Tokyo, 16 September, /AJMEDIA/
Xi, Putin affirm China-Russia coordination in countering West
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday affirmed close coordination in countering the United States and its allies amid the Ukraine crisis and heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
In a meeting in Uzbekistan, their first face-to-face talks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Xi said China is ready to work with Russia in “extending strong support to each other on issues concerning their respective core interests,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
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Japan to request energy saving measures in winter amid crunch concerns
TOKYO – The Japanese government plans to ask households and businesses to save electricity this winter following a similar request in summer as a national power crunch continues, industry ministry officials said Thursday.
The request to reduce winter power consumption across the country would be the first in seven years. It comes as the supply of liquefied natural gas used to fuel thermal power plants remains strained due to market disruptions stemming from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
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G-7 trade ministers pledge to boost supply chain resiliency
BERLIN – Trade ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies agreed Thursday to bolster supply chain resiliency for vital products, including critical minerals, amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union, said in a statement after their meeting in Germany that recent crises have drawn attention to “systemic vulnerabilities to chronic risks and acute supply chains shocks” that hamper economic growth and security.
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China, Russia conduct joint patrolling in Pacific Ocean
BEIJING – Chinese and Russian naval vessels have begun joint patrols in the Pacific region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday, signaling deepening cooperation as the leaders of the two countries held talks in Uzbekistan.
The mission, which follows the first such joint patrolling conducted last October, will include tactical maneuvering and artillery shooting drills, the ministry said, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
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Japan eyes building shelter on Okinawa island amid Taiwan tensions
TOKYO – Japan is considering building an evacuation shelter for residents on a remote island in Okinawa in the event of a military contingency near the country’s southwestern Nansei Islands chain or Taiwan, government sources said Thursday.
The need for such a facility comes as Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been expanding the scale of deployment on the southern island prefecture’s remote islands, with Yonaguni just about 110 kilometers away from Taiwan, amid China’s military buildup.
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Japan, Iran leaders to meet on fringes of U.N. assembly: sources
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi plan to hold talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session next week, diplomatic sources said Thursday, amid an ongoing struggle to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Raisi will visit the United States for the first time since taking office in August last year. The hard-line leader is a target of U.S. sanctions, and several Republican senators had demanded that the U.S. government deny him and his delegation visas to attend the General Assembly.
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Gov’t shares nationwide info on abusive baby sitters in Japan
TOKYO – Japan’s welfare ministry on Thursday began sharing with local municipalities information on baby sitters who have been subjected to administrative action for sexual assault or abuse, to prevent a similar incident from happening amid a spate of such malicious cases.
Although the municipalities currently publish the names of baby sitters and disciplinary actions on their respective websites, that information is generally not shared.
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Abductee’s mom calls for Japan to act 20 yrs after Pyongyang summit
TOKYO – Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi remains missing after her abduction by North Korean agents in 1977, has expressed her frustration with the Japanese government 20 years after a historic bilateral summit that saw the return of other abductees.
Tokyo officially lists 17 Japanese nationals as having been abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. Five of them were returned after then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on Sept. 17, 2002, the first-ever summit between the two countries in the absence of diplomatic ties.
