Japan and the European Union have agreed to further strengthen cooperation and dialogue across a wide range of areas related to security and defense. Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas talked for over an hour in France on Thursday on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministerial meeting.
Japan’s government has decided to require more than 10 years of residency to obtain Japanese nationality from next month as it tightens the requirements for citizenship. Justice Minister Hiraguchi Hiroshi told reporters on Friday that foreign nationals will be required to have lived in Japan for at least 10 years in principle and be well-integrated into society to be granted Japanese citizenship.
The number of schoolchildren in Japan who took their own lives last year reached a record high of 538, while the total number of suicides fell to the lowest ever.