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The PGA Tour event that Tiger Woods was scheduled to host in Southern California next month will be played at an alternate venue due to the massive wildfires that have ravaged parts of Los Angeles, the Tour said on Thursday. The Genesis Invitational, a PGA Tour Signature Event that has a $20 million purse and benefits Woods’ TGR Foundation, will still be played from Feb. 13 to 16 but not at its typical home of Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. The PGA Tour, which is identifying ways the tournament can support the Los Angeles community and relief efforts, did not mention potential replacement venues or even whether the event would remain in California. Source link

Hyogo Prefecture marked the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake on Friday with memories of what happened, a desire to pass on the lessons learned to future generations, and calls on the central government to use the Kansai region (where it is located) as the base of a new disaster relief agency. The day began with a candlelight vigil in the city of Kobe and a moment of silence at 5:46 a.m., the time when the magnitude 7.3 quake struck on Jan. 17, 1995, killing 6,343 people. At a memorial later in the morning attended by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, as well as central and local government officials including Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, people shared their earthquake experiences and the lessons learned from it. “On this day, as we mark the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, I would like to express my deepest condolences once again to the more than 6,400 people who lost their lives,” the emperor said in his address. “Thirty years ago today, many irreplaceable lives were lost in an instant, and the towns and lives that people had become accustomed to were lost. After the earthquake, I visited the disaster area with the empress. The sight of people affected by the disaster, despite the difficulties they faced, encouraging and helping one another, and trying their best to move forward, is still deeply etched in my mind,” he added. The emperor also touched on disasters in Japan and overseas that have taken place since the Hanshin quake. “When the Noto Peninsula earthquake struck last January, people from Hyogo Prefecture rushed to the area to provide support to the victims, drawing on the experience and lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. It is also significant that they have extended their support to victims of disasters overseas,” he said. Mari Takeda, 66, a representative of the bereaved families, described what happened to her family when the quake hit. She was making a bento when the house started shaking. Her grandfather, who survived the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, told her to turn off the gas when the shaking began. “As soon as I reached out and turned off the gas, I was buried underneath the rubble. I struggled in the darkness, and when I finally managed to get outside, I saw that my house had been destroyed. The roof had cracked, and my husband was holding our daughter in a daze,” she said. Between Takeda’s parents, who had been living with her family at the time, only her mother survived. “In the last 30 years, various natural disasters have occurred, and the earthquake that struck Noto last New Year is still fresh in our minds. I hope that people who have suffered tragedies similar to the Hanshin quake will find peace of mind,” she said. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako pay tribute to the victims of the earthquake at a memorial ceremony in Kobe on Friday. | JIJI Children born long after the earthquake also spoke about the lessons handed down to them at Friday’s ceremony. “My mother lived about 7 kilometers from the quake’s epicenter. She told me that the earthquake destroyed everything she had and those of the people around her in a single night. An earthquake that can destroy everything in an instant is truly frightening,” said Honoka Tominaga, an 11-year-old elementary student in the city of Awaji. By learning from the earthquake that happened 30 years ago, she added, the community has been able to build bonds while keeping in mind the powerful damage a quake can cause. “I will continue to live each day carefully in the town where I was born,” Tominaga said. Touching on the lessons that the region and the country learned about disaster response over the past three decades, Saito said Hyogo is prepared to host the new disaster relief agency that the central government plans to set up by April 2026. “In preparation for a Nankai Trough earthquake, we’ll take a leadership role in establishing a disaster agency in Kansai, which will serve as a command post in the event of a disaster, in cooperation with the national government and related local governments,” he said during the memorial ceremony. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has yet to indicate whether the agency would be based in Tokyo or elsewhere, or whether it would have its headquarters in Tokyo and regional offices in other locations, including, perhaps, Hyogo Prefecture. Source link

The Japan Sumo Association said Friday that yokozuna Terunofuji, the 33-year-old Mongolian-born wrestler who claimed 10 titles in the sport’s top division, will retire. Suffering from pain in both knees and chronic diabetes, Terunofuji fully competed in only two of the six grand tournaments last year. Since being promoted to the rank of yokozuna in July 2021, he was sidelined in 13 of 21 tournaments. Terunofuji, the fifth Mongolian-born yokozuna after Asashoryu, Hakuho, Harumafuji and Kakuryu, will be the first yokozuna to retire since Hakuho in 2021. Terunofuji, who has already acquired Japanese citizenship, will become a stablemaster after his retirement. Source link

