Latest news with #Kyodo
The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Japan PM to visit Netherlands from Tuesday for NATO summit
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will be in the Netherlands for three days from Tuesday to attend a NATO summit, the government said Friday, as Japan aims to deepen its partnership with the military alliance. It will be the fourth straight year that a sitting Japanese prime minister has participated in a NATO summit. Japan is not a NATO member but is one of the alliance's Indo-Pacific partners. Ishiba also plans to hold bilateral talks with leaders of NATO members and those of its partners while in the Hague for the summit, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said. U.S. President Donald Trump is among the expected attendees at the two-day summit from Tuesday. "Given the severe security environment we face, and based on the shared view that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and that of the Indo-Pacific are inseparable, Japan, along with other partners from the region, will discuss how we can cooperate with NATO in concrete terms," Hayashi said. At a meeting in Tokyo in April, Ishiba and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte underlined the need to strengthen the Japan-NATO partnership amid security threats from Russia and China and agreed to push for defense industry cooperation.
NBC Sports
12 hours ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Kaori Sakamoto to retire from figure skating after Olympic season
Kaori Sakamoto, a three-time world champion and Olympic silver and bronze medalist, plans to retire from competitive figure skating after the upcoming 2026 Olympic season, a move she previously hinted at over the past year. 'I feel like I have less than a year left,' she said in her native Japan on Thursday, according to a Kyodo News translation. 'I'll be 29 at the following Olympics (in 2030), which is out of the question. I'll try to bring things to a close the year I turn 26. 'I've made the decision really fast. I felt now was the time. I was more or less fixed on it since saying, 'I see two years as one cycle' last year.' Sakamoto, speaking at the opening of a new rink in her hometown of Kobe, said she plans to continue in the sport as a coach, according to Japanese media. Sakamoto followed her 2022 Olympic team silver and individual bronze medals by becoming the first women's singles skater to win three consecutive world titles (2022-24) since American Peggy Fleming from 1966-68. This past March, she earned silver at the worlds, just missing becoming the first woman to win four titles in a row since American Carol Heiss from 1956-60. At worlds in Boston, she was fifth after the short program and improved to second in the free skate. She finished 4.99 points behind Alysa Liu, who won both programs to become the first American to claim a women's singles world title since 2006. Sakamoto had the highest total international event score over the entire season, recording that in last fall's Grand Prix Series. Sakamoto's short program for the 2025-26 season is set to 'Time To Say Goodbye' by Sarah Brightman and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, a fitting choice for her final season and the Milan Cortina Games. 'Winning at least silvers in both the individual and team events (at the Olympics) would be mission completed,' she said, according to Kyodo. 'The time left is short, so I'll live each day to the fullest, and hopefully the results turn out to be what I'm wishing for.' Nick Zaccardi,
The Mainichi
12 hours ago
- Business
- The Mainichi
Japan to cut super-long-term bond issuances amid rising yields
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese government said Friday it plans to reduce issuances of super-long-term bonds from July in a rare review of its original program in the middle of a fiscal year amid concern over a recent surge in yields. But the total amount of bonds scheduled for issuance in the current fiscal year through March 2026 is projected to remain unchanged from the initial plan at 176.9 trillion yen ($1.2 trillion), as the Finance Ministry seeks to increase sales of short-term bonds. The revised plan was presented to bond market participants during a meeting hosted by the ministry and is likely to be formalized, subject to adjustment if necessary, an official said. The move comes as yields on 20-, 30- and 40-year bonds have surged since April, partly due to concerns over Japan's fiscal health following growing calls from opposition parties to cut taxes. In its latest policy meeting earlier this week, the Bank of Japan, the biggest holder of government bonds, decided to slow the pace of its debt-buying reduction from next year, aiming to prevent a sharp rise in yields and broader market turbulence from rapid tapering. During the previous gathering ended May 1, some BOJ board members expressed the view that the government bond markets had been "divided by maturity," as seen in the significant rise in yields on super-long-term bonds, according to the minutes released Friday. Some members noted that the number of participants in the super-long-term bond markets "was limited in the first place" and that the rise in the yields of those bonds was attributable to factors such as a decline in investor demand, the minutes also said. Analysts have said reduced purchases by key institutional investors, including life insurers, were among the reasons for the jump in yields, which move inversely to prices.
The Star
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Star
87 Japanese nationals, family members evacuated from Iran, Israel
Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya holds a press conference on evacuation of Japanese nationals from Israel and Iran at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on June 20, 2025. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) TOKYO: 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 (June 20). According to Kyodo news agency, the evacuees arrived by bus in Azerbaijan and Jordan as local airports remained closed and none had health issues, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (pic) said. Of the 87 including six foreigners, 66 left Teheran 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. Israel and Iran have continued to exchange strikes since the former attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and military targets last week alleging Teheran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, a claim denied by the Islamic Republic. - Bernama-Kyodo
Hamilton Spectator
14 hours ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Why three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto will retire after the 2026 Winter Olympics
TOKYO (AP) — Kaori Sakamoto, the three-time figure skating world champion, will retire after next year's 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, she said Friday. The 25-year-old Japanese star won an Olympic bronze medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and took the silver medal in the world championships in March with gold to American Alysa Liu . Sakamoto acknowledged that age is catching up with her. 'I feel like I have less than a year left,' the Japanese news agency Kyodo quoted her as saying in Kobe, Japan. 'I'll be 29 at the following Olympics (in 2030), which is out of the question. I'll try to bring things to a close the year I turn 26.' ___ AP sports:
