Japan - Page 9

The Washington Post looked at social media posts and satellite images on Monday to estimate the true death toll from China’s coronavirus surge and concluded the number is much higher than the 40 fatalities the Chinese Communist Party has chosen to acknowledge.

World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that W.H.O. needs “more detailed information” about the massive coronavirus outbreak in China to “make a comprehensive risk assessment.”

The Beijing-controlled government of Hong Kong on Thursday asked Japan to retract its restrictions on incoming flights from China, while France and Australia separately announced they saw no reason to impose special restrictions on Chinese travelers.

Italy’s decision to take extra precautions with Chinese travelers paid off on Wednesday as two flights from China landed in Milan and half of the passengers tested positive for Covid-19.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there.

The Japanese government on Friday unveiled its latest five-year defense planning document, announcing a $320 billion military buildup that will include missiles capable of hitting targets in China.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday that, during the previous 24 hours, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China sent 18 Xian H-6 nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) — a record number of bombers in a single day for China’s intimidating flights across the Strait of Taiwan.

The government of Japan announced on Monday that it had prepared a humanitarian aid project for Afghanistan worth $106.7 million “implemented by the U.N. agencies,” suggesting an attempt to keep the money out of Taliban hands.

An American F-35B Lightning II was being towed on the ground at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa when its front wheel failed.

The Financial Times revealed on Wednesday that Jack Ma, the formerly flamboyant billionaire founder of Internet giant Alibaba, has been living in apparently self-imposed exile in Japan for at least the past six months.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, warned on Tuesday the United States will “face a more fatal security crisis” if it continues pushing the United Nations to take action against North Korea’s illegal nuclear missile program.

The Germans lined up in the traditional formation before Wednesday’s game against Japan and each of the 11 players covered their mouth with their right hand.

The foreign minister of North Korea, Choe Son Hui, published an angry screed against America vowing Pyongyang would become a “more serious, realistic, and inevitable threat” to America so long as Washington pursued cooperation with South Korea and Japan.

German lawmakers approved a plan to keep the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants until mid-April.

North Korea launched at least one ballistic missile in the direction of Japan on Wednesday, drawing a formal protest lodged by Japan via China. 

The DoD’s reported plan to replace permanently-based fighter jets with rotational ones in the Indo-Pacific will be perceived as “weakness.”

The government of South Korea confirmed on Wednesday that a short-range missile fired in an attempted response to North Korea flying its own projectile over Japan this week crashed into a local golf course, causing panic among South Korean civilians.

Leftist American President Joe Biden, skipping the funeral of longtime Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, signaled to Japan that “he’s more worried about the midterms than the threat of China and Russia,” Japanese conservative journalist and commentator Yoko Ishii told Breitbart News in an exchange on Friday.

Germany and Japan conducted their first joint military drills Wednesday as Berlin forecast a continuous security commitment in the volatile region.

China’s Global Times government newspaper expressed outrage on Wednesday at the fact that the prime ministers of Japan and Britain — Kishida Fumio and Liz Truss, respectively — made time to meet with each other at the United Nations General Assembly, dismissing both countries as “little brothers” of America.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio joined other free nations at the 77th U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an outrage that “tramples on the vision and principles of the U.N. Charter.”

President Joe Biden will travel to the Queen’s funeral in his own private car, despite his supposed climate concerns, while the Japanese Emperor and other world leaders take a bus.

A Dutch non-profit group called The Ocean Cleanup released a report on September 1 that found the bulk of the plastic debris in the so-called North Pacific Garbage Patch consists of discarded fishing equipment from Japan and China. 

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry delivered a report to the legislature on Thursday that said China’s belligerent military exercises around the island included “combat drills to carry out simulated attacks on U.S. ships that enter into the first island chain.”

The government of Noto, a central Japanese town known for its squid fishery, said Monday that its once controversial decision to erect a giant squid statue with pandemic relief funds in October 2020 had paid off, as it had since boosted tourism in the area and thus generated significant income for the local economy, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reported Tuesday.

Japan’s federal government said on Wednesday it is mulling over plans to build “next-generation nuclear power plants,” Kyodo News reported, noting that the admission marks a major shift from previous statements by Tokyo that it would not pursue “new nuclear energy” in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

Japan’s government recently kicked off a marketing campaign aimed at increasing alcohol sales among younger citizens, aged 20 to 39, in response to record decreases in alcohol tax income in Japan over the past few years, the Hindustan Times reported Friday.

An organized crime syndicate called the Anegasaki-kai has recently disbanded after operating within Tokyo’s old downtown district since about 1912, investigative sources told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper Friday.

Tokyo has allegedly agreed to work jointly with the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to create a new body of the U.N. public health agency that will promote universal health coverage in developing countries, Japanese Foreign Ministry sources told Kyodo News Thursday.

Japan’s population dropped in 2021 by 726,342, which was the greatest decline margin documented since Tokyo began recording relevant data nearly a decade ago, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced record-high selling prices for crude oil to Asian buyers. The remarkably high increase of 50 cents per barrel was still lower than some forecasts, which anticipated up to $1.50 per barrel.

At a press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying bizarrely and offensively compared U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit to the death of George Floyd, in a strained effort to paint the U.S. government as a murderously abusive “world policeman.”

A new Japanese economic security law came into effect on Monday, Kyodo News reported, noting that it aims to bolster a stable global supply of crucial technologies such as semiconductors and protect their patents in the face of increasing Chinese interest in such materials.

The governments of Japan and Indonesia agreed on Wednesday to ramp up coordination across the defense sector in the coming months in an effort to counter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region, Kyodo News reported.

Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday awarded a compensation payment to the family of a woman who died after suffering an allergic reaction and heart attack related to a Chinese coronavirus vaccination, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday, noting that the transaction was the first of its kind in Japan.

A soccer game in Japan continued uninterrupted last week while an active volcano visibly erupted nearby, Chile’s CHVNoticias website reported on Wednesday, noting that all athletes, officials, and spectators of the event participated in the game as if nothing was amiss despite plumes of volcanic smoke gathering in the sky above the open-air soccer stadium.