月: 2025年4月

１. Water gushing from a broken pipe has inundated a national highway in Kyoto City, western Japan. City officials suspect aging infrastructure is to blame. A passerby reported the incident at around 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The Takakura intersection in the city’s Shimogyo Ward was said to be under water.
2. Relatives of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea met with a senior US State Department official to seek American support for the swift return of the abductees. The relatives and their supporters met Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau in Washington on Tuesday and held talks for about 30 minutes. The relatives are Yokota Takuya, who heads a group of abductees’ families, and Iizuka Koichiro.
3. A meeting of the BRICS emerging economies has ended with a presidential statement expressing serious concerns over “indiscriminate” tariffs, without naming the US administration of President Donald Trump. The foreign ministers of BRICS members, including China and Russia, wrapped up their meeting on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A total of 20 nations took part, including the group’s partner countries.

1. A Spanish electricity operator says power has been restored after a massive outage hit Spain and Portugal, but traffic disruptions are continuing. The blackout started from around noon on Monday. The Spanish government declared a state of emergency and called on people to minimize travel and act calmly. Portugal’s government said on Tuesday that the country’s power supply has been normalized.
2. Canada’s ruling Liberal Party is set to win a general election, which will allow its leader and prime minister, Mark Carney, to focus on tackling tariffs and other threats from the US. The vote took place on Monday. Canada’s public broadcaster CBC reported at night that the Liberal Party had won more than 160 out of 343 seats allocated to each electoral district. This made it the leading force in the House of Commons. 3. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has arrived in the Philippines on the second leg of a Southeast Asian trip. He will meet with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and is likely to discuss security issues. Ishiba is first scheduled to meet with people of Japanese descent, whose fathers were Japanese and mothers were from the Philippines. Many of these people were left behind in the confusion of World War Two and have often been marginalized, including being stateless.

1. Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru met with his Vietnamese counterpart, Pham Minh Chinh, on Monday in Hanoi, where the pair discussed a wide range of issues including the impact of US tariffs on the global economy. The leaders discussed the impact of US tariffs and China’s countermeasures on the global economy and the multilateral free trade system. 2. US President Donald Trump says he believes his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican went well. On Saturday, Trump and Zelenskyy held their first face-to-face talks at the Vatican since they met at the White House in February. The meeting ended in a heated argument.
3. About half of Japan’s rice wholesalers say there has been no change in the country’s rice shortage, even after the government began releasing national stockpiles in mid-March.

1. Japan’s Finance Minister Kato Katsunobu held talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Wahington on Thursday. Kato told reporters that Bessent did not raise the issue of currency levels, targets or any framework for managing exchange rates. 2. Friday marks 20 years since a passenger train derailed in western Japan, killing more than 100 people. Families of victims, survivors and employees of the train’s operator visited the site of the tragedy.
3. South Korea says it has conveyed to China serious concerns that it has about Chinese structures in the Yellow Sea, where maritime boundaries between the two countries have not yet been determined.

1. Japanese police are preparing to enforce “blue ticket” fines that will be imposed on cyclists for relatively minor traffic violations, such as using phones while cycling, from April 1 next year. The new fine system for cyclists was included in a revision to the Road Traffic Act that passed the Diet last year in response to a rise in accidents involving bicycles. 2. A dozen US states have jointly sued President Donald Trump’s administration to block what they call illegal tariffs on trading partners. The states say the tariffs harm consumers by raising prices. The state of New York said on Wednesday that a coalition of 12 states filed the civil lawsuit with the US Court of International Trade. They are seeking a court order for the administration to stop enforcing the tariffs.
3. A theme park in the western Japanese prefecture of Wakayama says it will bid farewell to all four of its giant pandas in around late June. Adventure World in Shirahama Town announced on Thursday that all the pandas under its care will be transferred to China.

1. US President Donald Trump says he does not intend to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. He made the remark even though the two have different views on monetary policy. 2. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the United States has not made an official proposal for a peace plan, despite media reports.
3. Thousands of swans have arrived at an internationally recognized wetland on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.

1. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has told new US Ambassador to Japan George Glass that he hopes they can work hard in hand to strengthen the alliance between the two countries. Ishiba said that, while respecting the views of President Donald Trump, he wants Japan and the US to deepen dialogue on ways to strengthen their alliance and whatever they can do for world peace and stability. Glass responded that the two countries have a long history of relations, and he looks forward to working together with Japan to make their friendship stronger. 2. Harvard University has filed a lawsuit in the US to try to stop the administration of President Donald Trump from implementing a partial freeze on the institution’s federal funds. The administration announced that it was freezing billions of dollars in federal assistance last week, after the university rejected the conditions that were attached to the funds. One condition required the institution to strongly enforce rules regarding student behavior. 3. Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru is expected to visit Vietnam and the Philippines next week to exchange views with the countries’ leaders of the two Southeast Asian nations. The leaders are expected to exchange opinions on the Trump administration ‘s tariff measures. They will also discuss the ways in which the levies could affect the world’s economy and the free trade system.

1. Pope Francis died on Monday. He was 88 years old. The Vatican said his death was caused by a stroke and heart failure. People around the world mourned his passing. Pope Francis was born in Argentina. He became the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff when he was elected in 2013.
2. US President Donald Trump has repeated his claim that Japan tests the body strength of foreign vehicles by using a bowling ball, citing this as an example of a non-tariff barrier. But Japan’s transport ministry says the country has no such national safety standards test. 3. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly shed more than 1,300 points in New York on Monday following a renewed call for interest rates cuts by President Donald Trump. The president posted the call on social media on Monday, saying that “preemptive cuts” are being called for by many. He urged Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower the interest rates immediately.

1. Japan’s Economic Revitalization Minister Akazawa Ryouhei says he will continue arguing for Japan’s national interests in future talks with the US on its tariff policies. 2. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indicated the possibility of President Donald Trump ending his efforts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, “If it’s not possible.” 3. India, a country whose shrimp farmers rely heavily on exports to the United States, has been rattled by the US tariffs. Frozen shrimp is a leading export item for India, generating about 4.9 billion dollars in fiscal 2023. And the US is its largest market.

1. Japan’s Economic Revitalization Minister Akazawa Ryosei has held a first round of trade negotiations with his US counterparts. The meeting took place on Wednesday in Washington. Akazawa, who heads the Japanese delegation, held talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The Japanese minister also met President Donald Trump at the White House ahead of the ministerial-level negotiations. 2. NHK has learned that personal information has unintentionally been made publicly available on a service operated by Google. The service started in the 2000s, but NHK found out this year that emails shared among users of certain groups, such as those set up by private businesses, labor unions and medical institutions, could be accessed by anyone on the web. 3. A survey by a US research firm shows that hotel room rates in Tokyo have been rising sharply since 2022, when the coronavirus pandemic started to ease. The firm said the 2024 price was the highest since 1996.