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Japan Today
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
87 Japanese nationals, family members evacuated from Iran, Israel
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya meets the press at the ministry in Tokyo on Friday. A total of 87 Japanese nationals and their family members have evacuated from Iran and Israel amid intensifying tensions in the Middle East, the Japanese government said Friday. The evacuees arrived by bus in Azerbaijan and Jordan as local airports remained closed and none had health issues, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said. Of the 87 including six foreigners, 66 left Tehran and arrived in Baku early Friday, while 21 departed from Tel Aviv and reached Amman on Thursday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry said. The government is arranging a bus to evacuate more people from Iran as early as Saturday, Iwaya said. "As the situation remains very tense, the government will protect Japanese citizens with a high sense of urgency," he said. Around 220 Japanese nationals were in Iran and around 1,000 remained in Israel after the evacuations, according to the ministry. Japan also plans to dispatch two Self-Defense Forces planes to a base in Djibouti in eastern Africa to evacuate nationals if airports in Iran and Israel reopen, according to Iwaya. Israel and Iran have continued to exchange strikes since the former attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and military targets last week alleging Tehran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, a claim denied by the Islamic Republic. © KYODO
Japan Today
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Japan Today
Emperor, empress commemorate A-bomb victims in Hiroshima
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako lay flowers at the cenotaph at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Thursday. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Thursday renewed their hope for peace as they visited Hiroshima to pay their respects to atomic bomb victims on the 80th anniversary year 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. They later visited an exhibition hall in the park displaying relics of the atomic bombing, where the emperor remarked that it was "heartbreaking" to learn the area near the hypocenter had once been a densely populated residential neighborhood. At the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the couple viewed photographs depicting the devastation and a panel display on Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading atomic bomb survivors' group and the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. They then listened to stories from three survivors in their early 90s, joined by two younger people in their 20s and 30s who are helping pass on memories of the bombing. "We mourn the people who died by the dropping of the atomic bomb 80 years ago. We also thought about the hardships the people of Hiroshima have gone through until now and renewed our hope for peace," the imperial couple said in a statement released after their trip. Emperor Naruhito's grandfather, Emperor Hirohito -- posthumously known as Emperor Showa -- first visited Hiroshima after the bombing in December 1947. Calls to hold Emperor Hirohito accountable for Japan's actions continued long after the war, with his comment at a 1975 press conference that the bombings were "unavoidable" causing further controversy. Meanwhile, Emperor Naruhito's parents, former Emperor Akihito and former Empress Michiko, visited the cenotaph in Hiroshima five times during his reign. They also visited hospitals and nursing homes for atomic bomb survivors, showing deep concern for their suffering. The imperial couple observes a moment of silence every year on four days commemorating World War II -- Okinawa Memorial Day, the anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the anniversary of Japan's surrender -- a tradition that the current emperor and his wife have followed. Emperor Naruhito last visited the cenotaph in October 2006 when he was still crown prince, while Empress Masako last joined him around 25 years ago in November 2000. As part of memorial visits to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, the couple in April visited Iwoto Island, formerly known as Iwojima, the site of a fierce battle in the Pacific between Japan and the United States, and Okinawa earlier this month with their daughter, Princess Aiko. The imperial couple are scheduled to visit Nagasaki, the other atomic-bombed city, in September. © KYODO
Japan Today
16 hours ago
- General
- Japan Today
Knife, armor from Japan's largest ancient keyhole-shaped tomb found
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. The artifacts, wrapped in paper labeled "Emperor Nintoku's tomb," were recently acquired by Tokyo-based Kokugakuin University from an art dealer. They had previously been held by a collector who joined a survey of the tomb in 1872. © KYODO
Japan Today
2 days ago
- Japan Today
Number of foreign visitors to Japan hits 3.7 mil in May; new record for month
The number of foreign visitors to Japan in May rose 21.5 percent from a year earlier to 3.7 million, a record for the month, government estimates showed Wednesday, as travel demand remained strong even after cherry blossom season. By country and region, South Korea topped the list with 825,800 visitors, up 11.8 percent, followed by China with 789,900, a 44.8 percent increase, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. The two countries and 19 other markets set new visitor records for May, while those from India hit a record monthly high of 43,000, up 47.9 percent from the previous year, it said. "The momentum is strong, and we are on a very good trajectory," Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Naoya Haraikawa told a press conference, while also noting that a concentration of visitors in the country's three major metropolitan areas -- Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya -- remains an issue. Japan received some 18.1 million foreign arrivals from January to May, up 23.9 percent from the same period in 2024. Travel demand has remained strong on the back of school holidays in some markets, with a surge in visitors from China, the Philippines and the United States providing support, according to the organization. Among all countries and regions individually tracked, only Hong Kong saw a decline in May from the previous year, down 11.2 percent to 193,100. It is believed that a Japanese manga predicting a major disaster in Japan this July has discouraged travel. The Japan National Tourism Organization office in Hong Kong has issued a statement on Facebook refuting any scientific basis for the date and location of the rumored disaster. © KYODO
Japan Today
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Japan Today
Toyota chairman's pay hits record ¥1.9 billion despite scandals
Toyota Motor Corp said Wednesday its chairman received a pay package worth around 1.95 billion yen for fiscal 2024, the largest in the company's history and up 20 percent from the previous year, despite a reduction tied to a series of quality scandals. Akio Toyoda still received record-high compensation for the fourth straight year, reflecting the Japanese automaker's strong performance. "Compensations for the chairman, vice chairman and president were reduced to reflect their responsibility on the issues," Toyota said, referring to the scandals involving the firm and its subsidiaries. President Koji Sato was paid 826 million yen, while former Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa, who resigned on June 12 following an annual shareholders' meeting, received 365 million yen, according to an annual securities report. Companies in Japan are required to disclose information on executives who receive 100 million yen or more in annual compensation. Following the scandals, the automaker also said in its report that it would work to prevent a recurrence. © KYODO
