Tokyo, 12 August, /AJMEDIA/
Xi let missiles fall in Japan EEZ during Taiwan drills: sources
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping decided himself to let ballistic missiles launched by the military during recent large-scale drills near Taiwan fall in Japan’s exclusive economic zone to deter Tokyo’s interference in any cross-strait contingency, according to sources close to the matter.
Xi, who heads the Central Military Commission, the highest decision-making organ of the country’s armed forces, ditched a plan to avoid conducting exercises last week in waters overlapping Japan’s EEZ to make the training in six areas encircling Taiwan more combat-oriented, the sources said.
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85% say politicians must cut ties with Unification Church: Kyodo poll
TOKYO – Nearly 85 percent of respondents said politicians must cut ties with the controversial Unification Church and any affiliated group, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday, as the fallout from the killing of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over his alleged links to the organization continues to reverberate.
The survey found the approval rating for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s new Cabinet rose only slightly to 54.1 percent, following a reshuffling on Wednesday aimed at reviving sagging public support amid intense scrutiny over his ruling party’s links with the church.
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Japan, WHO agree to create new entity for global health care
TOKYO – Japan has agreed with the World Health Organization to establish a new organization that will focus on strengthening health care systems in developing countries, Foreign Ministry sources said Thursday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed on setting up the entity in Japan during phone talks in May, with its launch likely to be timed around the summit meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Hiroshima, western Japan, according to the sources.
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42% of major firms see Japan economy slowing down on rising prices
TOKYO – Around 42 percent of major companies in Japan expect the country’s economy to slow down over the next 12 months, up from just 5 percent one year ago, as they struggle to cope with surging commodity costs and the yen’s weakness, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday.
The survey of 114 companies, including Toyota Motor Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp., found that Japanese blue chips are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the country’s economic outlook, up from 12 percent at the beginning of the year.
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Visiting deputy minister says Lithuania, Taiwan “good friends”
TAIPEI/BEIJING – Lithuanian deputy transport minister Agne Vaiciukeviciute said Thursday in Taipei that her Baltic country and Taiwan are “good friends” and indicated that it intends to further intensify economic exchanges with the self-ruled island.
Vaiciukeviciute was on a five-day visit from Sunday as head of a Lithuanian delegation, and the move has angered China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province awaiting reunification with the mainland, by force if necessary.
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Japan’s summer holidays in full swing with lack of COVID restrictions
TOKYO – Japan’s summer holiday season started in full swing on Thursday, with reservations for domestic trains and flights leaving Tokyo reaching a peak as travelers took advantage of a lack of coronavirus restrictions for the first time in three years.
While more people headed abroad for their break, numbers are nevertheless far below the pre-COVID-19 era as new cases across the country remain elevated, hitting record highs in recent weeks.
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North Korea declares anti-COVID fight victory, Kim may have caught virus
BEIJING – Leader Kim Jong Un has declared victory in North Korea’s fight against the coronavirus and ordered an easing of “maximum emergency” measures imposed in May, official media reported Thursday, with his sister suggesting he may have caught the virus himself.
Kim made the announcement at a meeting with health officials and scientists on Wednesday, praising their contributions to “successfully defusing the serious epidemic spread crisis” and defending the country’s “social system which is the best in the world,” according to the Korean Central News Agency.
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FEATURE: Full-size Shibuya scramble replica making the impossible possible
ASHIKAGA, Japan – Those wondering how the Netflix sci-fi thriller “Alice in Borderland” was able to completely empty of life one of the world’s busiest pedestrian crossings will find their answer around 90 kilometers from the real thing, in quiet Tochigi Prefecture suburbia.
Ashikaga Scramble City Studio, built in 2019 by Tokyo-based visual arts company Nouvelle Vague Co., is a roughly 6,600-square meter open set that replicates the famous Shibuya scramble intersection in true-to-life size.
