Ikitsuki, Japan | AFP | Japanese rice farmer Masatsugu Tanimoto doesn’t think of himself as a Christian, and you’d almost never find him in a church. But every so often, he and others meet to recite prayers drawn from another time and place. The group, dressed in sober kimonos and …
Read More »Abe to make first Pearl Harbor visit by Japan leader
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is to become the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor, announcing Monday a trip to the site of his country’s surprise attack that launched World War II in the Pacific. News of the journey comes just two days ahead of …
Read More »Fukushima residents urged to flee as 7.3 magnitude quake hits Japan
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | A strong 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit northeastern Japan early Tuesday, with the country’s meteorological agency issuing a tsunami warning for the region’s coast, including Fukushima prefecture, public broadcaster NHK said. A some three metre (9.9 feet) tsunami could hit the northeastern coast, the agency said, …
Read More »Japan PM confident in Trump’s diplomacy debut
New York, United States | AFP | Japan’s prime minister voiced confidence Thursday about Donald Trump as he became the first foreign leader to meet the US president-elect, who was narrowing in on cabinet choices. Trump, who has been receiving a flurry of Republican operatives at his Manhattan skyscraper since …
Read More »Japan gives $2.8m grant to support businesses in Northern Uganda
The Japan government has given Uganda $2.875 million grant to improve access to income earning opportunities for poor and vulnerable households in Northern Uganda. The grant will benefit 120 existing community groups that were established under the NUSAF2 Project, and support 240 new ones. Groups are to have 10 to …
Read More »One in five Japan employees face ‘death from overwork’
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | A fifth of the Japanese workforce faces the risk of death from overwork, according to a new government survey into the country’s notoriously strenuous working culture. Hundreds of deaths related to overwork — from strokes, heart attacks and suicide — are reported every year in …
Read More »‘Snake on a train’ halts Japan bullet express
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | A Japanese bullet train was forced to make an emergency stop on Monday after a snake was found slithering between the seats, local media reported. A passenger spotted the 30 centimetre (12 inch) serpent poking between a gap in the seats, prompting the train, travelling …
Read More »China flies military planes over strait near Japan
Beijing, China | AFP | China has sent fighter planes for the first time over a strait near Japan, the two governments said Monday, after Tokyo announced it may patrol alongside the US in the disputed South China Sea. More than 40 Chinese military aircraft on Sunday traversed the …
Read More »Japan PM demands world find ‘new means’ to stop N. Korea
United Nations, United States | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday demanded that the world find a new way to halt the threat from North Korea after the long-sanctioned regime’s nuclear and missile tests. Abe, addressing the UN General Assembly, said that calculations about North Korea needed …
Read More »Trump, Clinton compete to meet top leaders in New York
New York, United States | AFP | Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met Egypt’s president in New York on Monday as the two US presidential candidates tried to bolster their diplomatic credentials at the United Nations. Democratic standard-bearer Clinton said last week that she would meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along …
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