chairman, Yoshinobu Tsutsui, said Monday. "Looking ahead to 2050, we will draw up a vision for the economy and society that we should aim for," he said at a symposium...
Tokyo, Oct. 19 (Jiji Press)--An expert panel of Japan's National Police Agency held its first meeting Monday for discussions on requiring stalkers to wear GPS devices to prevent them from getting near their targets. The panel, made up of lawyers, university professors and family members of stalking victims, will also consider requiring perpetrators to get counseling or visit medical institu...
Rio Times · Asia Intelligence Brief October 19, 2026 — China reports 4.5% Q3 growth and a US$28 billion green-tech export surge; Japan begins Keen Sword drills and PM Takaichi sends Yasukuni offering; Indonesian stocks fall over 5% as haze crisis and MSCI warning converge. The post Asia Intelligence Brief — Monday, October 19, 2026 appeared first on The Rio Times.
A deputy mayor in western Japan died after being crushed under a giant float during a local parade, officials said on Monday, a week after two others were reportedly killed at separate traditional festivals. Akihiro Nabae, deputy mayor of the city of Saijo in the Ehime region, was carrying a giant float with other participants on Saturday before becoming trapped beneath it, city and police officials said. He was taken to hospital and later pronounced dead, local media said. The exact...
Tokyo, Oct. 19 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government on Monday warned against any move to deny preferential treatment being considered for European vehicles in the European Union to Japanese vehicles. The European Union "should treat products made in Japan on an equal footing with those made in the EU," Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said at a press conference. Germany and France ...
Nagoya, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)--The opening ceremony of the first Japan-hosted Asian Para Games took place at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on Sunday, officially marking the start of the 2026 Games. About 3,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions are scheduled to participate. The Japanese delegation has entered about 280 athletes. At th...
Tokyo, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)--The first de facto replacement of a cabinet minister since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office a year ago has exposed the weaknesses of her grip on power. Information crucial to Takaichi's decision on whether to replace embattled former agriculture minister Kazuo Yana did not reach her. This included an allegation that Yana's camp provided free...
China strongly condemned what it called Japan’s “negative moves” concerning the Yasukuni Shrine, saying the actions were a provocation against the postwar international order, according to a Saturday statement from the Chinese Embassy in Japan.
Kurayoshi, Tottori Pref., Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Princess Aiko attended a national conference on disaster management in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, on Saturday. The princess, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, listened intently to presentations by five speakers, including a local female firefighter and a female university student who uses picture...
Japan has long established itself as a pioneer of mediation in Southeast Asia. In 1990, for example, its officials helped broker talks between Cambodia’s warring factions, supplementing international efforts to end conflict in the country. Now, Tokyo is seeking to upgrade its diplomatic toolkit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ International Peace Mediation Unit was set up in March, followed by the launch of the Parliamentary Association for Peace Mediation in May. Around the same time, the...
Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin crew reported bearing the brunt of passengers’ anger over such matters in the past year, according to the survey by the Japan Federation of Aviation Industry Unions released last month, rising from 7 per cent in its previous survey in 2023. In...
Tokyo, Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)--Speculation is growing that Russia will seek a prisoner exchange following the recent detention of a Japanese journalist for alleged spying in Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. Some believe that the detention of the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter is linked to the handover to Germany this month of a Russian hacker detained in Japan in May. Germany had asked Japan t...
Japan is increasingly turning to foreign companies to accelerate its military modernisation, drawing on overseas technology, expertise and production capacity to plug defence gaps that could prove critical in a potential regional conflict involving China. The push has gathered momentum over the past week, with Tokyo confirming a contract for Ukrainian interceptor drones and a multinational fighter consortium preparing to expand its design operations in Japan. French defence giant Thales is also...
Tokyo, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--More Japanese companies on Friday made announcements regarding customer data breaches due to cyberattacks. Yamato Transport Co. said that 5.31 million sets of personal information belonging to some users of its deferred payment service were compromised in a breach that the logistics firm had first announced on Sept. 29. The affected personal information, incl...