Tokyo, 4 October, /AJMEDIA/
North Korea fires missile over Japan that lands outside EEZ: gov’t
TOKYO – North Korea on Tuesday fired a missile that flew over northeastern Japan, the Japanese government said, just days after the North launched ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan despite an international outcry.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan “strongly protests” against the latest missile launch, which he called “outrageous.”
———-
Japan’s PM Kishida to face tough Diet debate 1 year on in office
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is heading into a tough parliamentary debate at an extraordinary session amid falling approval ratings, with Tuesday marking the first anniversary of the launch of his administration.
The Diet session began Monday as Kishida has faced a series of setbacks, such as suspicious relations between his ruling party and the notorious Unification Church, a controversial state funeral for former premier Shinzo Abe, as well as rising prices.
———-
Baseball: Murakami celebrates Japan’s youngest Triple Crown with 56th homer
TOKYO – Yakult Swallows third baseman Munetaka Murakami became Nippon Professional Baseball’s youngest Triple Crown winner at 22 on Monday, topping the Central League with a .318 batting average, 56 home runs and 134 RBIs.
Murakami, who was the runaway leader in home runs and RBIs, went 2-for-4, including his 56th homer in the regular-season finale, during an 8-2 win over the DeNA BayStars at Jingu Stadium, holding off a late-season challenge by Chunichi Dragons outfielder Yohei Oshima, who hit .314.
———-
Japan protests possible gas extraction by China in contested waters
TOKYO – Japan has lodged a protest with China, believing it has begun extracting natural gas in a contested area of the East China Sea, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force has confirmed a flare at a structure thought to be a Chinese drilling rig, the ministry said.
———-
Japan car sales up for 1st time in 15 months as parts crunch eases
TOKYO – New car sales in Japan increased 24.1 percent in September from a year earlier, the first year-on-year rise in 15 months, industry body data showed Monday, as production picked up after a parts shortage caused by Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown eased.
The level of sales, however, remained at about 70 percent of that in 2019, suggesting that it could take some more time to return to the pre-pandemic level, with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. planning output cuts in October.
———-
Sweden’s Paabo wins medicine Nobel for discoveries on human evolution
STOCKHOLM – Swedish researcher Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
Paabo, director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, achieved a “seemingly impossible” feat when he sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute said in a statement.
———-
IOC chief Bach’s visit to Tokyo Olympics 1-yr anniv. event canceled
TOKYO – International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach’s visit to the Tokyo Olympics’ one-year anniversary event on Oct. 16 at the National Stadium has been canceled due to a scheduling issue, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Monday.
Bach was in Tokyo on Tuesday for the state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot during an election campaign speech on July 8 in the western city of Nara.
———-
China protests Japan vessels’ evacuation near Taiwan during typhoon
TOKYO – China expressed “strong concerns” and lodged an unusual protest with Japan over its patrol vessels remaining in international waters in the Taiwan Strait in early September to avoid a typhoon, a source knowledgeable about the matter said Monday.
China told Japan that the coast guard patrol vessels “threatened China’s security,” the source said, adding it is believed to be the first protest of its kind from Beijing.
