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Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Masataka Okano will be named as the country’s next top security adviser, replacing Takeo Akiba. The decision was formally approved in a Cabinet meeting on Friday, and will come into effect on Jan. 20, the same day that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in as the next commander-in-chief of Japan’s most important ally. Under the administration of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Okano, a 60-year-old career diplomat with experience in both Washington and Beijing and a former chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Russia division, served as an aid to the deputy chief cabinet secretary and vice minister for foreign affairs, playing a central role in Japan’s diplomatic initiatives. Source link

Tom Hoge and England’s Harry Hall are off to hot starts again in the Aloha State, as they are among six players tied for the first-round lead at the Sony Open in Hawaii. Hoge and Hall tied for eighth last week at The Sentry, the PGA Tour’s season-opening event in Kapalua, Hawaii. They sit level with Adam Schenk, Eric Cole, Denny McCarthy and Paul Peterson after each shot a 6-under-par 64 on Thursday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Hideki Matsuyama, who broke the PGA Tour’s scoring record in relation to par last week while winning The Sentry, is tied for 26th place at 67. Matsuyama won the Sony Open in 2022. Source link

Donald Trump’s obsession with Greenland has put the world’s largest island in an unexpected position of power. While Trump’s 2019 bid for the Arctic territory was dismissed as little more than a joke, the president-elect’s timing is better this time around — Greenlanders are intensifying their push for independence from Denmark. Within the next three months, they will hold a general election that will take the temperature of that relationship. That gives Greenland the ability to play the U.S. and Denmark off of each other — a dynamic that might ultimately see it come out on top. Source link

A woman believed to be in her 20s was apprehended Friday after reportedly wielding a hammer-like object and rampaging at Hosei University’s Tama campus in the city of Machida, western Tokyo. The incident occurred at approximately 4 p.m. Friday, according to FNN. Around that time, police received reports of a woman behaving violently at the university campus. University staff managed to apprehend the woman, who is thought to be a student. According to initial reports, around 10 individuals, including students, sustained injuries, though all are believed to be conscious. The full severity of their injuries is not yet known. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is currently investigating the scene to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident. Source link

In an ambitious move, the government has announced that it wants nuclear power to make up 20% of Japan’s energy mix by 2040. The decision was made by the economy ministry and revealed in the draft of the Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, released at the end of last year. This reflects a significant revaluation of Japan’s strategy, reversing a decade-long trend following the 2011 Fukushima disaster of reducing dependence on nuclear power. This change does not come as a surprise, as evolving public sentiment and government policies increasingly see nuclear power playing an essential role in achieving economic growth and environmental targets, including reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century, amid rising energy costs. However, questions remain about the new target’s feasibility and what happens if it is not met. Source link

Kaz Shiomi, 47, has to be one of Japan’s most unapologetically colorful businesswomen. The Osakan designer’s bubbly personality is even brighter than her aesthetic and it’s reflected in the vivid wooden toys she produces under her toy brand kiko+ & gg* under her company Kukkia. 1. What excites you the most about 2025? This is going to be a great year. We have the Osaka Expo coming up, which I am excited for. Along with continuing to run my own company, I will also become the creative director of my husband’s lifestyle company, Ideaco, as he takes steps toward retirement in two years. I am also considering publishing a book. 2. What would your book be about? It would be about myself. I want to show people who are struggling or having a hard time how to live more freely, to color outside the lines. Japanese society can be a little narrow-minded, so I want to show there are different paths to the ones that are laid out by society. Source link

NHK’s annual year-end music blowout, “Kohaku Uta Gassen,” has been airing for over 70 years, but it still manages to surprise. The most recent edition, which aired on the national broadcaster on Dec. 31, delivered one such standout moment with rock duo B’z, reinforcing the importance of catering to older viewers. B’z holds the title of Japan’s best selling act, yet members Koshi Inaba and Takahiro Matsumoto — in a career spanning more than three decades — had never graced the “Kohaku” stage until last week when they made their debut with a special set. According to a report in News Post Seven following the performance, NHK initially expected B’z to offer a pre-recorded video of them playing “Illumination,” the theme song to the NHK drama “Omusubi.” Owing to busy schedules, however, it turned out to be easier for Inaba and Matsumoto to just appear live at NHK Hall in Shibuya on New Year’s Eve — to the delight of Japanese Gen Xers. Source link

Kuala Lumpur – Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, confirmed Friday that their countries will promote cooperation in the security field. In their meeting at the Malaysian prime minister’s office near Kuala Lumpur, the two leaders agreed to coordinate for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and closely communicate over the situations in the East and South China seas, bearing in mind China’s growing hegemonic moves. Ishiba told the meeting that this year is an extremely important one for deciding whether the world will move toward cooperation — rather than confrontation and division — and rebuild peace. Anwar emphasized his eagerness to discuss digital, defense and energy cooperation. At the meeting, the two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation in the maritime field, including bilateral coast guard cooperation, and in the cybersecurity field, through the strategic dialogue that started in December last year and Japan’s official security assistance framework for providing defense equipment to like-minded countries. They also shared views on economic cooperation, such as the Asia Zero Emission Community framework for cooperation between Japan and Southeast Asian countries on decarbonization, and confirmed their cooperation on support for Palestine in light of Israel’s continued conflict in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Ishiba’s visit to Malaysia marks his first overseas trip since he took office, in October, except for a tour to South America to attend international conferences in November. The Japanese government views Malaysia, this year’s ASEAN chair, as key to diplomacy with Global South developing and emerging countries. Ishiba is scheduled to travel to Indonesia later on Friday and hold talks with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Saturday. Source link

Japanese space startup Ispace is preparing to launch its second lunar lander on Wednesday, aiming to achieve a historic milestone in private-sector space exploration. The Resilience lander, part of Ispace’s Mission 2 under the Hakuto-R program, will lift off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:11 a.m. (3:11 p.m. JST). The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, with Resilience’s lunar landing expected between late May and early June. Source link

Come the end of the year in Japan, there’s a rush on cleaning services, straw decorations and boxed osechi ryōri (traditional New Year’s cuisine). But over the past few years, a new item has joined Japan’s January prep lineup: planners. Japan has a globally renowned stationery industry, with niche items you never knew you needed, like “memorization pens” that make it easier to study and highlighters that leave rulers ink-free. In that spirit, Japan’s decades-old take on the paper planner has now gone mainstream and is spreading quickly across the world. The techō notebook combines the words for “hand” and “account book,” and its most popular version is the “Bible size,” at 17 by 9.5 centimeters, just about the dimensions of a compact Bible. Broadly speaking there are two kinds: the toji techō, whose pages are fixed, and the shisutemu (system) techō, which is customizable. Source link