Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tested positive for COVID-19. Forced him to cancel a planned trip to Tunisia to attend a conference on African development. Comes as Japan experiences a record resurgence in coronavirus cases. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, he tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a planned trip to Tunisia … Read more
Japan to hold state funeral for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this autumn. Abe shot dead in broad daylight while campaigning for upper house elections last Friday. Second state funeral held in post-war Japan for a former PM after Shigeru Yoshida in 1967. Japan will hold a state funeral for assassinated former Prime … Read more
President Joe Biden stated in Tokyo on Monday that 13 countries have joined a new US-led Asia-Pacific trade effort aimed at countering China’s aggressive development. “The United States and Japan, together with 11 other nations, will be launching the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, or IPEF,” Biden stated during a press conference alongside Japanese Prime … Read more
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy is “doomed to fail,” speaking when President Joe Biden is in the area to strengthen engagement with allies and challenge China’s expansion and influence. “Facts will prove that the so-called “Indo-Pacific strategy” is essentially a strategy for creating divisions, a strategy for inciting … Read more
President Joe Biden will fly to Japan on Sunday for the second leg of a trip designed to bolster US leadership across Asia in the face of a rising China and a dangerously unpredictable, nuclear-armed North Korea. Biden is leaving South Korea, where he met with newly elected President Yoon Suk-yeol and discussed expanded military … Read more
Japan’s foreign minister urged Beijing to “play a responsible role” in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, In his first talks with his Chinese counterpart in six months, Japan has joined its Western allies in imposing severe sanctions on Russia in response to the Ukraine crisis, while Beijing has refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion. … Read more
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said, speaking in Tokyo on Thursday, that Russia is the “most direct threat” to the international order. Russia “is today the most direct threat to the world order with the barbaric war against Ukraine, and its worrying pact with China“, After meeting with Japanese Prime Minister … Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the G20 summit in November, which will also include Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Indonesia’s leader on Friday. Indonesia, which holds the G20 presidency this year, has faced intense pressure from the West, led by the United States, to exclude Russia in the aftermath of its … Read more
The US stated it is talking to India about Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, and that the conversations would continue at the Quad Summit in Japan next month. According to news agency PTI, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US and India had undertaken repeated talks about how to support Ukrainians throughout the … Read more
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday said he has put into action plans to rapidly increase the number of COVID-19 booster shots available to combat the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus that is wreaking havoc on the country. At a lower house budget meeting on Monday, Kishida said he has informed … Read more
SEOUL: North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the sea on Wednesday, South Korea and Japan said, in the first such launch by Pyongyang this year. In the decade since Kim Jong Un took power, North Korea has made rapid progress in its military technology at the cost of international sanctions. … Read more
Japan’s parliament enacted a record supplementary budget worth over $300 billion on Monday as part of the measures to bolster the world’s third largest economy, as the pandemic threat drags on. The extra budget, larger than the total annual GDP of countries such as Colombia, Vietnam and Finland, will fund part of the massive virus … Read more
TOKYO: Japan is considering releasing oil from its reserves for the first time to curb surging oil prices, Kyodo news agency reported, as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida signaled his readiness to counter oil price hikes following a request from the US. However, Japan may struggle to justify such a move, as under its own laws … Read more
TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveils his post-election cabinet on Wednesday, with a new foreign minister but other posts unchanged as the government begins work on a new pandemic stimulus package. At a special parliament session, lawmakers voted Kishida in as prime minister after his victory in last month’s general election. The soft-spoken moderate … Read more
