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TOKYO, Nov 2, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Thursday a stimulus package worth $113 billion aimed at easing the pain from inflation. Voters in the world’s third-largest economy have been squeezed by rising prices since the Ukraine war while Kishida’s poll ratings are at their lowest since taking office in 2021. “This package… is expected to total in the lower range of the 17 trillion yen ($113.2 billion) level,” Kishida […]
TOKYO, Nov 1, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese police on Wednesday were probing the motives of an 86-year-old who took two women hostage in a post office after reportedly first setting his home on fire and shooting into a hospital. Two people were wounded at the hospital in Saitama, outside Tokyo, while the two hostages were unharmed after an eight-hour ordeal at the hands of the irate and armed pensioner on Tuesday. Media reports said Tsuneo […]
TOKYO, Nov 1, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s top currency official said on Wednesday that Tokyo was “on standby” to intervene after the yen fell to a new year-low against the dollar and plunged against the euro, Bloomberg reported. The yen dropped below 151 against the dollar overnight after the Bank of Japan further loosened its control of bond yields but stuck with sub-zero short-term interest rates. Against the euro, the Japanese currency fell to its […]
By Tomohiro OSAKI SAITAMA, Japan, Oct 31, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese police detained a reportedly 86-year-old man who held several people hostage in a post office after apparently shooting into a hospital and injuring two people on Tuesday. After a standoff lasting eight hours in Warabi, outside Tokyo, police said they finally detained the man after 10 pm (1300 GMT) after surrounding the three-storey building. “The man has been detained. Details will come later,” a […]
SAITAMA, Japan, Oct 31, 2023 (AFP) – Police were surrounding a post office in Japan late Tuesday as a suspected gunman held an unknown number of people hostage, with local media reporting two people injured in a possible shooting at a nearby hospital. It was not immediately clear whether the two incidents were related, but reports said that the suspect in the hospital case had sped away on a motorbike. Images on television showed the […]
By Etienne BALMER, Elie GUIDI NAMEGATA , Japan, Oct 31, 2023 (AFP) – Fading photos of smiling children still adorn the staircase walls at the Ashigakubo primary school, one of thousands that have shut in ageing Japan over the past 20 years. The school, which was more than a century old, was forced to close in 2009 when the last few dozen children left to join a bigger one “because they couldn’t make any friends”, […]
TOKYO, Oct 28, 2023 (AFP) – The EU and Japan agreed a deal Saturday on cross-border data flows that will facilitate online trade among businesses and send a strong message against “digital protectionism”, the European Union said. Signed on the sidelines of the ongoing G7 trade ministers’ meeting in Osaka, the agreement is meant to make doing online business “easier, less costly and more efficient”, the European Commission said in a statement. Specifically, it will […]
TOKYO, Oct 23, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised on Monday tax cuts as part of a new economic programme that he hopes will shore up his sagging popularity. Kishida has seen his ratings plummet to the lowest levels since he took office two years ago, and over the weekend his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost a by-election. In a legislative policy address to parliament, Kishida listed his economic achievements and […]
TOKYO, Oct 20, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese consumer inflation slowed to below three percent last month for the first time since August 2022 on the back of easing gas and electricity prices, government data showed Friday. The annual reading of 2.8 percent, excluding volatile fresh food prices, was just shy of market expectations of 2.7 percent and follows 3.1-percent rises in August and July in the world’s number-three economy. But stripping energy as well as […]
MOSCOW, Oct 16, 2023 (AFP) – Russia on Monday followed its ally China in suspending all Japanese seafood imports over Tokyo’s release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Japan has been sharply critical of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Tokyo’s relations with Beijing — which has deepened ties with Moscow — have worsened. Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s body responsible for regulating agriculture products, said it was “joining China’s provisional restrictive measures on the import of […]
By Tomohiro OSAKI, Natsuko FUKUE TOKYO, Oct 12, 2023 (AFP) – The Japanese government said Thursday it was seeking to strip official recognition from the Unification Church, the influential sect under intense scrutiny since the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last year ordered a probe into the church after it emerged that Abe’s alleged killer was motivated by resentment against the group. It has been accused of pressuring its […]
TOKYO, Oct 9, 2023 (AFP) – Japan issued a tsunami advisory for some coastal regions early Monday following a series of shallow earthquakes in the Izu islands in the Pacific Ocean but there were no immediate reports of damage from the minor waves generated, seismologists said. Tsunami waves of 60 centimetres (24 inches) hit Hachijojima island, 280 kilometres (170 miles) south of Tokyo, while ones of 40cm and 20 cm were recorded in western Kochi […]
