Sendai, Miyagi Pref., Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–A high court in Japan ruled Friday that the July 20 House of Councillors election was held “in a state of unconstitutionality” in terms of vote-value disparities between prefectural constituencies, which reached a maximum of 3.13

Seoul/Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–North Korea launched a ballistic missile from around Taegwan in the northwestern region toward the Sea of Japan around 12:35 p.m. Friday, according to the South Korean military. The projectile, believed to be a short-range missile, appears to

Beijing, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–A group of middle-ranking officers from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces visited a Chinese army facility as part of an exchange program between the two Asian neighbors’ defense personnel, it was learned Friday. Thirteen SDF officers arrived in China

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund said Friday that it earned 14,447.7 billion yen in investment profit in the July-September period thanks to higher stock prices at home and abroad. The public pension fund posted a quarterly return rate

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday it has selected 142 artisans with excellence in craft as contemporary master craftspeople who lead their respective areas. Those recognized include Keiji Zenimaru, a 48-year-old plasterer from the central prefecture

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Financial Services Agency said Friday that it will support a pilot project by three major domestic banks to jointly issue stablecoins, a crypto asset backed by legal tender. The agency will provide advice on legal interpretations and

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–The average number of new influenza cases per regularly monitored medical institution in Japan in the week through Sunday stood at 14.90, exceeding the alert level of 10, the health ministry said Friday. The figure, based on data

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–A senior official of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, has said that the war in the Gaza Strip is “not over” despite a ceasefire deal between Islamic group

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government Friday announced the appointments of new nongovernmental members of its blue-ribbon Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, including former Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Masazumi Wakatabe. Wakatabe, professor at Waseda University, advocated aggressive monetary easing

Fukuoka, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Toyota Motor Corp. will review over the next year its program to build a battery plant for electric vehicles in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, due to a slowdown in global EV demand, Fukuoka Governor Seitaro Hattori said Friday.

(The third paragraph from the bottom should have read, “In 2022, before the tritium-containing treated water was released,…” instead of as sent. A substitute story follows.) Japan Resumes Scallop Exports to China Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan has resumed exports of scallops

Kyoto, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–A team at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, or CiRA, has succeeded in creating component cells for the thymus using human induced pluripotent stem cells. The thymus produces cells linked to T cells, the

Seoul/Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–North Korea launched a ballistic missile from around Taegwan in the northwestern region toward the Sea of Japan on Friday, according to the South Korean military. The missile seems to have already fallen into waters outside Japan’s exclusive

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Household spending in Japan in September rose 1.8 pct from a year before in inflation-adjusted real terms, reflecting higher expenditures on automobiles as well as education and entertainment, government data showed Friday. The average spending by households with

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Friday that her government will support domestic production of next-generation semiconductors. Government aid for Rapidus Corp., which aims to mass-produce cutting-edge chips domestically, “will be the cornerstone of crisis management investment,” Takaichi

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held a study session at the prime minister’s official residence from around 3 a.m. Friday to prepare for questions in her first parliamentary budget committee meeting as prime minister later that day. Although

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Friday instructed a government panel to start a study to revise the economic security promotion law. The revision would make it easier for Japan to support port development and other projects overseas

Niigata, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–A majority of people living in four cities near Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in central Japan are opposed to the planned restart of the facility, according to a survey by the Niigata

Seoul/Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan on Friday, according to the South Korean military. What appears to be the ballistic missile is believed to have fallen into waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone,

Nagoya, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Police have arrested an elementary school teacher in the western Japan prefecture of Okayama, marking the seventh and final arrest in a group of teachers who shared voyeuristic videos of schoolgirls on social media. Arrested by the prefectural

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government decided Friday to extend the deployment of Self-Defense Forces personnel in the Middle East for one year to deal with issues including maritime piracy. It extended the SDF’s antipiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average briefly fell more than 1,100 points on Friday morning, dragged down by selling of shares related to semiconductors and artificial intelligence, following overnight falls in U.S. equities. At 10:36 a.m., the Nikkei

Tokyo, Nov. 7 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government is considering appointing Masazumi Wakatabe, who served as Bank of Japan deputy governor when then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promoted his “Abenomics” reflationary policy mix, as a private member of the Council on Economic and

(Adnkronos) – China, a key export market, is expanding “rapidly” and institutions and businesses must grasp the “significant” opportunities it offers to propel Italy’s economic growth, foreign undersecretary Maria Tripodi said on Thursday.  “The growth opportunities in a rapidly expanding and highly

(Adnkronos) – In last week’s meeting in South Korea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Donald Trump raised the case of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist, who faces life imprisonment for allegedly violating the national security law. A

(Adnkronos) – Foreign undsecretary Giorgio Silli attended the signing ceremony in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Thursday of a contract between an Italian company and local authorities to build the western end of a key highway linking North Africa to the Middle East,

(Adnkronos) – A pilot program of voluntary military training open to all Polish citizens will start on November 22. This was announced in Warsaw by Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, explaining that the initiative aims to train up to 400,000 civilians by next

(Adnkronos) – After the deployment of the army to the northern prefecture of Akita to confront the dramatic wave of bear attacks, Japan is ready to take a further step: the National Police has modified its rules to allow officers to use

(Adnkronos) – In the day after the Democratic victories in several key elections in the United States – most notably the New York mayoral election won by 34-year-old Zoran Mamdani – Donald Trump vented on Truth Social, publishing over 30 posts in

(Adnkronos) – International mediators for Sudan – the United States, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia – have presented a proposal for a three-month nationwide humanitarian truce, accepted by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A Saudi official told AFP that the