Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is bracing for powerful Typhoon Haishen as it bears down on the country’s southwest, with weather forecasters warning of potential record rainfall, violent wind, high waves and tides.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has urged residents of Okinawa and Kyushu to exercise maximum caution as Typhoon Haishen was on course to approach Okinawa by Sunday and the main southern island of Kyushu afterwards.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s government said on Friday it would bear the cost of providing coronavirus vaccines to the populace, as it aims for a comprehensive inoculation against the pandemic.

The government also said it planned to establish funds to compensate for possible side effects from the vaccines. The plans were outlined in documents distributed at a briefing by Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who also heads the coronavirus response.

TOKYO (AP) — His boss Carlos Ghosn escaped financial misconduct charges by fleeing the country, but another former Nissan executive is still awaiting trial in Japan: Greg Kelly.

Kelly’s trial in Tokyo District Court is to open Sept. 15, nearly two years after his arrest, and the same day he turns 64 . If convicted of charges related to alleged under-reporting of Ghosn’s income, Kelly could face up to a decade in prison.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese rescuers found the second crew member and multiple dead cows Friday in waters where a livestock ship capsized and is believed to have sunk during stormy weather two days earlier, coast guard officials said.

The man was found unconscious and floating face down about 120 kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea, where rescuers have been looking for the Gulf Livestock 1 ship and its missing crew since it sent a distress signal early Wednesday.

TOKYO, Sept 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A cargo ship carrying 43 crew and about 6,000 cows sank at sea after transmitting a distress signal during a typhoon off Japan, according to a survivor rescued by the country’s coast guard.

The Gulf Livestock 1 issued a distress call in the early hours of Wednesday from a position 185 kilometres west of Japan’s Amami Oshima island.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono on Thursday said he supports Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as the country’s next leader to provide continuity in tackling the coronavirus crisis but also predicted he will one day be prime minister.

Identified early by local media as a potential candidate, Kono had considered entering the leadership race to replace retiring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but decided against it after Suga announced his decision to run.

TOKYO, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Wednesday decided to hold a presidential election on Sept. 14 to pick Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's successor, local media reported.

The race for the party's top position will officially start on Sept. 8. The newly-elected prime minister will serve the remainder of Abe's term as the president of the party through September 2021.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s chief government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, moved a step closer to becoming the next premier when the ruling party decided on Tuesday on a slimmed-down leadership vote that favours the long-time lieutenant of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Suga has also won the backing of the largest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), media reported, making him a strong front-runner to replace Abe, who announced on Friday he was stepping down for health reasons.

TOKYO (AP) — When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, the first thing Hidekazu Tamura, a Japanese American living in California, thought was, “I’ll be killed at the hands of my fellow Americans.” It wouldn’t be the last time he felt that way.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to hold a leadership vote on Sept. 14 to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is stepping down due to ill health, local media reported on Monday.

The new party leader will become the country’s next prime minister, due to the party’s parliamentary majority, with four possible candidates vying for the position.