Tokyo, 18 December, /AJMEDIA/
24 killed after fire at Osaka mental clinic, arson suspected
OSAKA – Twenty-four people were killed Friday after a fire raced through a mental clinic in an eight-story multiple tenant building in a bustling area of Osaka, with murder and arson suspected, police said.
The fire department in the biggest city in western Japan said a total of 28 people were injured, adding it received a report at 10:18 a.m. that a fire had started on the fourth floor of the building, which had no fire sprinklers.
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Japan moves up COVID boosters for 31 mil. health workers, seniors
TOKYO – Japan will move up the interval for administering COVID-19 booster shots for about 31 million health care workers and senior citizens by one to two months, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday, as the country ramps up efforts to curb the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
As part of a three-pillar policy to deal with the Omicron variant through vaccination, testing and early treatment, Japan will shorten the interval for boosters to six months for health care workers and others including the elderly in nursing homes who are at high risk of infection, Kishida said.
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Japan’s Iizuka, ex-head of N. Korea abductee kin group, dies at 83
TOKYO – Shigeo Iizuka, who served for 14 years as the head of a group representing families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, died early Saturday morning. He was 83.
Due to poor health, Iizuka stepped down from the post last week, transferring leadership to Takuya Yokota, the younger brother of abductee Megumi Yokota who is known as a symbolic figure among those taken by North Korea.
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Man infected with Omicron variant visited soccer stadium near Tokyo
TOKYO – A man in his 20s was confirmed infected with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus Friday, the Tokyo metropolitan government said, adding he had visited a stadium near the capital to watch a soccer game, amid concern over the spread of potential untraceable cases of the highly transmissible strain.
The man, who lives in the capital and has been hospitalized since Wednesday, is an acquaintance of a woman who was found infected with the variant after returning from the United States on Dec. 8. After meeting with the woman, the man visited Todoroki Stadium in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sunday to watch an Emperor’s Cup football semifinal match.
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Japan’s women secure Beijing Olympics curling berth
LEEUWARDEN, Netherlands – Japan secured a spot in the Beijing Olympics’ women’s curling tournament, when Loco Solare beat South Korea’s team 8-5 in Friday’s playoffs at the Olympic qualification event.
The win by Japan’s Pyeongchang Olympic bronze medalists over the silver medal-winning South Korean team earned Japan a berth at the seventh straight Winter Olympics since the first women’s tournament took place at the 1998 Nagano Games.
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BOJ trims COVID-19 funding aid but no policy normalization in sight
TOKYO – The Bank of Japan on Friday decided to trim its COVID-19 funding support for big firms as their financing conditions have improved but was in no hurry to move toward policy normalization without accelerating inflation, in contrast to its U.S. and European peers.
With the discovery and spread of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus adding a layer of uncertainty over its economic impact, the BOJ decided at a two-day policy meeting to keep its ultraloose monetary easing steps unchanged.
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Australian parliamentary inquiry upholds AUKUS information agreement
SYDNEY – An Australian parliamentary inquiry concluded in a report released Friday that an information-sharing agreement between Australia, the United States and Britain under their AUKUS security partnership does not breach Canberra’s nuclear nonproliferation commitments.
The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties explained that the agreement, the first embodiment of the security partnership under which Australia looks to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, is limited to information sharing, saying the committee has recommended that the government ratify it.
