Tokyo, 28 January, /AJMEDIA/
Global tourism to recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2024: U.N. agency
TOKYO – Global tourism will likely achieve a full recovery from the COVID-19 shock in 2024, with the Asia-Pacific region having lagged behind other destinations in the number of tourist arrivals, according to an estimate by a U.N. agency.
Last year saw an estimated 1.29 billion international tourists globally, about 88 percent of the number in 2019, led by a strong recovery in the Middle East that reported a 22 percent gain in arrivals compared with four years earlier.
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Ex-Japan PM Aso vows to maintain LDP faction as “policy group”
TOKYO – Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged Saturday to maintain his faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as a “policy group,” with the latest political funds scandal increasing public distrust in politics.
Aso has become the first leader of the LDP’s factions to declare the continuation of such a group, as four of them, including one that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida headed until late December, decided to disband earlier this month.
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China’s top diplomat warns U.S. against Taiwan independence
BEIJING – China’s top diplomat Wang Yi has warned U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan against Taiwan independence during their two-day meeting in Thailand through Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said.
Wang was quoted by the Chinese ministry as calling that issue the greatest challenge to relations between Beijing and Washington, apparently thereby urging the United States in his meeting with Sullivan not to interfere in issues concerning the island.
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Tennis: Oda wins Aussie Open wheelchair title, Sakamoto junior champ
MELBOURNE – Tokito Oda won his third Grand Slam wheelchair tennis singles title, while another 17-year-old Japanese player, Rei Sakamoto, took the junior boys’ singles crown at the Australian Open on Saturday.
In their respective finals, Oda defeated Britain’s Alfie Hewett 6-2, 6-4, while Sakamoto came from a set down to beat Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5 at Melbourne Park.
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1970s bombing fugitive may have worked in Kanagawa Pref.: sources
TOKYO – A man thought to be the suspect on a decades-old wanted list for one of a series of bombings in the 1970s may have worked in Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo before being admitted to a hospital for cancer treatment earlier this month, investigative sources said Saturday.
The man, believed to be Satoshi Kirishima, is likely to have kept himself hidden in the prefecture, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is investigating whether anyone was supporting him, the sources said.
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Airline resumes flights to quake-hit airport in central Japan
KANAZAWA, Japan – All Nippon Airways resumed its flights to and from an airport in central Japan on Saturday, almost a month after a magnitude-7.6 earthquake hit the region on New Year’s Day and left its runway damaged.
While regular flights connecting Noto airport in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, and Tokyo’s Haneda airport are limited to one round-trip per day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through February, it is hoped they will help bring volunteer workers to the quake-hit area to assist in recovery from the disaster, which left more than 230 dead.
