Japan

TOKYO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida slid to the lowest level since he took office last October, with voters questioning his decision to hold a state funeral for former premier Shinzo Abe, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday.

Support for Kishida's cabinet totalled 46%, down from 59% in the previous survey three weeks ago, while the disapproval rating rose to 28% from 21% over the same period, NHK said.

TOKYO (AP) — China will not be able to isolate Taiwan by preventing U.S. officials from traveling there, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday in Tokyo as she wrapped up an Asia tour highlighted by a visit to Taipei that infuriated Beijing.

Beijing has tried to isolate Taiwan, including by preventing the self-governing island from joining the World Health Organization, Pelosi said.

TOKYO, Aug 4 (NNN-NHK) – Torrential rain lashed regions in north-east and central Japan overnight through this morning, with local authorities in Yamagata and Niigata Prefectures, urging residents to seek shelter.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a level 5 alert, the highest on Japan’s disaster warning scale, for six municipalities in Yamagata Prefecture, but has since downgraded the warning.

The emergency warning for Niigata Prefecture, however, is still in effect, the weather agency said.

TOKYO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Five ballistic missiles fired by China appear to have landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Japanese defence minister Nobuo Kishi said on Thursday, part of military exercises launched by China earlier in the day.

The exercises, China's largest ever in the Taiwan Strait, began as scheduled at midday and included live-firing in the waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, bringing tensions in the area to their highest in a quarter century.

TOKYO, Aug 1 (NNN-NHK) – The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida’s cabinet, decreased to its lowest-ever 51.0 percent, compared to a record high of 63.2 percent just weeks ago, a Kyodo News survey showed, yesterday.

According to the result of the two-day nationwide telephone survey, the approval rating this weekend was the Kishida administration’s lowest, since it took office in Oct, 2021.

TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa on Monday was appointed to a newly-created ministerial post that will support startup companies as part of the government's push to promote economic growth.

The Japanese government announced that Yamagiwa will concurrently serve as minister in charge of startups.

TOKYO, July 31 (Reuters) - Just over half of Japanese oppose plans for a state funeral for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister whose assassination this month shocked the nation, an opinion poll showed on Sunday.

The cabinet decided to hold a state funeral for Abe, Japan's longest-serving but divisive premier, on Sept. 27 at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan.

About 53% of respondents to a Saturday-Sunday Kyodo news agency survey expressed opposition to a state funeral for Abe, exceeding the 45% who favoured a state funeral.

TOKYO (AP) — European shares advanced Friday after a mixed session in Asia, where Chinese markets retreated after the country’s leaders acknowledged the slowing economy won’t hit its official 5.5% growth target this year.

Investors appear to have grown more convinced that the Federal Reserve may temper its aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation after the Commerce Department reported the U.S. economy contracted at a 0.9% annual pace in the last quarter. That followed a 1.6% year-on-year drop in the first quarter.

TOKYO (AP) — A group of lawyers said Friday that the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of many victims of the Unification Church, which has long cultivated ties with high-level Japanese politicians.

The church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s, has become a focus of intense attention in Japan because the suspect in Abe’s shooting, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told investigators that he was motivated by Abe’s supposed links to the Unification Church, which he said his mother had made massive donations to, bankrupting the family and destroying his life.

TOKYO, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Thursday reported 233,100 new daily COVID-19 cases, marking a new record for a second straight day, as the highly transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant continues to run rampant.

Tokyo alone confirmed a record 40,406 new infections, topping the 40,000-mark for the first time, with the number of cases jumping 8,500 from a week earlier. Officials said the health system was becoming overstretched.

The case count has topped the number of the previous week for nine consecutive days, the official figure showed.