Ishiba, 67, on Friday won a tight race to head the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost constantly for decades. He says he intends to call an election for October 27. The lower house of parliament, where the LDP has a majority, approved Ishiba’s appointment early afternoon on Tuesday, with the upper house […]
A record nine candidates are in the running after the long-powerful factions of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) disbanded earlier this year over a funding scandal. Because the conservative LDP holds a parliamentary majority, the winner is certain to become prime minister, and will likely call a snap election to shore up their mandate. Polls […]
Ailing health prevented 88-year-old former boxer Iwao Hakamada from being in court to learn the outcome of his retrial, which was granted a decade ago after a long campaign by supporters. But his 91-year-old sister Hideko, who often speaks for him, bowed deeply to the Shizuoka District Court judge who declared Hakamada innocent. Hakamada spent […]
A dozen rivers in the region had burst their banks as of 11:00 am (0200 GMT), land ministry official Masaru Kojima said. Local officials said that the cities of Wajima and Suzu, as well as Noto town, ordered about 44,700 residents to evacuate. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said it issued its highest-level warning for […]
The Japanese defence ministry “confirmed that these vessels sailed north-eastwards through the Tsushima Strait towards the Sea of Japan from Saturday to Sunday”, it said in a press release on Monday. Japan’s Self-Defence Forces “conducted vigilance monitoring and intelligence gathering” with a vessel and patrol plane, the ministry said, releasing photos of the ships. It […]
North Korea has launched more than 900 trash balloons over the past three days, including about 190 late Friday, around 100 of which have already landed, mainly in Seoul and northern Gyeonggi province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The bags attached to the balloons contained “mostly paper and plastic waste”, the military said, […]
China is the leading emitter of the greenhouse gas emissions scientists say are driving global climate change and making extreme weather events more frequent. Beijing has pledged to bring planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060. And on Thursday, the China Meteorological Administration said in a statement […]
Shanshan is expected to strike Japan’s southwestern Kyushu island over the next few days, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said it may issue a special warning to Kagoshima prefecture. “Maximum caution is required given that forecasts are for strong winds, high waves, and high tides that have not been seen thus far,” the JMA […]
Politics cannot function without public trust,” Kishida said in a press conference on Wednesday to announce his decision not to seek re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader. “I will now focus on supporting the newly elected LDP leader as a rank-and-file member of the party,” he said. His decision to quit triggers a […]
“We strongly urge the US and Japan to immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop creating imaginary enemies,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said. Following talks in the Japanese capital on Sunday, the US and the hosts slammed Beijing’s “destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea while also condemning Russia’s growing military cooperation […]
