Tokyo, 09 March, /AJMEDIA/
South Korea President Yoon to visit Japan next week amid improving ties
TOKYO/SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to visit Japan next Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the two governments said, with efforts by Seoul to resolve a major dispute with Tokyo pointing to signs of a thaw in frosty bilateral ties.
Yoon’s two-day visit to Japan would come after South Korea on Monday announced its plan for settling a wartime labor compensation issue with Tokyo.
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Teens made up over 40% of Japan child porn offenders in 2022: police
TOKYO – Japan’s police agency said Thursday that 44.1 percent of the 2,053 offenders in child pornography-related criminal cases last year were aged between 14 and 19, nearly double the share in 2013.
A further 60 percent of the 905 people suspected of committing child porn crimes in the age group were high school students, according to revised data from the National Police Agency.
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Japan’s rocket launch failure clouds space strategy outlook
TOKYO – Japan’s failure to launch its new flagship H3 rocket at the second attempt on Tuesday casts a long shadow over its strategy to increase its presence in the increasingly competitive fields of satellite launching and space exploration.
Considerable time may be needed to get to the bottom of the disastrous outcome, in which the rocket’s second-stage engine failed to ignite and was ordered to self-destruct minutes after liftoff at the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture.
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Japan’s Seven & i to close Ito-Yokado stores, exit apparel business
TOKYO – Seven & i Holdings Co., the operator of the Seven-Eleven convenience store chain, said Thursday it will cut the number of its Ito-Yokado supermarket stores by more than 20 percent and pull out of the apparel business, as it presses ahead with restructuring to focus more on its convenience store operations.
The Japanese retail giant said it will close 33 Ito-Yokado outlets in Japan by the end of February 2026. There were a total of 126 as of the end of February.
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Safety costs at nuclear plants in Japan exceed 6 tril. yen
TOKYO – Costs for safety measures necessary to restart Japan’s idle nuclear reactors following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster ballooned to over 6.09 trillion yen ($44.3 billion) in January, according to 11 major power companies in the country.
As some companies have not yet included costs related to implementing anti-terrorism measures in their calculations, required under stricter regulations introduced in 2013 following the nuclear accident that occurred on March 11, 2011, the total amount is expected to increase further.
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70% of Japan flight attendants report photos taken of them secretly
TOKYO – Around 70 percent of flight attendants in Japan have reported that photos had been or likely had been taken of them surreptitiously, an aviation trade union said Thursday, calling for tougher penalties against the act.
Thirty-eight percent of respondents said their pictures had been secretly taken, while 33 percent said they were not sure but “believe” it has happened, with the combined result rising 9 percentage points from the previous survey in 2019, according to the Japan Federation of Aviation Industry Unions.
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JAL cancels cheap domestic ticket sale after surge in website traffic
TOKYO – Japan Airlines Co. said Thursday it has canceled a special campaign that offered domestic one-way tickets for 6,600 yen ($48) each after its website suffered a glitch caused by a surge in people trying to access the promotion.
The malfunction, which caused a slow internet connection for those trying to access the website, also made it difficult for customers to purchase or reserve normal tickets. The airline announced it was unlikely to hold a similar sale for the foreseeable future.
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Court upholds 15-yr sentence on woman for starving a friend’s son
FUKUOKA – A high court upheld on Thursday a sentence of 15 years in prison given to a woman for manipulating a fellow mother to starve her 5-year-old son to death in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka in 2020.
In rejecting the appeal by the defendant Emiko Akahori, 50, the Fukuoka High Court supported a lower court ruling that said she psychologically controlled her friend, Rie Ikari, 41, and the two conspired to severely reduce Ikari’s son’s meals from around August 2019.
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Japan police make arrests over condiment bottle licking in sushi restaurant
NAGOYA – Police have arrested three people on suspicion of public nuisance crimes, such as licking a tabletop soy sauce bottle at a sushi restaurant and posting a video of the act online.
The move, made public by the police on Wednesday, is believed to be the first instance of a customer being arrested for such behavior, deemed unhygienic and a form of harassment, following revelations that similar acts have taken place at many eateries in Japan since earlier this year.
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Baseball: Australia stuns giant South Korea in WBC Pool B opener
TOKYO – Australia’s batters belted three home runs and its bullpen barely held on for an 8-7 upset win over South Korea in the World Baseball Classic’s Pool B opener Thursday.
A favorite to be one of two teams advancing to the quarterfinal knockout round here at Tokyo Dome next Wednesday and Thursday, South Korea’s players had been talking about Australia’s power since arriving in Japan and had those concerns confirmed.
