News

South Korea says Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will attend the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo this month. It will be the first time in about three years for a South Korean prime minister to visit Japan.

South Korea's foreign ministry said on Thursday that National Assembly Deputy Speaker Chung Jin-suk will also attend the funeral on September 27 in Tokyo. Chung heads the South Korea-Japan parliamentarians' union.

Japan's government is preparing to further ease its coronavirus border controls as early as next month.

The government loosened anti-infection border controls on September 7, raising the ceiling for entrants to 50,000 per day from 20,000. It also allowed all inbound tourists to take package tours without guides.

Taiwan says that two former speakers of parliament and a former prime minister will attend the state funeral of former Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo in Tokyo on September 27.

A spokesperson for Taiwan's presidential office announced the delegates on Thursday.

Japanese weather officials say a severe tropical storm, Nanmadol, is expected to move closer to Okinawa Prefecture and Amami region of Kagoshima Prefecture from Friday through Saturday. The storm may approach other parts of western Japan by Sunday.

The large storm could also affect eastern and northern Japan from Saturday through Monday.

The leader of Komeito, the junior partner of Japan's ruling coalition, has been reelected without a vote for an eighth term.

Komeito held its leadership election on Thursday.

Video game fans are flocking to the Tokyo Game Show for the first time since 2019. The event is one of the largest in the industry. It was held online over the past two years due to the pandemic.

A total of 605 exhibitors from 37 countries and territories are on hand at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo.

Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko is on her way to New York City to meet Mayor Eric Adams. They plan to discuss global issues such as climate change and energy problems.

Koike departed from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Thursday morning for a four-day trip to New York City, the sister city of Tokyo.

Japan's largest opposition party has decided that its executives will not attend the state funeral for former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.

Constitutional Democratic Party President Izumi Kenta told a news conference on Thursday that the government has not given a sincere explanation of the reasons for holding a state funeral for Abe.

The operator of Narita Airport near Tokyo has unveiled plans to consolidate its three terminals as it builds a third runway.

The president of Narita International Airport Corporation, Tamura Akihiko, told reporters on Wednesday that he presented the plans at a closed-door meeting with the local governor and the heads of local municipalities.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has ordered officials to come up with specific measures to achieve sustained wage hikes and to boost the nation's earning power by taking advantage of the weak yen.

At a meeting of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Wednesday, Kishida instructed his ministers to study concrete measures for a new economic package to be drawn up in October.

Investigative sources say the arrested chairman of the Kadokawa publishing firm met a former executive of the Tokyo Games organizing committee and asked for the early conclusion of a sponsorship contract.

Tokyo prosecutors arrested Kadokawa Tsuguhiko on Wednesday on suspicion of bribing Takahashi Haruyuki.

A survey in Japan on a group of people under the age of 20 who died from the coronavirus has found that about half of them had no underlying health problems.

Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases examined records on young people who developed coronavirus symptoms and died between January and August this year, when the omicron variant spread rapidly in the country. The institute reported results of its survey to the health ministry's panel of experts on Wednesday.

Japan's Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi has not ruled out direct market action to stop the yen's decline.

Suzuki told reporters on Wednesday he has been saying that rapid movements in the currency market are not favorable. He noted there are likely to be fluctuations over the next few days, but the overall trend is depreciation of the yen.

Japanese weather officials say Tropical Storm Nanmadol is moving north over the sea off the Ogasawara Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The storm may approach Okinawa Prefecture, the Amami region of Kagoshima Prefecture and western Japan from Saturday through Monday.

The Meteorological Agency says Nanmadol, spawned off the Ogasawaras early Wednesday, was moving north-northeast slowly at 3 p.m. on the day.