Tokyo, 26 March, /AJMEDIA
U.S. to supply EU with more LNG to help reduce reliance on Russia
BRUSSELS – The United States said Friday it plans to supply the European Union with additional liquefied natural gas as the 27-member bloc strives to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the White House, the United States will work with international partners and strive to ensure at least 15 billion cubic meters of additional LNG for the EU market in 2022, with expected increases going forward.
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PM Kishida proposes Biden visits Japan in late April
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has sounded out U.S. President Joe Biden about visiting Japan in late April, government sources said Friday.
The proposal was made when Kishida had a brief conversation with Biden in Brussels on Thursday where a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were held, the sources said.
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Russia starts military drill on disputed islands off Japan
TOKYO – The Russian military said Friday it has started a military exercise involving more than 3,000 troops on a chain of islands including those disputed with Japan, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
It is the first drill on the disputed islands off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido since Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced earlier this week it will suspend territorial talks with Japan. Russia is withdrawing from the talks over Tokyo’s sanctions against Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
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North Korea launched “monster” Hwasong-17 ICBM on Thurs. to counter U.S.
BEIJING – North Korea confirmed it fired a new “Hwasong-17” intercontinental ballistic missile under the guidance of leader Kim Jong Un, state-run media reported Friday, jeopardizing regional security and reminding the United States of the threat the nation can pose.
Thursday’s launch came at a time when the United States and its security allies have been occupied with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and when North Korea’s economy has been facing a severe downturn amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Art event with “comfort women” statue to be held in Tokyo in April
TOKYO – A controversial art exhibition featuring works such as a statue symbolizing the “comfort women” who worked in Japan’s wartime military brothels will be held in Tokyo next month, its organizers said Friday, after being postponed for about a year due to protests.
The “Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition” will run from April 2 to 5 in the suburban city of Kunitachi, showcasing works that have been banned or removed from public art museums due to their controversial nature, the organizers said.
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High court rules dike floodgates be kept closed in southwestern Japan
FUKUOKA – A Japanese high court nullified Friday a 2010 ruling that ordered the state to open the floodgates of a dike in southwestern Japan, in a protracted legal battle against local fishers over a state-run land reclamation project.
The Fukuoka High Court reviewed the case involving the dike at Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture after being requested to do so by the top court in September 2019.
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India urges China to ease border tensions before ties become “normal”
NEW DELHI – India’s foreign minister urged his Chinese counterpart on Friday to first resolve tensions over a dispute on a Himalayan border area before bilateral ties, strained since a deadly clash two years ago, could return to normal.
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said to the media that he told China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their three-hour talks that Chinese troops deployed in the contested border area would have to disengage before relations return to normalcy, as sought by Wang.
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10,000 foreign children in Japan may be absent from school
TOKYO – Around 7 percent of all foreign children in Japan of elementary to junior high school age, or 10,046 children, may not be attending school, government data showed Friday.
But the number of such absentee school children as of May 2021 was down by almost half, or by 9,425, since the last survey by the education ministry, conducted in 2019.
