1. The mother of a Japanese woman abducted to North Korea has urged the government to take action for the immediate return of all abduction victims, ahead of her daughter’s 61st birthday. Yokota Sakie spoke to reporters on Thursday three days before the birthday of Megumi. Megumi was kidnapped by North Korean agents on her way home from a junior high school in Niigata City on the coast of Sea of Japan on November 15, 1977. She was then 13 years old.
2. NHK has found that at least 100 fires in Japan in the roughly three and a half years to August are believed to have been caused by recalled products containing lithium-ion batteries.
3. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is trying to expand the number of hunters, and help them improve their skills, in response to threats posed by bears. Multiple Asian black bear sightings have been reported in the Japanese capital this year, especially in the mountainous areas of western Tokyo.