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to begin offering financial aid of up to ¥3.15 million ($20,200) from 2026 for those looking to study abroad at a higher education institution. Any Japanese national who is either enrolled in or is set to enter a university or technical college in Japan and whose parents reside in Tokyo will be eligible to apply for the new program. There is no household income limit set for the aid. “Nurturing global-minded people will lead to the future development of Tokyo,” Gov. Yuriko Koike said in a news conference on Friday. “However, the reality is that studying abroad, itself, is very expensive these days, especially due to the weak yen, so with this, we’d like to give a nudge from behind to those who want to study abroad. Source link

Seoul – Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday again refused investigators’ efforts to question him over his failed martial law bid, as the deadline on his detention neared. Yoon threw the nation into chaos on Dec. 3 when he attempted to impose martial law, citing the need to combat threats from “anti-state elements.” But his bid lasted just six hours, as the soldiers he directed to storm parliament failed to stop lawmakers from voting to reject martial law. Source link

The CEO and president of Rapidus says the chip venture in Hokkaido is key to Japan’s fortunes. Source link

Prosecutors summarily indicted an accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party’s bloc in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Friday for underreporting over ¥60 million ($386,000) of the group’s income and expenditure. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office alleged that Hidekatsu Yajima, 72, underreported ¥35 million in revenue from the sale of tickets to fundraising parties in 2019 and 2022, and ¥28 million in spending for donations and subsidies. Yajima is accused of violating the political funds control law, which governs the reporting of how such funds are collected and spent. Friday’s indictment comes in the wake of a political funds scandal that embroiled LDP lawmakers on the national level that surfaced in December 2023, appearing to involve similar wrongdoings, albeit at a smaller scale, among the party’s assembly members. Source link

Bonuses paid by major Japanese companies in winter 2024 averaged ¥891,460, rewriting an all-time high for the first time in five years, the labor ministry said Friday. The average figure of winter bonuses agreed on by labor unions and employers stood 4.93% higher than a year earlier, reflecting the biggest pay hikes in 33 years achieved through spring wage negotiations, a ministry official said. The average went up year on year in 18 of 21 industry sectors. In particular, it jumped 22.99% in the machinery industry and 13.02% in the service sector. On the other hand, workers at food and tobacco companies were paid 16.76% less on average and those at financial firms, including insurers, 7.77% less. The ministry analyzed available data from a total of 324 companies each with capital of at least ¥1 billion and a labor union having 1,000 or more members. Source link

Japan’s primary balance is once again set to miss its long-standing target of achieving a balanced budget by the year ending March 2026. The primary balance, which excludes interest payments on public debt, is projected to remain in the red with a deficit of around ¥4.5 trillion ($28.8 billion) or minus 0.7% of gross domestic product in the fiscal year starting in April, according to the Cabinet Office’s latest mid-to-long term outlook report released Friday. In its previous forecast in July, the government had predicted a surplus of around 0.1% of GDP for the year, meaning the country would finally hit its target for balancing the books at the primary level. Source link

DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM – Hamas is expected to release the first hostages under a Gaza ceasefire deal on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday. If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanized Gaza, killed over 46,000 people, and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s prewar population of 2.3 million several times over, according to local authorities. The Israeli Cabinet will meet to give final approval to the deal with militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and a release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday, following concerns the accord may be delayed. In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes, and the Civil Emergency Service said on Friday that at least 101 people, including 58 women and children, had been killed since the deal was announced. With long-standing divisions apparent among ministers, Israel delayed meetings expected on Thursday when the Cabinet was expected to vote on the pact, blaming Hamas for the hold-up. Hamas said it was committed to the deal. But in the early hours of Friday, Netanyahu’s office said approval was imminent and the restricted security Cabinet is due to meet on Friday before a full Cabinet meeting to ratify the deal that will be held later. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed by the negotiating team that agreements have been reached on a deal to release the hostages,” his office said in a statement. Source link