Tokyo, 31 January, /AJMEDIA/
North Korea test-fired long-range ballistic missile on Jan. 30: KCNA
BEIJING – North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-12 “intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile” on Sunday, state-run media reported Monday, at a time when the nuclear-armed nation has been increasing military pressure on the United States.
The launch came after Pyongyang recently hinted at resuming nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, saying it may restart all “activities” that it had temporarily suspended to build trust with the United States.
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Gov’t under pressure to again declare COVID emergency in Tokyo
TOKYO – Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is coming under pressure for the upcoming week to explore whether to again declare a state of emergency in Tokyo where hospital beds have been increasingly occupied by COVID-19 patients.
The ratio of such hospital beds in the capital hit 48.5 percent Sunday, nearing the 50-percent threshold for the metropolitan government to consider requesting a state of emergency in an attempt to enhance anti-coronavirus measures.
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Japan was top tweet removal requestor in 1st half of 2021: Twitter
NEW YORK – Japan was the top requestor to Twitter Inc. to have online posts removed in the first half of 2021, making up 43 percent of all legal demands received from across the world during the period, the company said in a recent report.
The latest biannual transparency report by the U.S. social media giant showed court orders and other formal demands from governmental entities and lawyers representing individuals to remove content totaled 43,387 between January and June last year, with 18,518 of them coming from Japan.
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FEATURE: Japan-based expats back anti-coup protests in crisis-hit Myanmar
TOKYO – Whether he is studying at a vocational school in Tokyo or doing a part-time job, Lian Ceu always worries about his parents and younger brother in Myanmar who survived but became displaced after his family’s house in Chin State was destroyed by the country’s military during an air strike last September.
Showing his mobile phone containing a photo of the devastated site in Myanmar’s northwest, the 26-year-old ethnic Chin says, “This is not what humans should do. The Tatmadaw takes this kind of action to instill a feeling of terror into people in an attempt to curb protests against the junta.”
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Totsuka’s Yonex connect set to build brand in Beijing
TOKYO – Japanese sporting equipment maker Yonex has staked much on men’s snowboard halfpipe world champion Yuto Totsuka, and one of the company’s product developers is hoping the board that bears his name will establish the brand’s bona fides worldwide.
Hirokazu Yaegashi works for Yonex, a company better known for its extensive lines of tennis and badminton rackets than for their snowboards, a market they entered in 1995.
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Survey on technical trainees’ financial situation in Japan begins
TOKYO – Japan has commenced a survey to grasp the financial situations of foreign technical trainees as money problems seem to be the reason many abruptly leave their host firms, a government official said.
The Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare began gathering the information of 2,000 trainees across the country, including on the pay they receive at workplaces and the amount they owe in relocation expenses.