1.The UN General Assembly has adopted for the 18th straight year a resolution urging North Korea to immediately return all foreign nationals it has abducted. The assembly adopted the resolution without a vote on Thursday. It has been submitted by the European Union every year. More than 60 countries, including Japan and South Korea, co-sponsored the resolution this year. 2. In a major milestone in efforts to revamp Japan’s defense strategy – the Cabinet is set to approve three key documents which reimagine how the nation should be able to defend itself and provide a plan to pay for some big changes. The National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy outline a new policy that would give Japan the ability to launch counterstrikes – only under specific circumstances. They would be limited to self-defense and would never be preemptive.
3. Experts tasked with assessing the coronavirus situation in Tokyo are calling on residents to be on the alert for a resurgence of infections. They say the number of new daily cases may double from the current figure to reach nearly 30,000 in mid-January.
日: 2022年12月16日
December 15, Thursday, 2022 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline read by Mr. Yamaguchi Hiroaki
1. Defending champions France are through to the World Cup final in Qatar after a 2-nil win over tournament surprise package Morocco. The match was billed as a battle between French superstar Kylian Mbappe and Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou who had conceded just once in five games that included a penalty shootout. But it took France just 5 minutes to beat him. A goalmouth scramble saw the ball fall to defender Theo Hernandez who angled a shot home. 2. Participants of a UN Security meeting have called for urgent reform of the body. Observers say the council is failing to take united action over the situation in Ukraine and other matters due to disagreements between member states with veto power.
3. Post offices across Japan started accepting New Year’s greeting cards on Thursday. In this age of social media, the postal service is encouraging people to give their greetings in the traditional way by sending “nengajo.”