Tokyo, 11 December, /AJMEDIA/
Japan enacts law to help victims of religious donations
TOKYO – Japan’s parliament on Saturday enacted a law to ban organizations from maliciously soliciting donations following criticism over the fundraising practices of the Unification Church and public anger over decades of close ties between ruling party lawmakers and the religious group.
Aiming to prevent the creation of new victims of controversial religious groups, the House of Councillors, or upper house, passed the bill with the support of the ruling bloc and most of the opposition parties on the final day of the 69-day extraordinary parliamentary session.
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Japan PM negative about gov’t bonds to finance defense spending hike
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday dismissed the idea of issuing government bonds to realize a substantial increase in defense spending in the coming years, adding he will seek public support for his plan to rely instead on tax increases.
The tax hike plan has already met opposition even from Kishida’s party lawmakers, although he wants the ruling coalition to work out its details before the end of the year, which coincides with a review of key security and defense documents.
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Figure skating: Japan’s Uno wins 1st Grand Prix final
TURIN, Italy – Shoma Uno won his first men’s championship at ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final on Saturday, continuing a stellar weekend for Japanese skaters.
Uno, the reigning world champion, entered Saturday’s free skate with a 5.13-point margin over compatriot Sota Yamamoto after Friday’s short program, but a personal best 204.47 in the free skate saw Uno win handily with a 304.46 total at the Palavela in Turin.
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U.S. asks Japan to help curb China’s bid to develop high-end chips
TOKYO – The United States has directly asked the Japanese government for cooperation in stymieing China’s efforts to develop high-end semiconductors, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
The request, noting that the countries are allies sharing strategies against China, was made by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo during her phone conversation with Japanese industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Friday, according to the sources.
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Japan’s ruling LDP bigwig, Tsai agree on Taiwan Strait stability
TAIPEI – The policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen agreed Saturday for Tokyo and Taipei to further work together to ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait amid China’s military pressure.
Japan and Taiwan “share the same sense of crisis” on the cross-strait situation, and the two sides “affirmed to do what we can on our end,” Koichi Hagiuda told reporters after their talks. The last visit to Taiwan by one of the top three LDP officials was in 2003.
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Football: Kaz Miura feeling positive about potential move to Oliveirense
TOKYO – Kazuyoshi Miura was upbeat about his potential move to Portuguese second-division outfit Oliveirense on his return to Japan on Saturday after a visit to the club.
The 55-year-old, Japanese football’s oldest active player, has been linked with a move that would see him play in his fifth country overseas after Brazil, Italy, Croatia and Australia in his 38th pro season.
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Japan OKs changes to system for recognizing paternity after divorce
TOKYO – Japan’s parliament enacted Saturday legal changes that would allow the new husband of a remarried woman to assume paternity of children born within 300 days of divorce from her previous partner.
The first change to the century-old Civil Code provisions regarding paternity and marriage aims to address the issue of divorced women leaving their children off family registers to avoid former husbands being recognized as fathers, leading to difficulties in the children accessing health and other services.
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Kishida, Obama call for nuke-free world at Hiroshima int’l meeting
HIROSHIMA – Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and former U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday called for a world without nuclear arms amid Russian threats to use them in the war in Ukraine and North Korea’s rapid development of its weapons programs.
They made the call in separate messages sent to the inaugural meeting of a nuclear disarmament forum in Hiroshima, which was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb dropped in the closing stages of World War II.
