月: 2023年4月

1. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have found part of a helicopter that disappeared last week with 10 people on board in waters in southwestern Japan. A search and rescue team believes they have found at least one body. Defense Ministry sources say an underwater camera has captured what appears to be part of the missing Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter and a body. 2. Ukraine’s economy plunged by almost one-third last year as the Russian invasion devastated agriculture, fishing, manufacturing and construction. The country’s statistics service said Wednesday that 2022 gross domestic product contracted 29.1 percent from the previous year. 3. Japan’s government has approved a plan by Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka to open the country’s first resort featuring a casino in 2029. It is the first time for the government to make such an approval.

1. Japanese weather officials say yellow sand from China’s deserts has blown into wide regions from northern to western Japan, including Tokyo. This is the first time since May 2021 that yellow sand has been observed in central Tokyo.
2. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and Coast Guard Continue to search for a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter that disappeared in southwestern Japan a week ago with 10 people on board. The helicopter dropped off radar last Thursday soon after taking off from the island of Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture. The 10 people, including a division chief, remain missing. 3.An eyewitness of the Myanmar military’s airstrike on a village that reportedly killed at least 100 civilians, including children, says the attack is a war crime. Myanmar’s military said its airstrike targeted a ceremony to mark the opening of an office for the pro-democracy National Unity Government.

1. Yellow sand swept across Beijing and other parts of China, sending air pollution surging to hazardous levels on Monday and Tuesday. Chinese weather officials said strong winds carried yellow sand from inland regions and neighboring Mongolia to northern China and other parts of the country. 2. NHK has learned that a draft of a communique to be issued by the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations demands that Russia withdraw its forces from Ukraine immediately and unconditionally. The G7 foreign ministers are scheduled to meet from April 16 in the town of Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, central Japan. A draft of the communique the ministers are aiming to adopt condemns Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in the strongest possible terms.
3. US IT venture firm Open AI says it will pay people who report vulnerabilities, bugs or security flaws in its artificial intelligence systems up to 20,000 dollars. Open AI is the developer of Chat GPT. It made the announcement about its Bug Bounty Program on its official blog on Tuesday.

1. The United States and the Philippines have begun their largest-ever joint military drills, with 17,600 personnel from both countries taking part. The Philippines has been strengthening its alliance with the US in the face of a growing Chinese presence in the South China Sea. 2. South Korea says it has agreed with the United States that many of the allegedly leaked US documents are fake and untrue. The documents include those that suggest Washington spied on Seoul. South Korea’s presidential office on Tuesday said the US and South Korean defense chiefs agreed on the assessment in a phone conversation. It also said the two sides will further strengthen their relationship of trust and cooperation through their alliance.
3. More and more people around the world are using the artificial intelligence chatbot known as Chat GPT. The CEO of the apple’s developer Open AI visited Japan on Monday. Sam Altman suggests in an exclusive interview with NHK that Chat GPT will improve our lives in ways we may never have imagined. He said, “We wanted to come here first. Japan has been an extremely exciting country for this whole wave of AI. It’s also a country that has such geopolitical importance and a sort of strong democratic foundations.”

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio agreed with the new Bank of Japan governor there is no need to immediately revise a 2013 joint statement that aims for a price stability target of 2 percent inflation. Ueda Kazuo, who assumed his post as BOJ governor on Sunday, visited the Prime Minister’s office on Monday evening to receive his letter of appointment. He was joined by his two new deputy governors.
2. An NHK opinion poll shows that the approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s Cabinet rose one percentage point to 42 percent. The disapproval rate fell by five points to 35 percent. 3. Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force says it has found a helmet belonging to one of the 10 personnel who were on board a helicopter that went missing last week. The GSDF says the helmet was retrieved on Sunday near the coast of the island of Irabujima in the southern prefecture of Okinawa.

1. Organizers of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka have announced the event is going completely cashless. Visitors will be able to choose from about 60 payment methods, including smartphone app and credit card. The organizers say the event will be the first World Expo to be completely cashless. 2. The leaders of France and China have agreed that Russia and Ukraine should resume peace talks as soon as possible. They also agreed that no one should use nuclear weapons. Xi said China and France have a responsibility to promote multilateralism and protect the peace, stability, and prosperity of the world. Macron expressed hope that China will work for peace in Ukraine. He said he’s counting on Xi to bring Russia back to reason and everyone back to the negotiating table.
3. Japan’s Defense Ministry says a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter has disappeared from radar in the country’s southwest. Ministry officials say the UH-60JA multipurpose chopper, with 10 people on board, was flying near the island of Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture when it vanished from radar at around 4:33 p.m. on Thursday.

1. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has met with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, in California. She is stopping in the US on her way back to Taiwan after a tour of Central America. At a news conference, Tsai said, “The peace that we have maintained and the democracy that we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges.”
2. A United Nations report says North Korea stole a higher value of cryptocurrency assets in 2022 than in any previous year using increasingly sophisticated techniques. It recommends that the head of the country’s agency responsible be sanctioned.
3. Japan has outlined a new strategy to preserve biodiversity and start restoring nature by 2030. The government revised the strategy for the first time in 11 years in response to the UN’s COP 15 biodiversity convention in December. Delegates adopted a pledge to protect 30 percent of the Earth’s lands, coastal areas and inland waters.

1. Japan’s Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa says his country wants to secure its cooperation with NATO to strengthen international order based on the rule of law. Hayashi said the international community stands at a historical turning point, and that he wants to highlight the importance of Japan-NATO cooperation to uphold and strengthen a free and open international order and the rule of law. 2. Finland has officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This makes the Nordic nation the 31st member of the world’s largest military alliance. The event marks the end of decades of military non-alignment for Finland. The country has a border with Russia that runs about 1,300 kilometers. Helsinki changed its policy in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 3. The operator of a sushi restaurant chain in Japan is set to offer its used cooking oil for the production of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. Food & Life Companies, the parent firm of sushi chain Sushiro, is teaming up with 3 businesses including engineering firm JGC Holdings for the project.

1. Former US President Donald Trump is now in New York, on the eve of his arraignment scheduled for Tuesday. A New York grand jury indicted Trump last week, making him the first former president to face criminal charges. He left his home in Florida and entered Trump Tower in Manhattan on Monday. Media outlets reported that he will spend the night there.
2. The second meeting of an international forum to discuss nuclear disarmament opened in Tokyo on Tuesday. The International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons was launched by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. 3. The international organization governing taekwondo says it will allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in next month’s world championships as neutral individuals. Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from most international competitions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

1. A new Japanese agency in charge of implementing policies for children and families has begun full-scale operations. The Children and Families Agency was established with about 400 personnel on Saturday. An inauguration ceremony was held at its Tokyo office on Monday. 2. World-renowned Japanese musician and composer Sakamoto Ryuichi has died at the age of 71. He was a founding member of a trailblazing electronic music group and composed acclaimed film scores that won him an Oscar. Sakamoto co-founded the band Yellow Magic Orchestra, known as YMO, with Hosono Haruomi and Takahashi Yukihiro in 1978. The group pioneered the use of computers and electronic instruments such as synthesizers, establishing the genre called techno-pop.
3. Japanese health authorities have confirmed what appears to be Japan’s first death from an unexplained case of acute hepatitis that has reportedly been affecting children.