日: 2023年12月30日

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.