Tokyo, 30 April, /AJMEDIA/
Kishida says no plan to dissolve Diet after defeat in by-elections
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that he has no intention of dissolving parliament, two days after his Liberal Democratic Party lost three seats in House of Representatives by-elections with a slush funds scandal eroding the LDP’s popularity.
Kishida told reporters that the LDP and the government will “concentrate on achieving results by tackling several issues” such as political funds reform and that he has “no plan at all” to dissolve the lower house for a snap election.
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Japan job availability down to 1.29 in FY 2023, 1st fall in 3 yrs
TOKYO – Japan’s job availability ratio for fiscal 2023 fell 0.02 point to 1.29 from the previous year, marking its first decline in three years, government data showed Tuesday.
For March, the job availability ratio was up 0.02 point from February to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, figures from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed.
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Renowned Japanese wedding dress designer Yumi Katsura dies at 94
TOKYO – Yumi Katsura, a bridal fashion designer known for popularizing Western-style wedding dresses in Japan, died Friday, her company said. She was 94.
Katsura, whose real name was Yumi Yuki, studied haute couture in Paris before teaching at a dressmaking school run by her mother. She began working as Japan’s first bridal fashion designer in 1964.
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Football: Japan seal Paris Olympics berth with 2-0 win over Iraq
DOHA – Japan booked a Paris Olympics berth in men’s football after securing a top-three finish at the U-23 Asian Cup with a dominant 2-0 semifinal win over Iraq on Monday.
Well-taken first-half goals from Mao Hosoya and Ryotaro Araki, both set up by captain Joel Chima Fujita, sealed the deal at Doha’s Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium as the Samurai Blue qualified for their eighth straight Olympics and 12th overall.
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Dollar rises to upper 156 yen zone amid wariness over intervention
TOKYO – The U.S. dollar rose to the upper 156 yen range Tuesday morning in cautious Tokyo trading, a day after Japanese authorities were suspected to have stepped in to push the Japanese currency sharply higher after its drop to a new 34-year low.
The dollar extended gains toward the 157 yen line as expectations the U.S.-Japan interest rate gap will remain wide for the foreseeable future more than offset fears of intervention, dealers said.
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Japan industrial output falls for 2nd year in row on weak chip demand
TOKYO – Japan’s industrial output fell 2.0 percent in fiscal 2023 from the previous year for the second straight year of contraction, as demand for semiconductors and chip manufacturing equipment weakened in China and other Asian countries, government data showed Tuesday.
The index of production at factories and mines in the year ended March stood at 102.8 against the 2020 base of 100, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report. The latest drop followed a 0.3 percent decline in fiscal 2022.
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With or without official word on intervention, weak yen may persist
TOKYO – The yen’s sudden surge against the U.S. dollar, suspected by financial markets to be the result of fresh intervention by Japanese authorities, will likely keep currency traders jittery and ensure they have second thoughts about aggressively selling the Japanese currency, at least for now.
While there was no official word from Japanese officials that the government did intervene after the yen slipped past a new 34-year-low in the 160 level on Monday, its quick return to the 154 zone reminded market players that Japanese authorities, who had previously only threatened to act, can indeed respond if needed, analysts said.
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Indonesian volcano erupts, Japan says no impact of tsunami
TOKYO – The Japanese weather agency said Tuesday that a volcanic eruption was observed on the Indonesian island of Ruang but that no tsunami waves would impact the Japanese archipelago.
The eruption occurred at around 4 a.m. Tuesday, Japan time, with the agency warning earlier that if any tsunami waves were generated they would reach its southern island prefecture of Okinawa around 6 a.m.
