Tokyo, 3 January, /AJMEDIA/
Japan logs 554 daily COVID-19 cases, new high since Omicron spread
TOKYO, Jan. 2 Kyodo – Japan confirmed 554 daily coronavirus cases Sunday, a new high since the Omicron variant was first detected in late November, amid a steady increase of infections involving the highly transmissible strain in the midst of the country’s New Year holidays.
The figure was up from 534 reported the previous day, with the cumulative total of Omicron infections rising to 695 as of 9 p.m. Saturday from 637 a day earlier, according to a Kyodo News tally and data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
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World’s oldest person in Japan celebrates 119th birthday
TOKYO – The world’s oldest person Kane Tanaka, who was born a year before the Russo-Japanese War began, celebrated her 119th birthday in southwestern Japan on Sunday.
Tanaka, born on Jan. 2, 1903, in Fukuoka Prefecture, has lived through Japan’s Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Heisei and current Reiwa eras, and is hoping to live until 120 as an immediate goal, according to family members. Notable people born in 1903 include British novelist George Orwell, film director Yasujiro Ozu and Japanese poet Misuzu Kaneko.
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Chi Myong Gwan, who informed world of oppression in South Korea, dies
SEOUL, Jan. 2 Kyodo – Chi Myong Gwan, a scholar who exposed the oppression suffered by South Korea’s pro-democracy movement in the 1970s and 1980s through his writings in a Japanese magazine, died of a stroke at a hospital near Seoul on Saturday, his family said. He was 97.
While living in Japan, Chi penned a series of pieces for the Sekai (The World) monthly between 1973 and 1988 under the pseudonym “T.K Sei,” using materials brought out of South Korea by Christians to inform the world of human rights abuses under military dictatorships and of the pro-democracy movement challenging them.
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Ratings for NHK’s year-end “Kohaku” music show hit record low
TOKYO – Viewer ratings for national broadcaster NHK’s “Kohaku” live music show on New Year’s Eve fell to a record low of 34.3 percent, a TV viewership research firm said Sunday.
Once a colossally popular year-end event among the Japanese public after NHK began airing it in the 1950s, the ratings are the lowest since Video Research Ltd. began tracking the show’s viewership in 1962.
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Football: 54-year-old Kazuyoshi Miura closing in on move to 4th-tier Suzuka
TOKYO – Kazuyoshi Miura, the oldest active player in Japanese professional soccer at 54, on Sunday confirmed reports that he will join a fourth-tier club managed by his older brother in his 37th professional season.
“We have almost 100 percent agreed (on a contract). I think what the media have said will happen,” Miura told reporters in Shizuoka, where he took part in a New Year’s event for a local club with his brother Yasutoshi.
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FOCUS: Mental health issues show women bear brunt of Japan monarchy system
TOKYO – The diagnosis of former princess Mako’s post-traumatic stress disorder prior to her controversial marriage in October has once again highlighted the intense pressure that women in the Japanese imperial family face, with some other members also plagued by mental health issues.
The former princess, 30, who is a niece of Emperor Naruhito, came under massive public scrutiny after it became known that the family of her commoner husband Kei Komuro was involved in a financial dispute.
