月: 2023年7月

1. Data from Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency show 7,235 heatstroke patients were taken to hospital nationwide in June. The figure is the second largest for the month of June since the statistics began in 2010, following 15, 969 recorded in June of last year. 2. A Japanese government panel has proposed that the country’s average hourly minimum wage for this fiscal year be raised above 1,000 yen, or about seven dollars and 20 cents, for the first time. The labor ministry panel members, including representatives from unions and corporate management, had been discussing a minimum wage hike to match the rising cost of living.
3.Policymakers at the Bank of Japan say they are introducing greater flexibility in their yield-curve control policy, or YCC. But they are otherwise leaving their ultra-loose program unchanged. The announcement came after the BOJ wrapped up its 2-day policy meeting on Friday. The officials said the yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond will be allowed to fluctuate in a range of around plus and minus half a percentage point as before. But now, they say they will conduct YCC with flexibility regarding the upper and lower bounds of the range, viewing them not as rigid limits. The BOJ will offer to purchase 10-year JGBs at 1 percent.

1. Life-threatening high temperatures were forecast across Japan on Thursday, and officials are urging steps to avoid heatstroke.
2. Tourists at the Shuzenji hot-spring resort in Izu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, are taking a respite from the scorching heat by dipping their feet in a cold footbath.
3. NATO says it is strengthening surveillance and reconnaissance activities in the Black Sea region following Russia’s pullout from a deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian ports.

1. Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Wednesday that he will step down in the coming weeks. He has named his eldest son, Hun Manet, as his successor. 2. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has arrived in North Korea, where he is due to attend events marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice.
3. The whereabouts of China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has been a source of mystery both inside and outside Beijing. He has been out of the public eye for a month. Now, he has been ousted from his job without explanation from Chinese leaders.

1. Twenty-five years have passed since a fatal arsenic poisoning at a summer festival in western Japan. Four people, including an elementary school student, died and 63 others developed poisoning symptoms after eating curry served at a community festival in Wakayama City on July 25, 1998. 2. Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been fined by a Swedish court for disobeying police during a protest last month. Thunberg was charged after blocking the road for oil trucks in the southern Swedish city of Malmo and refusing police orders to disperse on June 19. 3. A maze created in a field with about 50,000 sunflowers in northern Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture has opened to the public. Local people use an idle field in Tendo City to make the labyrinth every summer. About 50,000 sunflowers have grown as tall as two meters high. The field is around 5,000 square meters in size. The path is roughly 500 meters long.

1. This year’s air-raid evacuation drills began in Taiwan on Monday. The annual exercises are aimed at preparing people for possibilities such as a missile attack by China. The drills are being held separately in four regions across Taiwan through Thursday. 2. Rising costs have forced the organizer of a fireworks festival in western Japan to drastically increase the number of paid seats to help finance the event. The Matsue Suigosai Fireworks display in Shimane Prefecture has been held nearly every summer for about 100 years. 3. A senior Japanese government official says China is spreading inaccurate information about Tokyo’s plan to release treated and diluted water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the ocean. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Isozaki Yoshihiko told reporters on Monday that some of the information being released by China is false, and the Japanese government has made science-based objections on multiple occasions.

1. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu says Japan will strongly demand at the United Nations Security Council that Russia returns to an international framework to allow Ukraine to resume its grain exports. The UN Security Council will convene an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss Russia’s withdrawal from the deal.
2. The suspected leader of a group believed to have committed a series of robberies across Japan may have given instructions from the Philippines in a robbery that took place in Chiba Prefecture earlier this year. Imamura Kiyoto has been arrested on suspicion of giving instructions to three assailants involved in the incident in Japan at a recycling shop in Oamishirasato City. The three beat and injured the owner of the shop.
3. Japanese weather officials say they have observed a new tropical storm over waters east of the Philippines. The Meteorological Agency said on Friday morning that Tropical Storm Doksuri is moving north-northwest at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. Tropical Storm Doksuri=台風５号

1. Workers at the Acropolis, Greece’s top tourist attraction, say they will go on strike from Thursday to protest being forced to work in scorching temperatures. Staff at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Athens will stop working at 4 p.m. each day. The Acropolis is normally open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The union of workers at the ancient site says that given the problems they have faced in recent days, they have unanimously decided on the measures to protect the health of staff and visitors. 2. The United States has warned that Russia may attack civilian ships in the Black Sea, in addition to the recent attacks on Ukrainian grain facilities.
3. The head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service says Russian President Vladimir Putin is “clearly under pressure.” He also called on Russians to collaborate with MI6.

1. The Japanese consul general in Portland, a city in the western US state of Oregon, was attacked by an apparent homeless woman in the city’s downtown area last month. Japan’s Foreign Ministry says that on June 17, Consul General Yoshioka Yuzo suffered a cut to his head after being pushed to the ground by a stranger and hitting the pavement.
2. Britain is set to enact legislation that will prevent migrants from claiming asylum if they come across the English channel by boat or arrive through other unauthorized means. The Illegal Migration Bill was passed by parliament on Monday and will now go for royal assent. The bill places a duty on the government to refuse asylum applications from illegal arrivals in principle, and to detain and deport them.
3. Tokyo’s Haneda Airport reopened the International Flight Area in Terminal 2 on Wednesday. That section of the terminal was shut down, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Terminal 2 is one of Haneda Airport’s domestic terminals. The International Flight Area was opened in March of 2020 to increase the number of international flights at the airport.

1. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies have begun their second day of talks in India. Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi and Bank of Japan Governor Ueda Kazuo are taking part in the meeting in Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat. Tuesday’s discussions are expected to focus on developing countries’ debts. 2. Iran’s grain imports from Russia, which has friendly ties with Tehran, have been increasing sharply this year as Western sanctions against both countries continue. Iran’s customs authorities say the country imported about 740,000 tons of grain from Russia in the three-month period through June. That’s about 1.5 times more than in the same period last year, and 2.5 times that of 2021. 3. Japanese government officials are expressing deep concerns over Russia’s decision to halt a deal that allows Ukraine’s grain exports to continue from Black Sea ports.

1. A group of researchers says a higher basal body temperature made intestinal bacteria more active in mice and prevented them from becoming seriously ill with influenza. The group includes Associate Professor Ichinohe Takeshi of the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Medical Science. The researchers took note that mice with high basal body temperatures are less likely to develop serious symptoms if they are infected with flue.
2. Japanese tennis player Oda Tokito has won the men’s wheelchair singles title at Wimbledon for the first time. It is his second Grand Slam title following the French Open last month. 17-year-old Oda is ranked number one in the world. He faced second-ranked Alfie Hewett of Britain in the final on Sunday. 3. Japanese Actor Suzuki Ryohei has won the Screen International Rising Star award at the New York Asian Film Festival for his performance in the gay romance drama “Egoist.” Suzuki played the main character – a gay person navigating his relationship with his lover and the lover’s mother – in the film that was screened on Saturday.