AJMEDIA News Digest: Jan. 21, 2023

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Japan astronaut applicants take final exam on mock lunar surface TOKYO – Aspiring Japanese astronauts have taken their final exams on a mock lunar surface at… Read more

Japan PM Kishida vows to downgrade COVID-19 categorization in spring

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Friday to downgrade the legal status of COVID-19 this spring to a Class 5 disease, the same level as seasonal… Read more

Japanese finance minister cautions against changes to debt redemption rule

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki cautioned against making any change to the government’s debt redemption rule as it helps the government maintain fiscal discipline. Suzuki made… Read more

Japan astronaut applicants take final exam on mock lunar surface

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Aspiring Japanese astronauts have taken their final exams on a mock lunar surface at a training facility near Tokyo, with the successful candidates to be revealed… Read more

Japan reports inflation hit 4%; 41-year high in December

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Japan’s consumer inflation rate hit a 41-year high of 4% in December, as prices for everything from burgers to gas surged. That rate is still relatively… Read more

Japan convenience store sales rise 3.7% to all-time high in 2022

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Convenience store sales in Japan rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier to a record 11.2 trillion yen in 2022, helped by the first increase in… Read more

Chris Hipkins to be New Zealand’s next prime minister

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Education Minister Chris Hipkins is set to become New Zealand’s next prime minister after he was the only candidate to enter the contest Saturday to replace… Read more

Ramstein summit fails to agree on Leopard tanks deal for Ukraine

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ The United States and its allies failed during talks in Germany to convince Berlin to provide its Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine, a key demand from… Read more

UK leader Sunak fined for failing to wear seat belt

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was fined by police on Friday for taking off his seat belt to film a social media video in a moving… Read more

Two more trucks of Russian peacekeepers drive freely along Azerbaijan’s Lachin-Khankendi road

Tokyo, 21 January, /AJMEDIA/ Two more trucks of Russian peacekeepers have once again driven along the Lachin-Khankendi road, passing near Shusha, without any incidents, AJMEDIA reports from the scene. The… Read more