Kyodo News Digest: Sept. 7, 2024

Activists from civic groups stage a rally against a Japan-South Korea summit in Seoul on Sept. 6, 2024. (Kyodo)

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan’s main opposition party begins leadership race, eyes general election

TOKYO – Official campaigning for the race to choose the leader of Japan’s largest opposition party began Saturday as it gears up for a likely general election later in the year.

Yoshihiko Noda, 67, who served as Japan’s prime minister from 2011 to 2012 under the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan, is one of four candidates in the Sept. 23 election for leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

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Baseball: Ohtani’s 45th home run not enough in Dodgers’ defeat

LOS ANGELES – Shohei Ohtani hit his 45th home run as he inched closer to a 50-homer, 50-steal season on Friday, when his Los Angeles Dodgers came up short in a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.

Ohtani, who is now one shy of the career-high 46 homers he hit in 2021, the first of his two MVP seasons, remained on 46 stolen bases after the game at Dodger Stadium. The solo homer accounted for his 100th RBI, equaling his career high, also from 2021.

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Japan business lobby urges “fairness” in U.S. Steel buyout review

TOKYO – Japan’s top business lobby on Friday urged “fairness” in the review of Nippon Steel Corp.’s plan to acquire United States Steel Corp. as Washington is apparently set to block the deal in the run-up to the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The Japan Business Federation made the opinion public in a rare statement regarding specific corporate activity after U.S. reports said President Joe Biden’s administration is in the final stage of rejecting the offer by Japan’s largest steelmaker to acquire the Pittsburgh-based firm.

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Baseball: Martinez powers Nippon Ham to 4th straight win

KITAHIROSHIMA, Japan – Ariel Martinez had a three-run homer among his three hits as the Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Orix Buffaloes 5-1 on Saturday to extend their winning streak to four games.

Martinez broke open a two-run game with his 13th home run in the fifth inning off Ryuhei Sotani (6-10) at Es Con Field Hokkaido outside Sapporo.

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New Japan PM set to be picked Oct. 1 when extra Diet session begins

TOKYO – The successor to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely be selected on Oct. 1, when an extraordinary Diet session is expected to be convened, sources familiar with the plan said Friday.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is set to choose its next president on Sept. 27. With both houses of parliament controlled by the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito, it is a formality the winner will be the next prime minister.

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Bullet trains halted on east, central Japan sections after accident

TOKYO – Bullet train services on some eastern and central Japan sections were temporarily halted Saturday following a fatal accident on a parallel track near Tokyo, their operator said.

Services were suspended on the Tokyo-Sendai, Tokyo-Niigata and Tokyo-Nagano sections of the Tohoku, Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen lines, respectively, between about 10:35 a.m. and 11:50 a.m., according to JR East.

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U.S., Japan, S. Korea discuss ways to counter N. Korea cyber threats

WASHINGTON – U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials met on Friday in Seoul to discuss ways to counter cyber threats posed by North Korea, the State Department said.

The countries’ working group on the North Korean issue took stock of the progress made in their trilateral cooperation in disrupting Pyongyang’s ability to raise and launder funds through cyber activities and third-party partners, the department said.

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Aging Japan struggling with slow adoption of cashless payments

TOKYO – While cashless payments are spreading in Japan, the country still lags behind other major economies in adopting the technology amid an aging population that still largely prefers cash transactions, recent government data showed.

The total amount of cashless settlements in Japan stood at 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion) in 2023, or a record 39.3 percent of overall consumption in the country, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The government is aiming to attain 40 percent by 2025.

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