Tokyo, 5 April, /AJMEDIA
Japan’s Hayashi to take 20 Ukraine evacuees to Japan from Poland
WARSAW – Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said in Poland on Monday he will take 20 Ukrainian evacuees to Japan on a government plane when leaving the Eastern European country later in the day.
“We have decided that 20 evacuees, who are wishing to travel to Japan but unable to secure means of transportation on their own, will get on a backup government plane when I return to Japan,” Hayashi told reporters before leaving the capital Warsaw.
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Global warming to eclipse 1.5 C mark unless emissions plateau by 2025
TOKYO – A U.N. climate panel warned Monday that greenhouse gas emissions must reach a peak by 2025 and head downward from there for the world to achieve a goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which provides governments with scientific information so they can come up with effective climate solutions, pointed out in the latest report by its working group that the current pace of emissions reduction is not enough.
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Japan team proves iPS-based cornea transplant safe in world-1st trial
OSAKA – A Japanese university research team said Monday it has concluded that the world’s first clinical trial, spanning over years, transplanting corneal tissues derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, into four almost-blind patients was safe and effective.
None of the patients experienced rejection or tumorigenicity of the transplanted cells and all saw improvements in their symptoms, according to the team at Osaka University led by professor Koji Nishida.
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Japan defense chief looks to boost defense capabilities “drastically”
TOKYO – Japan’s defense minister said Monday his ministry will consider requesting a larger budget for the next fiscal year to strengthen defense capabilities “drastically” to deal with China’s intensifying military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and North Korea’s renewed missile and nuclear threats.
Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said in an interview with Kyodo News that the ministry will go ahead with discussions on a controversial plan that would allow Japan, which has long held an exclusively defense-oriented policy under its war-renouncing Constitution, to acquire so-called enemy base strike capabilities.
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Biden calls Putin war criminal amid mass civilian deaths near Kyiv
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday doubled down on his assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and insisted on further sanctions against Moscow, following reports of mass civilian deaths in a Ukrainian town that was under attack by Russian troops.
“You saw what happened in Bucha,” Biden told reporters at the White House, referring to the town near Kyiv where bodies are seen scattered in the streets in footage and images that have emerged after the withdrawal of Russian forces. “This warrants (the label) — he is a war criminal.”
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Japan’s Feb. household spending rises 1.1% on year
TOKYO – Japan’s household spending rose a real 1.1 percent in February from a year earlier for the second straight month of increase, the government said Tuesday.
Average spending by households with two or more people was 257,887 yen ($2,100), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
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Shanghai to remain under lockdown following mass COVID-19 testing
SHANGHAI – Shanghai will remain under lockdown as it needs to analyze results of mass testing for the coronavirus conducted Monday, local authorities said, amid a rapid acceleration of infections.
China has sent about 2,000 military medical staff and thousands of additional health care workers to Shanghai, official media said, as the number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed in the country’s most important financial center hit a record high for the third straight day.
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U.S. seeks to work with S. Korea on a “decisive response” to N. Korea
WASHINGTON – The United States and South Korea must work together to come up with a “decisive response” to North Korea’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch and other provocative weapons tests, U.S. special envoy to North Korea Sung Kim said Monday following a meeting with his South Korean counterpart.
The meeting between Kim and Noh Kyu Duk, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, took place in Washington after North Korea test-fired an ICBM on March 24, the first such launch since November 2017.
