Tokyo, 18 February, /AJMEDIA/
Biden sees high risk of Russia invading Ukraine within “several days”
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday he sees a “very high” risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine within the “next several days” as tensions continue to simmer over Russia’s massive buildup of troops near its neighboring country.
Meanwhile, in what Washington called an “escalatory step,” Russia has expelled the second-most senior official at the U.S. embassy in Moscow.
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Japan to raise COVID entry cap, cut quarantine period from March
TOKYO – Japan will relax COVID-19 border controls in March by raising the daily cap on entrants and cutting the quarantine period from seven days to three for both Japanese and foreign nationals, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday.
The country’s entry ban on nonresident foreigners, effective from late November to the end of February, has triggered a barrage of criticism for being too strict and not based on science.
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Japan’s January core consumer prices up 0.2% on year
TOKYO – Japan’s core consumer prices gained 0.2 percent in January from a year earlier, government data showed Friday.
The nationwide core consumer price index excluding volatile fresh food items marked the fifth straight month of year-on-year increase, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
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Kishida tells Putin diplomatic solution needed over Ukraine crisis
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to find a diplomatic solution that is “acceptable” to the countries concerned amid concern that Russia may invade neighboring Ukraine.
Kishida told reporters after the 25-minute teleconference with Putin that Japan opposes the use of force to change the status quo and will continue to monitor the Ukraine-Russia situation with “grave concern.” The two leaders agreed to continue dialogue over the crisis in the Eastern European country.
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Osaka, Kyoto among 17 prefs. to remain under COVID quasi-emergency
TOKYO – Japan will extend COVID-19 quasi-emergency measures until March 6 in 17 other prefectures including Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka to curb coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday.
But the measures will be lifted Sunday in five other prefectures — Yamagata, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Oita and Okinawa — he said, as the strain on hospitals has eased with daily infections showing signs of stabilizing.
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ASEAN’s special envoy to visit Myanmar in March
PHNOM PENH – ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar will visit the military-controlled country in March in a bid to defuse the political crisis there but without setting preconditions that he be allowed to meet all conflicting parties, the group’s chair Cambodia said Thursday.
“Maybe it’s not possible to meet everyone for the first visit and we should not be too ambitious,” Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who assumed the special envoy post when his country took over the annually rotating ASEAN chairmanship this year, said at a news conference.
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Nissan to invest $500 mil. to make new EV models at Mississippi plant
NEW YORK – Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday it will invest $500 million to transform its assembly plant in Mississippi into a key production base for electric vehicles in the United States, with the aim of manufacturing two new all-electric models including in the luxury Infiniti brand beginning in 2025.
The announcement is part of the Japanese automaker’s plan for 40 percent of its U.S. vehicle sales to be fully electric by 2030.
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Olympics: Takagi finally gets Beijing gold in women’s 1,000
BEIJING – After collecting three silver medals at the Beijing Olympics, Miho Takagi finally snagged a gold when she won the women’s 1,000-meter event on Thursday.
Fresh off a heartbreaking team pursuit silver, Takagi skated a 1-minute, 13.19-second Olympic record to beat Jutta Leerdam of the Netherlands by 0.64. Brittany Bowe of the United States won bronze.