Tokyo, 7 February, /AJMEDIA/
Japan to decide COVID quasi-emergency extension in 1st half of week
TOKYO – Japan plans to decide whether to extend a COVID-19 quasi-state of emergency in Tokyo and 12 prefectures in the first half of this week, government sources said Sunday.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida affirmed the plan during talks with health minister Shigeyuki Goto and related ministers, the sources said, as the Tokyo metropolitan government reported 17,526 daily coronavirus cases in the capital, the highest tally for a Sunday.
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Olympics: Ski jumper Kobayashi soars to Japan’s 1st Beijing gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Ryoyu Kobayashi won the men’s ski jumping normal hill competition Sunday to earn Japan’s first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics.
The 25-year-old took the lead with a 104.5-meter jump, the longest of the first round, worth 145.4 points and gave himself a 6.2 gap to his nearest competitor. He then sealed the Olympic title in the evening’s final jump, flying 99.5 meters and raising his point total to 275.0.
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30% of Japan areas with LGBT partnership system have mutual accords
TOKYO – Over 30 percent of the 146 local governments in Japan that have introduced a same-sex partnership system as of Jan. 1 have also signed reciprocal agreements with other municipalities to simplify reapplication procedures when LGBT couples move, according to a Kyodo News survey.
The move comes amid criticism that the need for a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender couple to dissolve a partnership and reapply each time they move causes emotional stress.
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Cambodia PM’s son, heir apparent to visit Japan in mid-Feb.
TOKYO – Hun Manet, the eldest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and commander of the country’s army, plans to visit Japan in mid-February for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other top officials, Japanese government sources said Sunday.
Japan intends to step up coordination with Cambodia, this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, over the Myanmar crisis and regional security through the visit of a man Hun Sen has appointed as his heir apparent, the sources said.
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Olympics: Japan’s Kagiyama tops men’s free skate in team competition
BEIJING – Olympic debutant Yuma Kagiyama topped the men’s free skate section of the figure skating team competition Sunday at the Beijing Winter Games, earning a personal best 208.94 points to help Japan finish the day in third place.
The 18-year-old Kagiyama became just the third person to ever score above 200 in the free skate, joining back-to-back Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and U.S. star Nathan Chen in the select group.
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Olympics: Quad axel quest fuels Hanyu’s drive to Beijing
TOKYO – Making his third Winter Olympic appearance was not part of Yuzuru Hanyu’s grand plan, but the men’s figure skating star is back at the games to settle some unfinished business he has with the quadruple axel.
Hanyu considered quitting after he defended his gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and became the first to win two straight since American Dick Button in 1948 and 1952. The allure of landing a quad axel in competition, though, proved the one thing that kept the 27-year-old focused.
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American dancer tops Swiss ballet contest, Japanese 2nd
MONTREUX, Switzerland – Seventeen-year-old American Darrion Sellman won the top prize in an international ballet competition for young dancers in Switzerland on Saturday, with Japanese dancer Tsukino Tanaka, 17, coming second.
Brazilian Luciana Sagioro came third at the Prix de Lausanne among 70 candidates who participated in the prestigious annual contest.
