Tokyo, 07 March, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s new flagship H3 rocket launch fails, ordered to self-destruct
MINAMITANE, Japan – Japan’s new flagship H3 rocket lifted off Tuesday for the first time but was ordered to self-destruct minutes later after its second-stage engine failed to ignite, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
The launch failure came after a string of delays, including one last month in which a launch attempt was aborted moments before blastoff at the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in the southwestern prefecture of Kagoshima.
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China warns Japan not to join U.S. efforts to contain it
BEIJING – Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Tuesday that China hopes for “friendship and good neighborliness” with Japan but warned Tokyo not to take part in a “new Cold War” led by Washington to exert pressure on Beijing.
“Should some people from the Japanese side choose the beggar-thy-neighbor approach rather than a friendly partnership and take part in a new Cold War to contain China, bilateral relations will only suffer new wounds when the old ones are yet to be healed,” Qin said told a press conference in Beijing.
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Ministry says files suggesting pressure on media were its documents
TOKYO – Japan’s internal affairs ministry said Tuesday that papers recently made public by an opposition party lawmaker that suggest political pressure was put on broadcasters by a past administration were compiled within the ministry.
The papers, revealed last Thursday, indicate that between 2014 and 2015, the government led by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was eager to intervene in the freedom of broadcasting.
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Cabinet approves proposals for Japan immigration law changes
TOKYO – The Cabinet on Tuesday approved proposed revisions to Japan’s immigration law that include controversial measures to enable the deportation of individuals repeatedly applying for refugee status.
The latest proposals to amend the immigration law largely retain the 2021 attempt to revise the law, which was withdrawn amid opposition backlash and controversy over the death of a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman detained in an immigration facility.
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N. Korea may fire ICBM during S. Korea-U.S. joint drill: S. Korea
SEOUL – South Korea’s spy agency believes that North Korea may fire an inter-continental ballistic missile during a military exercise, coinciding with joint South Korea-U.S. drills being held in coming weeks, a lawmaker briefed on the matter said Tuesday.
“The National Intelligence Service said there is a possibility that North Korea will conduct a large-scale exercise with nuclear and conventional weapons, in which it will launch its latest model of ICBM in March or April, which is when South Korea and the United States will be holding joint drills and a summit between leaders,” said Youn Kun Young after being briefed by the NIS.
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86% fear Japan could be involved in war as tensions mount
TOKYO – Over 86 percent of people polled in a Japanese government survey released Tuesday said they see a danger of the country being involved in a war, a figure that is slightly up from the previous poll in 2018.
In the Cabinet Office survey, conducted between Nov. 17 and Dec. 25, 86.2 percent of the respondents said they see such danger or would say there is if they had to say, the highest figure since the 2009 survey when the response choices were changed to the current format. In the previous survey, 85.5 percent of the polled cited such a risk.
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Woman gets 11 yrs for murder of mentally ill husband with son’s help
KYOTO – A Japanese court on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 11 years in prison over the 2011 murder of her mentally ill husband with the help of their son, a former doctor indicted for the alleged consensual killing of a terminally ill woman.
The Kyoto District Court found Junko Yamamoto, 78, guilty of killing her 77-year-old husband Yasushi at an apartment in Tokyo by unknown means in collusion with her son Naoki, 45, and his acquaintance Yoshikazu Okubo, a 44-year-old doctor.
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Judo: Olympic great Shohei Ono confirms retirement, plans for coaching
TOKYO – Two-time Olympic judo champion Shohei Ono, who dominated the men’s 73-kilogram division for the better part of a decade, announced his retirement from competition Tuesday.
The 31-year-old Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Games gold medalist confirmed he will go into coaching rather than pursue a third straight Olympic title next year in Paris.
