July 21, Sunday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

  1. People across Japan are casting their ballots in the Upper House election. About 47,000 polling stations opened at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday.
  2. Japan’s meteorological agency says 110 millimeters of rain fell in one hour in Fukuoka and Saga Prefectures. The agency has issued warnings for flooding and landslides in the area.
  3. Police say the suspect in an arson attack that killed dozens of people at an animation studio in Kyoto may have used a bucket to spray gasoline before setting it afire.

July 20, Saturday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued an emergency warning for extremely heavy rain in parts of Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan.
  2. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, for what it described as a violation of international maritime regulations.
  3. China’s state-run television says a massive explosion at a gasification plant in the central province of Henan has left at least 10 people dead and five others missing, with 19 people seriously injured.

July 19, Friday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Mr. Raja Pradhan

  1. South Korea has missed the Thursday deadline for responding to Japan’s request to start a third-party arbitration process over a wartime labor dispute.
  2. Police in Japan say 33 people were killed and 35 wounded after a suspected arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto.
  3. The United States has imposed sanctions on an international network of seven entities and five individuals, accusing them of supporting Iran’s uranium enrichment.

July 18, Thursday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. South Korea will likely fail to meet the deadline for acting to establish an arbitration panel on the issue of wartime labor.
  2. Japan is to call for abolishing import restrictions on Japanese food introduced after the 2011 nuclear accident in the country at a World Trade Organization meeting on Thursday.
  3. A fire at an animation studio in the city of Kyoto, western Japan, has reportedly injured more than 30 people.

July 17, Wednesday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Michael Reese and Ms. Mariko Kojima

  1. A senior official of South Korea’s presidential office says the government will deal resolutely with Japan’s stricter export restrictions against the country.
  2. The finance ministers of the Group of Seven economies will kick off a two-day meeting in France on Wednesday for which the regulation of crypto-assets is going to be high on the agenda.
  3. A U.S. State Department official says the United States will brief other countries on Friday on a new initiative to ensure security in the Strait of Hormuz.

July 16, Tuesday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Hiroko Kitadai and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. South Korean plaintiffs seeking damages for wartime labor plant to begin court procedures soon to sell assets they seized from Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
  2. U.S. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump’s tweets that their progressive congresswomen should “go back to where they came from.”
  3. Pacific Rim countries are holding a fisheries conference on measures to maintain the stocks of Pacific saury in the North Pacific.

July 15, Monday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Yoshi Ogasawara and Ms. Emma Howard

  1. China has posted its slowest economic growth since the country began releasing its quarterly GDP data in 1992.
  2. People protesting the controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong have clashed with police, resulting in injuries.
  3. The South Korean government says it will explain problems and unfairness of Japan’s export restrictions at the de facto top decision-making body of the World Trade Organization.

July 14, Sunday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Mr. Hirokazu Sakamaki and Ms. Keiko Kitagawa

  1. Britain’s foreign secretary says an Iranian tanker seized off the British territory of Gibraltar could be released if Tehran guarantees that the ship would not head to Syria.
  2. Twenty-six people, including several foreign nationals, have been killed in an attack on a hotel in southern Somalia.
  3. An international fisheries commission is warning that declining stocks of Pacific saury may not fully recover if the fish continues to be caught at the current pace.

July 13, Saturday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Risa Shimizu and Ms. Fumiko Konoe

  1. As tensions continue over Japan’s stricter export curbs against South Korea, officials from both governments have held talks since the measures were imposed on July 4.
  2. China’s Foreign Ministry says sanctions will be imposed on U.S. companies that sell arms to Taiwan.
  3. Britain is sending a second warship to the Strait of Hormuz amid an escalation in tensions with Iran over recent incidents in the region.

July 12, Friday, 2019 (2:00 p.m.) Read by Ms. Emma Howard and Ms. Sara Macdonald

  1. Japan and South Korea are discussing in Tokyo Japan’s tightened curbs on exports of some materials to South Korea.
  2. Authorities in the British territory of Gibraltar say they have arrested the captain and chief officer of an Iranian supertanker they seized last week.
  3. The nominee for the U.S. military’s top post says China will be the main challenge to U.S. national security over the next 50 to 100 years.