1. Japan’s new Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has pledged to make utmost efforts to resolve as soon as possible the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea.
Takaichi said she deeply regrets that no more Japanese abductees have been able to return to Japan since five were repatriated in 2002.
2. Twenty children and two teachers have been taken to hospital after they were stung by wasps at an elementary school in western Tokyo. The school says more than 30 first-graders were having a class outside the school building when some of them were stung by wasps about 2 centimeters long. The officials say the insects appear to be a type of hornet that makes nests in the ground.
3. Weather officials in Japan say Mount Fuji has been capped with snow for the first time this season. Officials at the Kofu Local Meteorological Office about 40 kilometers from the summit said they virtually confirmed snow coverage on Japan’s highest mountain on Thursday morning.