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Japanese actor and singer Miho Nakayama, known for starring in popular TV shows like “Mama wa Idol!” (1987) and “Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru!” (1989) and for her early career work as an idol in the 1980s, was found dead at her residence in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on Friday, NHK reported. She was 54. According to reports, she was found in her home by people in her management company, who called the police. She was later confirmed dead. The cause of death is not yet known. She had a solo Christmas show scheduled in Osaka on Friday, but had canceled the show in the morning, citing health reasons. Source link

Beijing – The NBA will return to China for the first time in six years with two preseason games in Macao between the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns next October, reports said Friday. No NBA games have been held in China since two preseason contests in 2019 after a tweet from then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey in support of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. Basketball is hugely popular in China and in the fallout the NBA lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of it being yanked off Chinese television until 2022. Source link

Yuta Takahashi, 24, is working to secure the abolition of nuclear weapons through a group he launched that aims to carry on the wishes of a prominent atomic bomb survivor. In naming Nihon Hidankyo as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner in October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee noted that “new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses.” “Our responsibility is being tested,” said Takahashi, who was born in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, and now lives in Yokohama. Source link

Istanbul – Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko attended a ceremony in Istanbul on Thursday to mark the 100th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Japan and Turkey. In his speech in the ceremony held at the Ataturk Cultural Center, the crown prince, the younger brother of Emperor Naruhito, touched on the rescue in 1890 of the crew of the warship Ertugrul — which was carrying a delegation from the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner to Turkey, and sank off Wakayama Prefecture — as well as the two countries’ mutual relief efforts following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami and a major earthquake in Turkey in 2023. “I hope that these events, which symbolize the bond between our two countries, will continue to be passed on for the next 100 years,” he said. Later, together with Turkish Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Askin Bak and others, the imperial couple watched performances of folk dances from various parts of Turkey and wadaiko traditional Japanese drumming. After the performances, the couple thanked the performers from Turkey and Japan and smiled as they posed for commemorative photos. Source link

The government is considering allowing investigators to create fake ID cards to infiltrate crime groups that solicit accomplices on social media for high-paying illegal work, known as yami baito, which has been linked to a series of nationwide burglaries, a top government spokesman said Friday. “The government is considering new investigative measures, including allowing investigations under disguised identification,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said in a news conference. “To make sure people can live safely, and to make Japan the safest nation in the world, it is important to implement measures that can be taken as soon as possible.” When yami baito group members recruit amateur accomplices on X or through other social media, they often ask them to send a photo of a personal ID card, such as a driver’s license, before they sign up for work. Once the crime group has the ID in hand, they can force the new recruit to follow through on the job, for example by threatening to hurt family members. Source link

French President Emmanuel Macron said he will serve out the remainder of his presidential term as he seeks to quickly stymie the political turmoil in his country after Marine Le Pen’s far-right party allied with leftist lawmakers to topple his government. “The mandate you gave me democratically is for five years and I will exercise it fully,” Macron, whose term ends in 2027, said in a televised speech Thursday evening. He said he will appoint a new premier in the coming days who will be tasked with forming a government of general interest representing all the political forces committed to not censuring it. The speech came a day after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was evicted from office in a no-confidence vote backed by the far right and the left over his plans for vast spending cuts and tax increases to repair gaping holes in public finances. Source link

Kyodo News will replace the heads of its editorial bureau and news center on Jan. 16 over its erroneous report that Akiko Ikuina, a House of Councilors lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, 2022, the 77th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The news agency said Thursday that it took disciplinary action against Naoto Takahashi, the editorial bureau head, and five other staff members Wednesday. On the war-end anniversary two years ago, Kyodo reported that Ikuina visited Yasukuni Shrine that day based on unconfirmed information. The shrine honors Class-A war criminals along with the war dead and is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by its neighboring countries. The report is believed to have prompted the South Korean government delegation to skip a memorial service for all gold miners including Koreans on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture in November, which Ikuina, currently parliamentary vice foreign minister, attended as a representative of the Japanese government. The report was discovered to be false after the event. According to Kyodo, Takahashi, who was the head of the news center in 2022, also received a pay cut, and current news center head Shiro Yamane, then-head of the political news department, was suspended from work for three days. The remaining four workers, including the then-deputy head of the political news department who checked the article in question and a reporter who wrote it, were reprimanded. President Toru Mizutani and senior director Toshiro Obuchi will return 10% of their executive salaries for three months. Source link

SEOUL – Minutes after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday night, plunging the country into its worst crisis in decades, his stunned finance minister knew his priorities: throw everything at defending the currency. By around 11 p.m., Choi Sang-mok, who was among the majority of cabinet members who opposed martial law, had set up an emergency meeting at the Seoul Bankers Club, an unofficial meeting place for top policymakers from the central bank, finance ministry, and banking and markets regulators. As soldiers stormed the nation’s parliament, South Korea’s top four financial authorities, known as F4, activated an emergency playbook that had been used during past crises, scrambling to head off a crippling selloff in the won before Asian markets awoke. Choi led discussions between the authorities, three people familiar with the meeting said, with the Bank of Korea responsible for efforts to stabilize the currency. Source link

It’s unlikely that the first Epsilon S rocket will be able to launch by March next year as planned, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said Thursday. Holding a news conference in the wake of the second explosion during ground combustion tests for the second-stage solid-fuel booster, JAXA Vice President Masashi Okada said he thinks it “technically difficult to a large degree” for the small satellite launch vehicle to lift off by the end of the current fiscal year. Okada is leading the agency’s investigation into the repeated accidents during Epsilon’s development. The latest blast occurred during a combustion test at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Nov. 26. According to Okada and Epsilon project manager Takayuki Imoto, the second-stage motor exploded about 49 seconds into the test, initially scheduled to last two minutes, due to an abnormal rise in combustion pressure that started some 20 seconds after the ignition. After analyzing temperature and pressure data and examining scattered parts, the agency found that high-temperature combustion gas leaked from the rear of the booster 0.3 seconds before the blast. There was no indication of melted igniter parts, which caused the first accident in July 2023. “We will thoroughly look into the blast, taking into account every possibility,” Imoto said. Source link

The Asian Development Bank’s incoming president indicated that U.S. policy will be a key focus as he monitors its impact on the region with the looming return of Donald Trump to the White House. “If the U.S. raises tariffs, cuts taxes, restricts immigration, those policies could have a major impact on Japan and other Asian economies through trade and financial markets,” said Masato Kanda, former vice finance minister for international affairs, said in an interview on Thursday. Kanda is known for spearheading Japan’s currency policy in recent years and its first yen-buying intervention in decades. He will start his role as ADB president in February. Source link