Japan

The government of Japan announced on Friday, July 22, that a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was killed in a recent assassination, will be held on September 27. Attendance is expected from world leaders. The event will take place at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, which is a vast facility that has hosted concerts as well …

Yuzuru Hanyu, a two-time Winter Olympic champion, announced on Tuesday that he would quit competitive figure skating and become pro. At a news conference held in a Tokyo hotel, Hanyu, 27, declared with a smile, “I will continue my career as a professional athlete.” At the press conference headlined “Decision announcement,” Hanyu was dressed in a suit. In his opening …

The suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month has had his imprisonment extended by a Japanese court for an additional ten days, pending the filing of official charges. The assassination of Japan’s most influential leader, Abe, in the western city of Nara on July 8 shocked a nation famed for rigorous gun control and …

JAPAN — On Thursday, at least 30 endangered green sea turtles were found with wounds around their necks in the vicinity of the remote island of Kumejima, which is located in the Okinawa prefecture of Japan. These turtles were found in the southernmost part of the prefecture. According to a police officer from the Naha Police Station in Okinawa, the …

JAPAN: World Athletics has declared that Tokyo will host the 2025 World Athletics Championships, beating out Singapore, Nairobi, and Silesia (Jul 14). Last year’s Olympic Games will be returning to their original location for this year’s JAAF centennial celebration. The 2023 World Athletics Championships will be held in Budapest, according to World Athletics. WADA president Sebastian Coe remarked after the …

JAPAN: As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Japan, Prime Minister Lee has written to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to congratulate him on the LDP’s success. Two days after the killing of a senior LDP member and former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s conservative coalition government extended its majority in the upper house of …

CHINA: A record quarterly profit from Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing pushed the company’s share price to its highest level this year in Tokyo trade on Friday. One-day gains of 8.5% were the most since April 15, and it was expected to conclude at its best level since November 2021. China, Fast Retailing’s most important international market, had severe losses in …

JAPAN: Coronavirus cases appear to be spreading swiftly across Japan, prompting the country’s health ministry to issue a public health alert and urge residents to exercise extra caution ahead of the forthcoming long weekend and upcoming summer school breaks. Japan’s new COVID-19 cases have climbed to levels not seen since early this year, with Tokyo reporting 16,878 new cases on …

JAPAN: There are many Japanese farmers who begin to worry about Typhoon Season months in advance, haunted by recollections of the tremendous rains and landslides that devastated wasabi farms during one of these storms. “Due to global warming, typhoons are now more powerful than ever before. It’s becoming stronger,” said an elderly farmer in Okutama, a suburb west of Tokyo, …

JAPAN: He planned the murder of Shinzo Abe for months, believing the former Japanese leader was linked to a religious sect he blamed for his mother’s financial devastation, authorities said on Saturday (Jul 9). Tatsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old man who shot and wounded Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, was identified by police as the gunman. The crime was caught on tape …