Kyodo News Digest: March 23, 2025
Ryan Regez (C) of Switzerland poses after winning gold in the men’s ski cross event at the Freestyle World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on March 21, 2025, alongside silver medalist Tobias Mueller of Germany (L) and bronze medalist Ryo Sugai of Japan. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Ishiba’s Cabinet support dives below 30%, lowest since taking office
TOKYO – The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet plunged to 27.6 percent, the lowest since he took office in October, following revelations that he handed out gift vouchers to rookie ruling party lawmakers, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
The weekend telephone poll also found that 71.6 percent of respondents opposed Ishiba’s distribution of cash-equivalent coupons worth 100,000 yen ($670) each to such lawmakers of his Liberal Democratic Party.
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Cherry blossoms 1st bloom in 2025 confirmed in Kochi, western Japan
KOCHI, Japan – Cherry trees have begun to bloom in Kochi on Japan’s western island of Shikoku, marking the opening of the season in 2025 and the second consecutive year the city has recorded the country’s earliest bloom of the Somei Yoshino, the most common cherry variety, the weather agency said.
At around 2:30 p.m., the specimen tree in the Sannomaru, the largest terrace of Kochi Castle, was confirmed to have more than five blossoms — the standard for declaring official flowering, the agency said, adding full bloom is expected in about a week.
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Small helicopter crashes in central Japan, 2 suffer minor injuries
GIFU, Japan – A small two-seater helicopter crashed into a rice field in central Japan on Sunday, with the two elderly men on board taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Police received an emergency call from a witness to the incident, which occurred about 11 a.m. in Gujo, Gifu Prefecture. No individuals other than the 77-year-old and 83-year-old men on board were affected by the accident, they said.
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Driver killed, more than 20 injured in bus accident in central Japan
TSU, Japan – A bus veered off the road and crashed into a wooded area Saturday night in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, killing the driver and injuring more than 20 passengers, according to local police and emergency responders.
The accident occurred while the overnight coach, operated by Seibu Kanko Co. was en route to Saitama, north of Tokyo, from Nachikatsuura, a town on the southern coast of Wakayama Prefecture.
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Rakuten eyes expanding deliveries by robot to main e-commerce site
TOKYO – Japanese online shopping giant Rakuten Group Inc. is considering introducing autonomous mobile robots to deliver goods amid a severe labor shortage in the transportation sector, according to a senior official.
The company plans to expand the technology to its flagship Rakuten Ichiba online shopping operations, having already launched a robot delivery service in Tokyo for groceries and other items bought from local stores, Fukutaro Yamashita, a senior manager in the company’s unmanned solution department, said in a recent media briefing.
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Sumo: 2 Ukrainian wrestlers make impression at Osaka tournament
OSAKA – A pair of wrestlers from war-torn Ukraine made big strides at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament, providing a captivating storyline for the 15-day event that finished Sunday in Osaka.
Youngster Aonishiki made a stunning debut in the elite makuuchi division, racking up 11 wins against four losses, while fellow rank-and-file wrestler Shishi also impressed on his way to a 9-6 record.
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Snowboarding: Japan’s Miki wins parallel slalom at worlds
ST. MORITZ, Switzerland – Japanese snowboarder Tsubaki Miki underscored her potential as a breakout athlete of next year’s Winter Olympics by winning her second medal at the freestyle world championships in Switzerland on Saturday.
Two days after taking silver in the parallel giant slalom, the 21-year-old from central Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture clinched gold in the parallel slalom.
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Baseball: Cubs’ Suzuki homers twice, Red Sox’s Yoshida to start on IL
MESA, Arizona – Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki hit a pair of solo home runs in a spring training game Saturday against the Colorado Rockies, while Boston Red Sox left fielder Masataka Yoshida is set to begin the season on the injured list with a shoulder issue.
Suzuki, batting second and playing left field, homered in the first and third innings before being replaced in the fourth. His second home run of the game and third of the spring cut the Rockies’ lead to 4-2 at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona.
Video: Footages of U.S. air raid and other events from World War II released
