Tokyo, 21 June, /AJMEDIA/
South Korea to set up body on wartime labor during Japan’s rule: report
SEOUL – The South Korean government will set up a public-private body to resolve the issue of compensation for forced wartime labor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, a local media report said Monday.
The body made up of government officials and experts will be established as early as the end of this month to prevent the liquidation of Japanese corporate assets that plaintiffs in forced labor lawsuits have seized, according to the Seoul Shinmun report.
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3 more Japan airports to resume accepting int’l flights in July: PM
TOKYO – Three more regional airports in Japan will reopen for international flights in July as the nation further eases COVID-19 border controls, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday.
The addition of Sendai, Hiroshima and Takamatsu airports comes after the government decided on the resumption of international flights at Naha and New Chitose — gateways to popular tourist spots in Okinawa and Hokkaido — by the end of June.
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Japan says China set up gas drilling facility in contested sea area
TOKYO – China has set up a new drilling facility for gas fields in a contested area of the East China Sea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Monday, despite Tokyo’s repeated calls on Beijing to halt its unilateral resource development program there.
The facility is located on the Chinese side of a Tokyo-proposed median line separating the countries’ exclusive economic zones in the sea, the ministry said, adding it has lodged a protest with the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.
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Another M5-level quake jolts central Japan, agency warns of more
TOKYO – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 struck Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, on Monday, the second strong quake to jolt the region in as many days, the weather agency said, while warning the next week may see more of a similar intensity.
No tsunami warning was issued following Monday’s quake that occurred at 10:31 a.m. and registered upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Suzu, at the tip of the Noto Peninsula in the Sea of Japan coast prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The focus was at a depth of around 14 kilometers.
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Japan court rules banning same-sex marriage not unconstitutional
OSAKA – A Japanese court dismissed Monday a damages lawsuit claiming the government’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, in contrast to a historic ruling last year that recognized it as violating the right to equality.
In the suit at the Osaka District Court, three same-sex couples sought 1 million yen ($7,400) per person, arguing that the current system preventing them from getting married is “unjust discrimination.”
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LDP No. 2 says to push for Japan Constitution reforms after election
TOKYO – The No. 2 man in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Monday he aims to see the parliament initiate the process of constitutional reforms after the July 10 House of Councillors election.
“After the election, we want to as quickly as we can propose to the Diet constitutional revisions and have the proposed changes initiated,” Toshimitsu Motegi, the LDP’s secretary general, told media outlets including Kyodo News in an interview.
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Survivor conveys inhumanity of A-bomb ahead of 1st nuke ban meeting
VIENNA – A survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing in Nagasaki on Monday appealed for the understanding of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons at an international conference in Vienna, ahead of the first meeting under a U.N. treaty to ban such arms.
“The atomic bomb is a weapon of inhumanity and of absolute evil, with which human beings cannot exist and which does not allow us to even live or die as human beings,” said Sueichi Kido, 82, after describing the moment the bomb fell above the Japanese city at the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.
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French-Lebanese film wins top award at Asia short film festival
TOKYO – A French-Lebanese film depicting the secret passion of a migrant worker in Beirut won the top prize Monday for one of Asia’s largest short film festivals.
“Warsha” by Lebanese-Canadian director Dania Bdeir received the George Lucas Award, also known as the Grand Prix award, at this year’s Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, which concluded its two-week run of screenings at venues across Tokyo.
