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Tokyo, Japan | AFP | A reactor at a Japanese nuclear power plant automatically shut down on Monday after an alert, but no radiation rise was detected and regulators said they were investigating the cause. The reactor at the Takahama power plant in central Fukui region halted at around 3:20 pm (0620 GMT) after an alarm warning of a rapid decrease in the number of neutrons, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA). But the […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Monday 1/30/2023 French automaker Renault will slash its stake in Japanese partner Nissan as part of a deal rebalancing the rocky alliance between the two companies, the firms said Monday. The deal will also see Nissan take a stake in Renault’s new electric vehicle venture Ampere, though the size of the investment was not immediately announced. The agreement comes after months of painstaking negotiations, and repeated delays, as the two […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s Toyota was the world’s top-selling automaker in 2022, retaining its lead over German rival Volkswagen for the third year, company data showed Monday. Despite the chip shortage and Covid-related supply chain disruption, Toyota and its subsidiaries sold nearly 10.5 million vehicles last year, around the same as in 2021. In comparison, Volkswagen Group — which held the top spot until 2020 when it was overtaken by Toyota — sold 8.3 […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Friday 1/27/2023 Japan’s government will drop its recommendation to wear masks indoors and downgrade its medical classification for Covid-19, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday. The changes, effective from early May, will classify the disease on the same level as the flu, down from its current status on par with tuberculosis and SARS. “As for masking, regardless of indoors and outdoors, the decision will be left up to individuals,” Kishida […]
Nagano, Japan | AFP | Tourists revelled in wintry scenes across Japan on Wednesday, as much of the country was blanketed by snow in a cold snap that has killed at least one person and disrupted travel. “These temperatures are some of the coldest we’ve seen in a decade,” Japan Meteorological Agency official Takafumi Umeda told AFP. Record lows were logged in several locations, including one area of southern Kumamoto, where the mercury hit -9 degrees […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Two crew were confirmed dead and nine others were missing Wednesday after their cargo ship sank in rough waters between Japan and South Korea, Japanese authorities said. Coast guards from the two countries, joined by military aircraft and a private vessel, located 13 of the 22 people who were onboard the Jin Tian, a Japan coast guard official said. But Japanese medical authorities later confirmed two of those retrieved were […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Monday 1/23/2023 Japan’s low birth rate and ageing population pose an urgent risk to society, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday, pledging to address the issue by establishing a new government agency. Birth rates are declining in many developed countries, but in Japan the issue is particularly acute because it has the world’s second-highest proportion of people aged 65 and over, after the tiny state of Monaco, according to World […]
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Sunday 1/22/2023 A fire at an apartment building in Kobe in western Japan killed four men and left four in critical condition on Sunday, an official said. The fire department was alerted to the blaze in the three-storey building by an emergency call at around 1:30 am (1630 GMT Saturday). Four bodies were found after it was extinguished. Four other men, aged between their 40s and 70s, “were taken to […]
Tokyo, Japan (AFP) by Kyoko HASEGAWA / Sara HUSSEIN Japan’s central bank left its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged Wednesday, bucking heavy speculation that it could again tweak a key lever, and sending the yen plunging. The announcement after a two-day Bank of Japan meeting saw the yen sink over two percent against the dollar, with the greenback buying more than 131 yen after the decision, from around 128.50 earlier in the day. Bank officials shocked […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s High Court on Wednesday upheld the acquittal of three former executives from the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, again clearing them of professional negligence over the 2011 disaster. The decision was announced by activists supporting the prosecution of the three men, following the appeal hearing in the only criminal trial to arise from the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The court declined to comment on the verdict while […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tons of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesman said Friday. The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government will wait for “a comprehensive report” by the UN watchdog before the release, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Cooling systems at the plant […]
by Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday that attacks in space would invoke its defense treaty with Japan and announced the deployment of a more agile Marine unit on its ally’s soil as alarm grows over China. Weeks after unveiling plans to ramp up security spending, Japan sent its defense and foreign ministers to Washington where the two countries issued a statement vowing to “modernize the alliance […]
