月: 2020年8月

1. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide is likely to wait to announce his intention to run to succeed Prime Minister Abe Shinzo until now and when the method of choosing a successor is agreed.
2. A delegation led by the Czech Republic’s Senate president has arrived in Taiwan. It is unusual for senior officials of a country that has diplomatic ties with China to visit Taiwan.
3. A Japanese start-up company has showcased for reporters a test flight of a manned vehicle, a so-called “flying car.” The vehicle uses propellers, much like a drone.

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo intends to step down to deal with a health problem. Abe has told his ruling Liberal Democratic Party officials of his intention to resign.
2. Japan’s government says it will aim to secure enough coronavirus vaccine for all citizens in the country by the first half of next year.
3. Members of a group of Black players of Major League Baseball say they are donating two days’ worth of their salaries to support the cause of social justice.

 

1. U.S. President Donald Trump says he will send federal law enforcement to the state of Wisconsin, where protests continue following the police shooting of a black man. Jacob Blake was critically injured when he was shot several times in the back on Sunday in the city of Kenosha. Anti-police demonstrations there have turned violent, with clashes with officers and shootings at night.
2. Tennis star Osaka Naomi is pulling out of her semifinal match at the Western and Southern Open to bring attention to the ongoing racially motivated protests in the United States.
3. Iran has agreed to accept inspections from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, reversing its past stance of rejecting them. This comes after International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi made his first visit to Iran since he took office in December.

 

 

1. Sales at Japan’s major restaurant chains kept falling in July, as the coronavirus discouraged people from eating out. Fast-food restaurants didn’t do too badly, with a decline of just 3.6 percent. That was thanks to rising sales of takeout and home delivery. But family-style restaurants and pubs fared much worse.
2. Protesters in several U.S. cities are back on the streets after another police shooting involving a black man. Officers in the state of Wisconsin responded to a call about a domestic dispute. They ended up shooting a man.  Bystanders say the individual was trying to help.
3. The Spanish government says it will mobilize 2,000 military troops to fight against the coronavirus that is resurging in the country. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters on Tuesday that soldiers will be mobilized to make up for a shortage of personnel. The soldiers will be involved in the contact tracing processes, which identifies people who have been in close contact with those infected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. The head of the World Health Organization has called on countries to take part in a framework that would ensure participants fair access to coronavirus vaccines. He said, “Vaccine nationalism only helps the virus.”
2. Researchers using Japan’s latest supercomputer say they have found that some face masks can help block viral droplets, but thorough room ventilation is still needed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
3. Japan’s tourism minister Akaba Kazuyoshi says more than 4 million people made use of the government’s “Go To Travel” program over the past month.

 

 

1. Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo spent three and a half hours at a hospital in Tokyo on Monday for medical reasons. He says it was a follow-up to a test he took last week. But the visit adds fuel to concerns the prime minister may be in poor health.
2. Japan’s two major airlines are cutting domestic flights again in September. That’s because rising coronavirus infections are putting a renewed damper on travel around the country. All Nippon Airways says it will reduce its scheduled domestic flights by 45 percent next month.  Japan Airlines also plans to halt 43 percent of its domestic flights in the first half of September.
3. U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled his key policies for a second term ahead of the Republican Party’s national convention. On foreign affairs issues under his “America First” policy, Trump is vowing to make U.S. allies “pay their fair share” of defense costs, and also withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Relations with China are emphasized as an important issue.

 

 

 

 

 

1. U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, with fraud in connection with a fundraising program to build a wall along the country’s border with Mexico.
2. Teenage shogi sensation Fujii Sota has become the youngest-ever holder of two major professional titles for the chess-like Japanese board game.
3. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has delivered his acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. He’s now officially set to take on President Donald Trump this November.

 

 

 

 

1. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that his administration will begin taking steps to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran over the country’s nuclear program.
2. The U.S. Democratic Party has officially nominated Senator Kamala Harris as its candidate for Vice President. Harris’s father is from Jamaica, and her mother is from India. She is the first Black woman and Asian-American to run as vice president on a major party ticket.
3. Officials in Tokyo say 28 people died of heatstroke in the city during the eight-day period from August 12 to August 19. That brings the total number of facilities this month to 131.

1. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has been officially nominated at the Democratic Party’s national convention to be the party’s presidential candidate.
2. Authorities in Mauritius have arrested the captain of a Japanese-owned cargo ship that spilled about 1,000 tons of fuel oil into the Indian Ocean. Local media have reported that the crew may have steered the ship close to the shore to get Wi-Fi signals.
3. Japan’s exports to China in July rose for the first time in seven months. But the country’s overall imports and exports remained sluggish due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

 

1. In the United States, the national convention of the Democratic Party has opened to officially pick its presidential candidate. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to be nominated on Tuesday.
2. U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized former Vice President Joe Biden and warned that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will crush the economy and dismantle police departments if elected.
3. The economic growth of Southeast Asian nations has contracted sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic.