月: 2023年12月

1. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for global unity to make 2024 a year of building trust and hope. The UN chief released a video message for the New Year on Thursday. Guterres expressed a strong sense of crisis, saying, “2023 has been a year of enormous suffering, violence and climate chaos.”
2. Tokyo’s Haneda Airport was bustling from early on Friday as year-end travelers left for hometowns or vacations. This is Japan’s first year-end and New Year holiday season sine the government downgrade and COVID-19 to the same category as seasonal influenza. 3. Major shipping firms in Denmark and France have announced partial resumption of services through the Red Sea. Many international carriers have suspended passages through the sea amid concerns about attacks on ships by Yemen’s anti-government Houthi group. The group has attacked a number of vessels in recent months in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

1. Matsumoto Castle in central Japan had a year-end cleanup to prepare for the coming New Year festivities. The castle, a designated national treasure in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, is cleaned every year at around this time.
2. Japan’s transport ministry has approved a plan by the Central Japan Railway Company to delay the start of its magnetically levitated train service from the initial scheduled of “2027 o later.” The company decided on December 14 to make the change for the section between Tokyo’s Shinagawa and Nagoya and filed for the change with the transportation ministry. 3. Researchers in Japan say a new coronavirus variant thought to be better at evading the human body’ immune system is becoming increasingly prevalent nationwide. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases says the JN.1 variant accounts for an estimated 31 percent of all detected cases this week, up sharply from 11.6 percent in the week through December 3.

1. A US firm researching the logistics industry says the operations of many commercial vessels in the Red Sea have been affected as Yemen’s anti-government Houthi group continues to attack ships in the area.
2. Tokyo prosecutors have begun searching the office of a Lower House lawmaker in connection with a fundraising scandal involving factions of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party. On Wednesday, investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office raided Ikeda Yoshitaka’ office, which is located at the Diet members’ office building. 3. Suspended prison sentences have been finalized in Japan for three male former Ground Self-Defense Force members who were found guilty on charges of indecent assault of a female subordinate. The defendants did not file an appeal by the two-week deadline on Tuesday.

1. Japanese automaker Daihatsu Motor suspended operations at its main assembly plant in Osaka on Tuesday. This comes after irregularities were found in safety test data. Production has now come to a halt at all four of the carmakers’ factories in Japan. The plants in Shiga, Kyoto and Oita prefectures were shut down on Monday.
2. Sources say Tokyo prosecutors have questioned Hagiuda Koichi, a former policy affairs chief of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on a voluntary basis. The move is part of an investigation into a political fundraising scandal involving the party’s largest faction, which was once led by the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
3. The Japanese government has decided to impose additional sanctions against three more senior Hamas members. The Cabinet on Tuesday approved freezing the assets of the individuals, who are thought to have been in a position to use funds for terrorist activities. This follows a similar government decision in October against nine Hamas members.

1. Major Japanese department store operator Takashimaya says it is looking into why some of the Christmas cakes purchased on its online store were delivered in a damaged condition. Takashimaya issued an apology on Sunday after hundreds of customers contacted the company about receiving ruined frozen cakes.
2. Orthodox churches in Ukraine are further distancing themselves from Russia by celebrating Christmas on December 25, as the invasion of their country continues. Ukraine, like Russia, had observed Orthodox Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar. But earlier this year, Kyiv officially changed the date to align with Western European countries. 3. A leading Russian newspaper says the country has been dealing with acute labor shortages this year. It adds that the problem will remain acute in 2024. Izvestia, the newspaper, said that Russia was short about 4.8 million workers this year. The figure represents more than 6 percent of the country’s workforce.

1. Students at Major League player Ohtani Shohei’s old elementary school got the chance to check out some of the baseball gloves the star has donated to schools in Japan. Three of the gloves, two for right—handers and one for left-handers, were sent to Anetai Elementary School in Oshu City in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate. About 250 students got their first look at them after the school’s second-semester closing ceremony on Friday. 2. Japan’s government has officially decided to allow a mission of the Self-Defense Forces in Djibouti to rescue and evacuate its nationals during emergencies in the Middle East and Africa. The mission is in the eastern African nation for anti-piracy measures in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia. It also gathers information to secure the safety of ships related to Japan. 3. Japan’s Daihatsu Motor is halting production at all of its domestic plants from next week following a scandal over test data irregularities. The automaker is also considering compensation payments to parts makers it deals directly with. The move could have an impact on regional economies. Daihatsu will stop production at all four of its vehicle factories in Japan.

1. Health authorities in Tokyo are sounding the alarm about a type of bacterial disease commonly spread among children. They are calling on people to take precautionary steps such as washing hands and wearing masks.
2. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says he plans to launch a national institute in January to study ways to ensure that generative AI technologies are safe to use and help promote benefits for society. 3. People in Indonesia’s Aceh Province have welcomed students from northern Japan to share their experiences dealing with earthquakes and tsunamis. Both regions have suffered from massive disasters in recent history.

1. Japanese automaker Daihatsu Motor is set to halt shipments of all its domestic and overseas models due to a third-party committee’s discovery of additional safety data irregularities. It was found in April that Toyota Motor’s fully owned subsidiary had rigged door parts in collision tests on cars for overseas markets. In May, it came to light that Daihatsu had improperly obtained government certification for hybrid vehicles for the Japanese market as well. 2. The top court in the western US state of Colorado has ruled that former President Donald Trump is disqualified from running for president in the state. The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting his supporters to attack the US Capitol in 2021. The court said the decision is based on the US Constitution, which bars any person “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from office, and that Trump is ineligible to appear on Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot.
3.Japan’s Justice Minister Koizumi Ryuji is slated to leave his political faction after prosecutors raided the offices of two factions of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party due to a fundraising scandal.

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has pledged to regain public trust as Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Abe and Nikai factions over a fundraising scandal. But Kishida said he will retain in his Cabinet two ministers from one of the party factions under scrutiny.
2. Prosecutors in Tokyo have begun raiding the offices of two factions of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party in connection with a political fundraising scandal. It is alleged that the factions failed to report the receipt of political funds in violation of the Political Funds Control Law. 3. Bank of Japan policymakers had no Christmas surprise for financial markets in their final meeting of the year. The central bank said it will leave its ultra-easy monetary policy unchanged after the two-day meeting ended on Tuesday. The vote among policymakers was unanimous.

1. The secretary-general of Japan’s main ruling Liberal Democratic Party says he will consider measures to ensure the transparency of political fundraising parties, including revisions to the political funds control law. 2. Japan is investing about 13 trillion yen, or over 90 billion dollars, to promote decarbonization efforts in the private sector. It will issue so-called green transformation bonds to cover the cost. 3. Colorful images projected on the exterior of a castle in central Japan are entertaining people visiting the popular tourist attraction.