月: 2025年8月

1. Japan’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.0 percent from April to June, marking the fifth straight quarterly expansion.
2. Worshipers lite about 100,000 candles to pray for their ancestors at a sacred mountain in Wakayama Prefecture, western Japan. Mount Koya, or Koyasan, is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
3. A drill simulating shooting wild bears　that　have　appeared　in　populated　areas　was　held　in　Sapporo　City　in　the　northernmost　prefecture of Hokkaido on Thursday.

1. Renowned Japanese tea master Sen Genshitsu, who made a valuable contribution to the development of tea ceremony culture in Japan and overseas, died on Thursday. He was 102. Sen was born in Kyoto as the eldest son of the 14th head of the Urasenke School of tea ceremony. He headed the school for nearly 40 years from 1964 to 2002. Urasenke is one of Japan’s major schools for tea ceremony.
2. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru has called on the leaders of Western countries to unify in efforts to realize an early ceasefire and peace in Ukraine. During an online meeting on Wednesday night through Thursday morning Japan time, he expressed his renewed respect and solidarity for the Ukrainian people who are facing Russian attacks on a daily basis. He urged the other leaders to act in a unified manner to bring about an early and complete ceasefire as well as fair and lasting peace.
3. The only subway line serving the venue of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka was suspended due to a power outage late on Wednesday, stranding many visitors. The suspension forced the closure of Yumeshima Station, the nearest stop to the Expo venue, leaving large crowds unable to leave.

1. NHK’s latest poll shows that more people support than oppose Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru’s plan to remain in office despite the recent setback in the Upper House election. The poll found that 49 percent of respondents supported Ishiba’s plan, 40 percent opposed it, and 11 percent said they didn’t know or gave no answer.
2. Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken by phone with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ahead of a summit with US President Donald Trump. The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Putin shared information with Kim about the summit planned on Friday in Alaska.
3. The White House says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not join the planned summit between the US and Russian presidents on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the summit as a “listening exercise” for Trump. She said the goal for the president is to “walk away with a better understanding of how we can end this war.”

1. August 12 marks the 40th anniversary of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet crash that claimed over 500 lives, making it the world’s deadliest single-plane accident. The flight took off from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on August 12, 1985, bound for Osaka but crashed into a mountain in the village of Ueno in Gunma Prefecture. A total of 520 passengers and crew members died.
2. Authorities are warning people across Japan to brace for severe rain. Downpours have already battered Kyushu, leaving at least one dead and two with no vital signs. Meteorological Agency officials say torrential rain could hit a vast area stretching from the west to the north through Wednesday. They say the risk of disasters such as landslides is rising in northern Kyushu, as well as the Chugoku and Hokuriku regions.
3. The renowned Awa Odori summer dance festival opened in the city of Tokushima on Monday with a dazzling stage performance. The five-day event began with a ceremony at a local hall, followed by performances by about 600 dancers from top troupes.

1. US Vice President JD Vance says a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine is unlikely to satisfy either side. Vance said that the Trump administration is “going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops.”
2. Sources at the US Treasury Department have told NHK that Washington may lower the tariff on Japanese vehicles and other products in mid-September to the level earlier agreed with Japan. The sources disclosed that a reference point for the tariff’s reduction is set at 50 days after the two countries reached an agreement in late July.
3. The Japan Meteorological Agency has downgraded the heavy rain emergency warning for seven municipalities in Kumamoto Prefecture to a heavy rain warning or advisory. But it’s still urging people to beware of landslides, flooding and swollen rivers.

1. A lantern festival is illuminating summer nights at a shrine in Kamakura City, near Tokyo. The annual Bonbori Festival is underway at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine.
2. Japan’s chief trade negotiator says the US has agreed to amend an executive order on import tariffs to correctly reflect what the two sides agreed in recent talks.
3. US tech firm OpenAI has released an upgraded version of its generative artificial intelligence model ChatGPT, which it says can provide more accurate answers.

1. Pope Leo XIV has condemned what he called the “illusionary security” of the global nuclear deterrence system as he addressed crowds at the Vatican on the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Speaking in Italian, the working language of the Vatican, Leo said, “Despite the passing of the years, those tragic devastation caused by wars and, in particular, by nuclear weapons.”
2. Multiple media outlets say US President Donald Trump intends to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as early as next week. The reports said Trump also seeks to hold three-way talks including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shortly after the meeting with Putin.
3. Paper lanterns bearing images of women and other designs are lighting up the night at a famed summer festival in Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture, northern Japan. The Tanabata Edoro festival is said to date back around 300 years, when a daughter of a court noble from Kyoto who married into a local family wrote her nostalgic feelings for her home on paper strips and hung them on bamboo. In this year’s festival, which began on Tuesday, about 170 lanterns with drawings in a variety of styles, including ukiyo-e, were displayed along the city’s shopping streets.

1. Temperatures in Japan are rising on Wednesday, reaching over 41 degrees Celsius in central Japan. Officials are urging the public to take thorough measures against heatstroke. The Japan Meteorological Agency says the mercury reached 41.4 degrees Celsius in Shizuoka City at 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday. It is the 7th day this year with a temperature over 40 degrees in Japan, tying the record set in 2018.
2. Four people of Japanese descent who say they were left behind in the Philippines in the chaotic conclusion of World War Two have lodged citizenship claims with Japanese courts. Eighty years on from the end of the war, there are still about 50 such people in the Philippines pursuing citizenship claims in Japan.
3. Authorities have begun an investigation into a fire that broke out on two barges at a seaside fireworks festival in the city of Yokohama, near Tokyo. At the festival on Monday, two of the eight barges used to launch fireworks from the ocean caught fire, prompting fireworks to explode one after another on the barges. The fire was confirmed to have been extinguished about 15 hours after it started.

1. Japan’s agriculture minister says businesses have withdrawn applications to buy nearly 10 percent of the rice they had sought from government stockpiles in no-bid contracts. Koizumi Shinjiro, the minister, said on Tuesday that applications for about 29,000 tons of government reserves had been withdrawn as of August 1.
2. A traditional Japanese archery event was held in Nikko, a popular tourist destination north of Tokyo, to honor a legendary archer and feudal warrior. The late 12th-century warrior Nasu no Yoichi, who belonged to the Minamoto clan, is said to have shot an arrow at a fan placed on a small boat at sea in a battle with the rival Heike clan. The event is based on a legend that the warrior prayed to a shrine in what is now Nikko for success in hitting the target.
3. A seaside fireworks festival in the city of Yokohama, near Tokyo, was thrown into chaos on Monday evening after a fire broke out on launch barges. Police received calls from people saying the two barges used to launch fireworks were burning. The festival took place in the city’s Minatomirai district. Five workers jumped into the sea and were rescued. One of them sustained minor injuries.

1. Authorities have confirmed that dozens of people who died during June and July in the main 23 wards of Tokyo are suspected to have died from heatstroke. The Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Examiner’s Office released preliminary figures on Monday. Officials say 56 people are believed to have died from heat-related causes between June 16 and end of July. More than two-thirds of them were found to have refrained from using air condition, despite having such systems installed.
2. A police investigation suggests that the four workers who died after falling into a manhole in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, succumbed to hydrogen sulfide poisoning and asphyxiation. The male workers, all in their 50s, were inspecting a sewage pipe in Gyoda city on Saturday. Police say the believe one of them fell in first, and the rest followed while trying to recue him. All of them were later confirmed dead.
3. Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru says he will do all he can to urge US President Donald Trump to quickly sign an executive order to cut auto tariffs, following last month’s agreement between the two countries.