Tokyo, 6 December, /AJMEDIA/
Football: Japan’s World Cup ends in loss to Croatia on penalties
AL WAKRAH, Qatar – Croatia broke Japanese hearts with a 3-1 win on penalties following a 1-1 deadlock at the end of extra time in the World Cup round of 16 on Monday, ending the Samurai Blue’s bid to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time.
Saved penalties from Takumi Minamino and Kaoru Mitoma put Japan in a hole to start the shootout, with a further futile attempt by captain Maya Yoshida sinking their hopes of advancing.
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Japan’s Oct. household spending up 1.2% on recovering tourism
Japan’s household spending in October increased a real 1.2 percent from a year earlier, rising for the fifth consecutive month, as people spent more on trips after the government lifted coronavirus restrictions and introduced a subsidy program to revive domestic tourism, government data showed Tuesday.
Average spending by households of two or more people stood at 298,006 yen ($2,100), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. Outlays on entertainment, hotel stays and package tours grew 8.0 percent, rising for the seventh straight month, following the launch of the program in October.
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China holds memorial service for former leader Jiang Zemin
BEIJING – China held a memorial service Tuesday for Jiang Zemin, a former president who died last week at the age of 96, with the general public instructed to watch a live broadcast of the ceremony to pay tribute to the former Communist Party chief.
Senior party members, as well as government and military officials, were among the participants of the memorial, held at the Great Hall of the People. Jiang is credited for guiding China’s rapid rise to major-power status as party leader between 1989 and 2002.
Record 34% of Japan gov’t workers took paternity leave in FY 2021
TOKYO – A record 34 percent of male central government workers in Japan took paternity leave in fiscal 2021, the minister in charge of civil service reform said Tuesday.
The figure, up five percentage points from the previous fiscal year, surpassed the government’s target of raising the ratio of men taking such leave to 30 percent by 2025, Taro Kono said at a press conference.
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Japan astronaut delayed reporting 2018 research error
TOKYO – The astronaut who led a Japan space agency team implicated in data tampering prioritized continuing to conduct research over reporting a mistake immediately to the organization’s ethics committee in 2018, according to a source connected to the experiment.
Satoshi Furukawa, the third Japanese person to have completed a long-term mission in space, was responsible for the experiment that ran from 2016 to 2017 and simulated life on the International Space Station. Late last month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency publicly revealed tampering had occurred.
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Japan eyes around 43 tril. yen defense spending for next 5 years
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aims to boost the country’s defense budget to about 43 trillion yen ($318 billion) from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2027, an over 50 percent increase from its current five-year spending plan, ministers said Monday.
The figure is up from around 27.47 trillion yen that Japan had originally planned for five years through the fiscal year from April 2023, in view of the deteriorating regional security environment amid mounting security threats from China and North Korea.
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Football: Japan hold head high after extraordinary World Cup
AL WAKRAH, Qatar – Japan’s memorable World Cup campaign ended with an agonizing penalty shootout loss to Croatia in the round of 16 on Monday, leaving the Samurai Blue manager and players crestfallen at missing their chance to rewrite history.
But while they may continue to feel the regret of narrowly missing a maiden quarterfinal berth, they believe the tournament will serve as a benchmark and encourage future generations.
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FEATURE: Families of South Korean abductees to North still wait in sorrow
SEOUL – Kim Tae Ok, a 90-year-old resident of Anyang, a northwestern city in South Korea, feels anger whenever she sees news about North Korea on the television after her son’s sudden abduction by its regime one day in 1977.
She has not seen him since, and although it is believed he is alive and living somewhere in the northern region, the thought that she may never see him again due to her advanced age still pains her. Prospects remain dim of reuniting with her son under the administration of South Korea’s current president, Yoon Suk Yeol.
