月: 2024年7月

1. US President Joe Biden has resumed his election campaign and underscored the need for gun control. Biden returned to his campaign trail on Tuesday by visiting Nevada, one of the battleground states in the November presidential election. He had suspended the campaign in the wake of the attempted assassination of his rival, former President Donald Trump, on Saturday. 2.A shortage of workers is a big headache for Japanese firms, especially smaller ones. Some are being urged to hire people who can’t commit to full-time hours as regular employees, allowing them to qualify for benefits such as health insurance.
3. Gorgeously decorated floats have paraded through Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto as part of its annual Gion Festival. The summer festival reportedly started more than 1,000 years ago to pray for the end of a plague. The parade of 23 floats – a festival highlight – kicked off at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. A child dressed in a traditional costume on the lead float used a sword to cut a sacred straw rope stretched across a main street in central Kyoto.

1. US President Joe Biden has disputed criticism from some Republicans that his comments incited the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. In response to the criticism about his comments, Biden argued about the difficulty of discussing the threat to democracy. 2. Trump makes public appearance after securing Republican Party’s presidential candidate – two days after he survived an attempt on his life at a rally. Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention as it kicked off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday. 3. Japan and Pacific island nations will discuss a range of common issues they face during a three-day summit due to open in Tokyo on Tuesday. Japan invites leaders from South Pacific island nations and other countries once every three years for the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting.

1. The US Republican Party is to open its convention and officially nominate former president Donald Trump as its candidate for the presidential election in November. The four-day Republican National Convention will start in Milwaukee in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin on Monday afternoon. The meeting opens two days after Trump was shot and wounded on his right ear during a speech at a rally in the eastern state of Pennsylvania on Saturday. 2. US President Joe Biden has called for unity in a televised address one day after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. “I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics,” Biden said. “Do remember, though we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, co-workers, citizens. And most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together.” Biden also said he spoke with Trump and is grateful he was not seriously injured. 3. A statue of a girl who died of leukemia after exposure to radiation in the 1945 US atomic bombing of Hiroshima has disappeared from a park in the United states. Police are investigating the incident as theft. Local media outlets say the statue of Sasaki Sadako was found to be missing from Peace Park in Seattle on Friday with only the figure’s feet left in place. There is speculation that the statue was targeted due to the surging price of copper.

1. The prime ministers of Japan and Britain have confirmed the security and economic cooperation between the two countries. They have also agreed to work together to deal with global issues. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio met with Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer for about 20 minutes on Thursday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. It was their first in-person meeting since Starmer took office. 2. US President Joe Biden is giving a boost to what he sees as an “engine” of the American economy. His administration announced on Thursday 1.7 billion dollars in grants to produce electric vehicles. He is hoping the investments will also bring him votes in swing states. 3. Authorities in Matsuyama City in the western Japanese prefecture of Ehime are searching for three people after a landslide hit a residential area.

1. US trade officials fear their Chinese counterparts could be using a back door into the American market, trying to avoid paying taxes by sending metals through Mexico. They announced on Wednesday that they are imposing tariffs on foreign-made steel and aluminum shipped from Mexico.
2. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has arrived in the United States to join the NATO summit in Washington. Kishida will take part in the summit on Thursday as the leader of a NATO partner country in the Indo-Pacific, along with South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. 3. Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries have stressed their alliance’s unity and affirmed continued support for Ukraine in their summit declaration. The leaders stressed unity and solidarity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying they are “bound together by shared values: individual liberty, human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”

1. The UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting on Russia’s latest missile attacks across Ukraine. One of the strikes on Monday heavily damaged a children’s hospital in Kyiv. The meeting was held on Tuesday at the request of France and other countries. Russia holds the council presidency this month.
2. Bank of Japan data shows the nation’s inflation accelerated again in June. Price pressures continued to mount, as the government reduced energy subsidies intended to ease gas and electricity bills. The central bank’s Producer Price Index last month rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier in a preliminary reading. The index measures the prices companies charge each other for goods and services.
3. Trails on Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest peak, are now fully open for climbers this year. The Fujinomiya, Gotemba and Subashiri trails on the Shizuoka Prefecture side opened on Wednesday, following the opening of another route in neighboring Yamanashi Prefecture last week. The mountain straddles the two prefectures.

