January 26, Saturday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a three-week spending bill to reopen the government until February 15th, ending the longest shutdown in the U.S. history.
  2. The United Nations will begin an independent investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was critical of the Saudi government.
  3. Government figures show the number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record high last year.

January 25, Friday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Sara Mcdonald and Ms. Emma Howard

  1. French automaker Renault has accepted Carlos Ghosn’s resignation as chairman and CEO as he remains in detention in Tokyo.
  2. Members of the prefectural assembly in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Okinawa have agreed to add another choice for a planned referendum on relocation of a U.S. base.
  3. The U.S. Senate has voted down two competing budget bills that would have reopened the government.

January 24, Thursday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Yuka Matsumoto and Ms. Hiroko Kitadai.

  1. South Korea did not take a stance on Japan’s call for talks on the wartime labor issue at a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers.
  2. The Japanese prime minister says he hopes to hold telephone talks with the U.S. president before a second U.S.-North Korea summit planned for next month.
  3. Pope Francis has expressed his desire to visit Japan this November. It will be his first trip to Japan as head of the Catholic Church.

January 23, Wednesday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Fumiko Konoe and Ms. Mariko Kojima

  1. The leaders of Japan and Russia have agreed to further accelerate negotiations on concluding a peace treaty that would include resolving the issue of four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.
  2. The foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea are to hold their first meeting since the South Korean Supreme Court’s ruling on the wartime labor issue.
  3. The U.S. government is likely to speed up its preparations for a second summit between the U.S. president and North Korean leader.

January 22, Tuesday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. A Tokyo court has denied another bail request by Nissan Motor’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn.]
  2. The Japanese prime minister is seeking progress in talks with Russia on signing a peace treaty that would include a solution to the issue of Russian-held islands.
  3. U.S. and North Korean officials appear to have met in Sweden, following the announcement by the U.S. of a second summit next month.

January 21, Monday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Raja Pradhan and Ms. Emma Howard

  1. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence says a second U.S.-North Korea summit scheduled for late February is expected to focus on specific steps toward the North’s denuclearization.
  2. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is heading to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin.
  3. The French economic minister has denied news reports claiming the French government told Japanese officials that it wants to integrate Renault and Nissan Motor.

January 20, Sunday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Yuka Matsumoto

  1. U.S. President Donald Trump says “things are going very well with North Korea” and a country has been picked to host his second summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un.
  2. The U.S. military has said an air strike in Somalia on Saturday killed 52 members of an Islamic militant group.
  3. A gasoline pipeline has exploded in central Mexico. Local authorities say at least 66 people were killed.

January 19, Saturday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. The White House says the second U.S.-North Korea summit will take place “near the end of February.”
  2. Japan’s Defense Ministry plans to make public new evidence to support its claim that a South Korean naval vessel directed its fire-control radar at a Japanese patrol plane.
  3. More than half of a million high-school students and graduates across Japan are putting their knowledge to the test at unified college and university entrance exams.

January 18, Friday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Raja Pradhan

  1. A close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in the United States, apparently to discuss a second summit between the two countries’ leaders.
  2. Former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn’s attorneys have made another request for bail to the Tokyo District Court.
  3. Japan has launched a 26-meter-long Epsilon-4 rocket carrying seven small satellites from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.