Japan

TOKYO (AP) — IOC President Thomas Bach and other International Olympic Committee members are calling Tokyo the best prepared host city in memory.

Still, there are obstacles ahead for the 2020 Games, though small by the standards of the corruption-plagued Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

John Coates, the head of an IOC inspection team, wrapped up three days of meetings in Tokyo on Wednesday and said the city’s summer heat is a growing worry.

PARIS (AP) — The Japanese city of Osaka will host the World Expo in 2025, after beating out cities in Russia and Azerbaijan in the race to host an event expected to draw millions of visitors and showcase the local economy and culture.

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan Motor Co. fired Carlos Ghosn as chairman Thursday, curtailing the powerful executive’s nearly two decade long reign at the Japanese automaker after his arrest for alleged financial improprieties.

In an hours-long meeting, the company’s board of directors voted unanimously to dismiss Ghosn as chairman and as a representative director, Nissan said in a statement. It said its own internal investigation, prompted by a whistleblower, found serious misconduct including under-reporting of his income and misuse of company assets.

19 Nov 2018; AFP: Japan's politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States shrank further in October, the fourth consecutive monthly decline, official data showed Monday.

The figure also showed an overall global trade deficit, as increases in imports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas overwhelmed a rise in exports of cars and engines.

The surplus with the US came in at 573.4 billion yen ($5 billion) in October, a year-on-year decline of 11.0 percent.

19 Nov 2018; AFP: Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn faces being fired this week after being arrested in Japan over allegations of financial misconduct, the firm said Monday, in a stunning fall from grace for one of the world's best-known businessmen.

Ghosn's arrest and his likely dismissal from Nissan, as well as possibly from Mitsubishi and Renault, sent shockwaves through the auto industry, where he is a towering figure, credited with turning around several major manufacturers.

TOKYO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. fighter jet crashed off Japan's southern prefecture of Okinawa, the Japan Coast Guard and Defense Ministry said Monday.

According to the officials, the FA-18 aircraft crashed in waters around 290 km from Okinawa, owing to mechanical issues.

The two pilots safety ejected, officials said, and were rescued by a U.S. military helicopter.

The jet belongs to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and the accident occurred while the jet was carrying out routine operations in the Philippine Sea, the U.S. 7th Fleet said.

TOKYO, November 4. /TASS/. American billionaire, founder of Microsoft Bill Gates believes that the tax system will change in the future, and a special tax on robots will be introduced to help people keep their jobs. He made this statement in an interview with Japan’s Nikkei newspaper.

"[With] the idea that robots will help us make more goods and services with less people, we have defined the job is not the only thing that we were born to do. If we have to work less, then yes, it is a question of how we should spend that time," Gates said.

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese rocket on Monday lifted the United Arab Emirates’ first locally made satellite into orbit successfully from a space center in southern Japan.

The KhalifaSat Earth observation satellite was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from the Tanegashima Space Center.

The H-2A rocket also is carrying an Ibuki-2 greenhouse gas observation satellite for Japan.

Both the KhalifaSat and Ibuki-2 have since been released separately into targeted orbit, said MHI Launch Services.

Tokyo, Oct 26; AFP: Japan's Okinawa region voted Friday to hold a non-binding referendum on a deeply unpopular plan to relocate a US military base, in the latest twist to a long-running saga.

The decision, by local politicians, comes a month after residents elected a new governor who opposes plans to move the US Marines' Futenma Air Station from an urban area to a sparsely populated part of the island.

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. says it has issued a recall for 2.43 million hybrid vehicles in Japan and elsewhere for potential problems with stalling.

The company said Friday that in rare cases the vehicles might fail to enter a “failsafe” driving mode, lose power and stall. Power steering and braking would still work but a stall at a fast speed could increase risks of a crash.