投稿者: tomoyasu

1. The latest NHK opinion poll shows that the approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s Cabinet remains unchanged from last month at 61 percent. The disapproval rate is 23 percent, up 1 percentage point.
2. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has arrived in Japan for talks with Japanese leaders on a wide range of topics. Bessent flew into Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Monday, ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China later this week.
3. A long-abandoned steam locomotive is back in motion after one man devoted years of his time to restoring it. Ishikawa Akira, a 78-year-old equipment installation business owner in Toyota City, central Japan, unveiled the repaired D51 engine on his firm’s premises on Sunday.

1. The US Central Command said on Thursday that three of its guided-missile destroyers came under an “unprovoked” attack by Iran. It said all the threats have been neutralized and no people were hurt or equipment damaged.
2. The head of the World Health Organization says more hantavirus cases “may be reported” in connection with the cruise ship hit by the virus, but the risk to public health is “low.” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the remarks on Thursday, calling the situation “a serious incident.”
3. A US trade court has ruled that a 10-percent global tariff imposed by US President Donald Trump in February is illegal.

1. Arrangements are apparently being made for US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to visit Japan next week for talks with Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae and Finance Minister Katayama Satsuki.

2. The draft of a final document to be adopted at a nuclear disarmament conference in New York calls for maintaining human control over nuclear weapons to reduce the risks posed by emerging technologies.

3. Investigators in Kyoto say a murder suspect told them that he got furious at his son who said “you are not my real father.”

1. China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency says the country’s foreign minister has held talks with his Iranian counterpart in Beijing in a meeting arranged by the Chinese side. The encounter on Wednesday between Abbas Araghchi and Wang Yi comes about one week after Araghchi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 27 in Russia.
2. US President Donald Trump has announced a pause in the US operation to ensure safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday that the so-called Project Freedom will be paused for “a short period of time” to see whether an agreement with Iran “can be finalized and signed.”
3. The Natural History Museum in London has returned the ancestral remains of seven indigenous Ainu people to Japan at the request of the Japanese government. A ceremony to mark the handover was held at the museum on Tuesday, with Japan’s Ainu-Related Policies Minister Kikawada Hitoshi in attendance.

1. Russia has declared a two-day unilateral ceasefire in its conflict with Ukraine to mark the anniversary on May 9 of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.　The Russian defense ministry revealed on social media on Monday that the truce, set for May 8 and 9, follows a directive from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ministry added that it expects Kyiv to follow suit.

2. Pope Leo XIV is set to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Vatican on Thursday, amid a diplomatic rift with the administration of President Donald Trump. The Holy See announced the meeting on Monday. The US State Department says Rubio will travel to Rome from Wednesday through Friday, and meet with Holy See leadership to discuss issues including the situation in the Middle East.

3. The US Secret Service says an armed man opened fire near the White House on Monday, injuring a bystander. The Secret Service says that its agents spotted a suspicious individual near the Washington Monument, a tourist landmark in the US capital, on Monday afternoon.

1. The leaders of Japan and Australia have issued a joint declaration outlining cooperation in economic security. The guidelines center on strengthening supply chains for energy, critical minerals, food and other key resources. Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae held talks with her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Monday.
2. Japanese government data shows the number of children in the country has fallen to 13.3 million. The figure has declined for a 45th consecutive year. The internal affairs ministry estimates there were 13.29 million children aged 14 or younger as of April 1, down 350,000 from a year earlier. Boys account for 6.81 million of the total, compared to 6.48 million girls.   
3. Children’s Day displays are being shown at a traditional thatched-roof house in Tokyo ahead of the May 5 celebration. The home on the grounds of a museum in Nerima ward was built in the late 1880s. It has been designated as a cultural asset by the ward. A family in the ward bought the displays between the mid-1950s and early 1960s for a baby boy. They include a warrior’s helmet, a drum and flags showing a family crest.

1. People in Iran attended a concert in the capital, Tehran, on Thursday to mark the state-designated “National Persian Gulf Day.”

2. The yen strengthened to the 155 level against the dollar again on Friday in Tokyo. This comes after sources told NHK that Japanese authorities intervened in the currency market on Thursday to prop up the yen. The currency strengthened sharply soon after.

3. Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has arrived in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi for her five-day tour of the country and Australia. The tour is aimed at securing stable supplies of energy and critical materials.

1. Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae says the country is projected to secure enough naphtha-derived petrochemical products to last beyond this year. Takaichi made the comment on Thursday during a meeting of Cabinet ministers regarding the Middle East situation.
2. Japan’s Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has held talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian by telephone following the passage of a Japan-linked vessel through the Strait of Hormuz. Takaichi told reporters she urged Iran to ensure the safe navigation of all ships, including those linked to Japan in the Persian Gulf.
3. A brown bear weighing more than 300 kilograms has been culled by hunters in a farming town in Hokkaido, northern Japan.The bear was found in a box trap on Sunday in the town of Tomamae. The trap had been placed near a field and an area of pasture.

 1. Otsuchi Town in northeastern Japan lifted a wildfire evacuation order for most areas on Wednesday as the risk of the blaze spreading to residential areas has declined.      2. The World Bank says energy prices are projected to rise by about 24 percent in 2026 as the conflict in the Middle East sends a severe shock through global commodity markets. In its latest Commodity Markets Outlook released on Tuesday, the bank says energy prices are expected to be the highest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 3. Britain’s King Charles III has stressed the importance of the partnership between Europe and America in an address to the US Congress. The King spoke for about 30 minutes on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. The royal household says he is the second British monarch to do so, following Queen Elizabeth II in 1991.He said the two countries are “instinctively like-minded,” which is “a product of the common democratic, legal and social traditions in which our governance is rooted to this day.” He added, “Drawing on these values and traditions, time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together.”

1. The United Arab Emirates’ state-run media said on Tuesday that the country will leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, as well as OPEC Plus as of May 1.
2. Firefighters in Japan’s northeastern prefecture of Iwate have been working to put out wildfires for a week. While rain has begun falling, the blazes have yet to be contained.
3. Cases of measles are increasing across Japan at the fastest pace since 2020. Measles is a highly contagious virus that spreads through the air as well as from water droplets and physical contact. Serious cases can lead to death. Symptoms include fever, coughing and rash.