Kyodo News Digest: Sept. 26, 2024
A field of kochia plants is lit up in various colors for the media at Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, on Sept. 18, 2024, ahead of its special 10-day lighting event starting Sept. 27. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan defense force ship sails through Taiwan Strait for 1st time
TOKYO – A Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel has sailed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s direction, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday, triggering an immediate backlash from China.
On Wednesday, the destroyer Sazanami, along with Australian and New Zealand vessels, headed southward from the East China Sea and through the narrow waterway between China and Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory, the sources said.
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Man wins landmark acquittal in 1966 quadruple murder retrial in Japan
SHIZUOKA, Japan – A Japanese court acquitted Thursday an 88-year-old former professional boxer in a high-profile retrial decades after he was sentenced to death over a 1966 quadruple murder, saying investigators had fabricated evidence.
Iwao Hakamata spent nearly half a century on death row before new evidence led to his release from incarceration in 2014, leading to his being recognized that year as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.
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Tokyo Game Show showcases latest AI tech in games amid labor shortage
CHIBA, Japan – The Tokyo Game Show kicked off Thursday with a special area showcasing the latest artificial intelligence technology to help develop video games, as the industry grapples with a chronic labor shortage.
A record 985 exhibitors from 44 countries and regions are participating this year, displaying their newest titles in one of the world’s biggest gaming trade fairs.
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Japan will not send new envoy to military-ruled Myanmar: sources
TOKYO – Japan will not send a new ambassador to Myanmar after the current envoy leaves the country later this week, with a minister taking over duties as the charge d’affaires, diplomatic sources said Thursday, downgrading its relations with the country under military rule since a 2021 coup.
A new ambassador needs to submit credentials to the junta — which took power on Feb. 1, 2021, by ousting Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government — and Japan was concerned dispatching an envoy would be taken as an endorsement of the military government, according to the sources.
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China releases images of test-fired ICBM likely to be Dongfeng-31
BEIJING – The Chinese military released images of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday that it test-fired the previous day, with observers saying it was likely a Dongfeng-31 AG capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
China’s second publicized ICBM launch into the Pacific Ocean Wednesday morning since a successful test-firing in May 1980 has sparked speculation that it may be sending a signal to the United States and its allies amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
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North Korea may conduct nuclear test after U.S. election: South Korea
SEOUL – North Korea may conduct a nuclear test after the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, a South Korean lawmaker said Thursday, citing South Korea’s spy agency.
Though the possibility of a nuclear test to be held ahead of the election cannot be ruled out, it is more likely to be afterward, Lee Sung Kwon, a member of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, told reporters following a briefing by the National Intelligence Service.
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Hyogo Gov. to rerun despite losing job following no-confidence motion
KOBE – Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito vowed to seek reelection Thursday despite accepting the automatic loss of his position following the prefectural assembly’s unanimous adoption of a no-confidence motion against him over abuse of power accusations.
Saito was given 10 days to decide whether to dissolve the assembly or offer his resignation as the governor of the western Japan prefecture, of which Kobe is the capital, in the wake of the passage of the motion on Sept. 19.
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Spent nuclear fuel delivered to Japan’s sole interim storage facility
AOMORI, Japan – A batch of spent nuclear fuel was delivered Thursday for the first time to an interim storage facility built in northeastern Japan as part of efforts to address increasing fuel stockpiles kept at nuclear power plants nationwide.
A total of 69 fuel assemblies from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex in Niigata Prefecture arrived by ship and road at the facility in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, on the northernmost tip of Honshu, Japan’s main island.
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