Kyodo News Digest: June 19, 2025
KYODO NEWS - 23 hours ago - 23:00 | All, World, Japan
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Nippon Steel confident management freedom ensured in U.S. Steel deal
TOKYO - Nippon Steel Corp.'s top executive Eiji Hashimoto said Thursday that the U.S. government's role set under its $14.1 billion buyout of United States Steel Corp. "will not hamper" the U.S. unit's business going forward.
At a press conference in Tokyo, Hashimoto said $11 billion of investment in U.S. Steel operations -- 10 times more than the initial plan -- and a golden share issued to the U.S. government that allows it to veto key management decisions among other conditions are rational, even as analysts view them as downside risks to U.S. Steel's management.
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Japan PM Ishiba rules out lower house dissolution for now: lawmaker
TOKYO - Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Thursday ruled out dissolving the powerful House of Representatives for now, ensuring that elections for both chambers of parliament will not be held on the same day in July, party executives said.
The decision comes as Yoshihiko Noda, head of Japan's main opposition party, said he will not submit a no-confidence motion against Ishiba's Cabinet, arguing that such a move would stall progress on key political issues.
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Japan to send 2 defense force planes for possible Mideast airlift
TOKYO - Japan will send two Self-Defense Forces airplanes to eastern Africa for a possible operation to evacuate its nationals from the Middle East, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Thursday, amid the escalating Israel-Iran conflict.
Nakatani told reporters that two C-2 transport aircraft with a total of about 120 crew members will fly to an SDF base in Djibouti and be on standby there, following a request from Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya earlier that day.
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Japan imperial couple commemorates A-bomb victims in Hiroshima
HIROSHIMA - Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Thursday visited Hiroshima to pay their respects to atomic bomb victims ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
In their first trip to the city since the emperor's accession in 2019, the imperial couple laid white flowers and bowed deeply at a cenotaph in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which holds the names of around 340,000 victims of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing.
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Chief organizer of Nobel Prize A-bomb survivors group steps down
TOKYO - Sueichi Kido, 85, officially stepped down as secretary general of Japan's Nobel Peace Prize-winning atomic bomb survivors group Nihon Hidankyo at its annual meeting on Thursday due to ill health.
Kido was 5 years old when he was exposed to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in the final days of World War II. In 2017, he assumed the post that effectively leads the group's efforts to abolish nuclear arms and was among the delegation that accepted the Nobel Prize in Oslo in December.
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New Zealand pauses Cook Islands funding over deepening China ties
SYDNEY - New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in funding to the Cook Islands, the government said Thursday, as relations between the two countries deteriorate over the South Pacific island nation's deepening ties with China.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand has paused NZ$18.2 million ($10.9 million) in development assistance funding for the 2025-2026 financial year, noting such support depends on a "high trust bilateral relationship."
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Kyodo News endorses executive director Sawai as president
TOKYO - Kyodo News formally endorsed Executive Director Toshimitsu Sawai, who previously served as chief editor of the Foreign News Section, as its president on Thursday.
At an organizational meeting, Sawai, 62, who became executive director in June 2021, said, "As the media environment grows increasingly challenging in many ways, I feel a strong sense of responsibility."
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Knife, armor from Japan's largest ancient keyhole-shaped tomb found
OSAKA - A gold-plated iron knife and armor fragments, believed to have been made with advanced 5th-century techniques, have been confirmed as coming from Japan's largest ancient keyhole-shaped tomb mound, a university said Thursday.
The Daisen Kofun in Osaka Prefecture is under control of the Imperial Household Agency as the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku, who is said to have reigned in the 4th century, but academic debate continues about who was actually buried there.
Video: Hydrangea festival at Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine in western Japan
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U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard departs after a closed door meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Malacanang Palace, Manila, Philippines, June 2, 2025. Ezra Acayan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo By Trevor Hunnicutt U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong in suggesting there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Trump contested intelligence assessments relayed earlier this year by his spy chief that Tehran was not working on a nuclear weapon when he spoke with reporters at an airport in Morristown, New Jersey. "She's wrong," Trump said. Gabbard testified to Congress in March that the U.S. intelligence community continued to judge that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead. Trump's comments came as the president has said he would weigh involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict over the next two weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified a week of airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets by saying Tehran was on the verge of having a warhead. Gabbard's office has previously pointed to quotes from the spy chief saying that she and Trump were "on the same page" regarding the status of Iran's nuclear program. Iran denies developing nuclear weapons, saying its uranium enrichment program was only for peaceful purposes. A source with access to U.S. intelligence reports told Reuters that the assessment presented by Gabbard had not changed. They said U.S. spy services also judged that it would take up to three years for Iran to build a warhead with which it could hit a target of its choice. Some experts, however, believe it could take Iran a much shorter time to build and deliver an untested crude nuclear device, although there would be no guarantee it would work. Trump has frequently disavowed the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, which he and his supporters have charged - without providing proof - are part of a "deep state" cabal of U.S. officials opposed to his presidency. The Republican president repeatedly clashed with U.S. spy agencies during his first term, including over an assessment that Moscow worked to sway the 2016 presidential vote in his favor and his acceptance of Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials. Gabbard, a fierce Trump loyalist, has been among the president's backers who have aired such allegations. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