1. Iran’s President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has reaffirmed that the country’s support for Russia and anti-Israel forces will not change under his presidency. The reformist candidate, who called for improvement in Iran’s relations with Western countries, won the presidential runoff on Friday.
2. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia on Monday to begin a two-day official visit and shore up ties with a longstanding partner. Modi knows he has to strike a balance with President Vladimir Putin. This is his first official visit since Russian troops invaded Ukraine. India is determined to keep its close ties with Russia despite pressure from Western countries and their allies. On his arrival, Modi tweeted, “Stronger ties between our nations will greatly benefit our people.”
3. US President Joe Biden has been trying to calm the fears of Democrats nervous about his chances in the November election. He wrote a letter on Monday to Democratic lawmakers in Congress, saying he is “firmly committed” to beating his rival, Donald Trump.

1. Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko has won her third term in Sunday’s election. Koike addressed her supporters and cited various challenges Tokyo is facing, such ass soaring prices and the falling birthrate. She has pledged to take action against the latter by expanding free childcare. 2.A left-wing alliance in France has become the largest force in the country’s lower house of parliament, defying pre-election predictions. But no bloc won enough votes to form a majority. The runoff election took place on Sunday following the first round of the election on June 30. President Emmanuel Macron called the snap election as his coalition was dealt a huge defeat by the far-right National Rally party in European Parliament elections in June. 3. Corporate bankruptcies in Japan jumped to the highest in a decade in the first six months of this year. A survey by credit researcher Teikoku Databank shows some failed after being unable to repay interest-free loans taken out during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey says 4,887 companies went under with debts of at least 10 million yen, or 60,000 dollars. That’s up 22 percent from the same period last year.

1. The UK’s largest opposition Labour Party has secured a victory in the general election, ousting the Conservatives from power for the first time in 14 years, and looks set to win in a landslide. British public broadcaster BBC says the Labour Party has won 403 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, exceeding a majority. The ruling Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, has secured 110 seats. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is set to become the next UK prime minister.
2. European media outlets have reported that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban will visit Russia on Friday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some European leaders are warning against a meeting.
3. US President Joe Biden has admitted he “had a bad night,” “screwed up” and “made a mistake” in a televised debate against former President Donald Trump last week. But he vowed to stay in the presidential election contest. In an interview during a radio show, the president said the he “didn’t have a good debate” during his 90 minutes on stage. But Bident asked listeners to look at what he has accomplished in three and a half years of his presidency. He stressed he had “led the economy back from the brink of collapse.”

1. Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled for the first time that the country’s defunct Eugenic Protection Law, which forced people with impairments to undergo sterilization surgery, is unconstitutional. People who were forcibly sterilized had filed lawsuits across Japan, arguing that the discriminatory treatment was unconstitutional and seeking state compensation. Presiding justice Tokura Saburo declared the defunct law unconstitutional and ordered compensation in four of the cases.
2. Japan’s top government spokesperson has revealed three more cases of alleged sexual violence involving US military personnel. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa spoke to reporters on Wednesday after two alleged sexual assault cases in Okinawa Prefecture came to light. 3. Japan issued new banknotes for the first time in 20 years on Wednesday. A ceremony was held in the morning at the head office of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi. BOJ Governor Ueda Kazuo said that the bank plans to put 1.5 trillion yen, or about 9.9 billion dollars, worth of new banknotes into circulation on the day. He said that while cashless transactions are becoming more prevalent, he believes that cash will continue to play a major role as it is a reliable payment method that can be used by anyone, anywhere and at any time. Ueda added he hopes that the new notes will become widely distributed among the public and serve as a lubricant for the Japanese economy.