JIJI English News-時事通信英語ニュース-

The Philippines has reached a broad agreement with Japan on the transfer of five Abukuma-class destroyers from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force after their retirement, Philippine National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Tuesday.

The leaders of Japan's two ruling parties on Tuesday confirmed plans to give up on enacting a bill to cut the number of House of Representatives seats during the current parliamentary session, which is slated to end in less than two weeks.

Japanese police arrested three people Tuesday, including a former executive of a now-defunct nonprofit organization that supported patients of incurable diseases, on suspicion of illegally brokering an overseas organ transplant case for fees.

The Japanese government is considering establishing a new bureau at the Defense Ministry in charge of dealing with international policies, including the promotion of cooperation with like-minded countries, government and ruling bloc sources said Tuesday.

Tokyo police last month sent to prosecutors papers on Fujipassc Co. and three men linked to the Japanese construction company for allegedly bribing a Cambodian government employee.

A local court on Tuesday sentenced a former worker at an elderly care home in the city of Koga, Ibaraki Prefecture, east of Tokyo, to 20 years in prison for murdering a resident of the facility in 2020.

Japan's composite index of coincident economic indicators rose 0.4 point from the previous month in May, marking the third consecutive month of growth, according to preliminary data released by the Cabinet Office on Tuesday.

A celebration ceremony for an airport named after blockbuster Japanese animation series Pocket Monster, or Pokemon, was held in the city of Wajima in the central Japan prefecture of Ishikawa on Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Clippers of the U.S. National Basketball Association said Monday that they have signed star Japanese player Rui Hachimura.

Yasutomo Suzuki, governor of the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, on Tuesday approved construction of the Shizuoka section of the Chuo Shinkansen high-speed magnetic levitation train line, effectively ending a nearly nine-year impasse that had delayed the rail project.

Two Chinese coast guard ships entered Japanese territorial waters off the Senkaku Islands, which belong to the city of Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.

The Japanese government decided Tuesday to establish a new council to drastically overhaul legal frameworks governing the development and use of artificial intelligence.

Japanese opposition parties agreed at a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs on Tuesday to demand that the ruling bloc withdraw bills to establish a secondary capital in Japan and reduce the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, informed sources said.

Ambulance crew in Tokyo face a growing risk of being subjected to violent language and behavior while on duty, with 24 such cases reported last year, the largest in the past five years, according to a Tokyo Fire Department survey.

Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. will invest 3.6 billion dollars to expand its plant in San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas by adding a vehicle assembly line, a U.S. subsidiary said Monday.

Household spending in Japan dipped 0.4pctin May from a year earlier in inflation-adjusted real terms, falling for the sixth consecutive month, the internal affairs ministry said Tuesday.

Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. will offer competitive deposit rates and fees through its digital bank, slated to open in the latter half of fiscal 2026, President and Group CEO Junichi Hanzawa has said.

KDDI Corp. said it has confirmed that email addresses of about 12,233,000 users and passwords for some 7,616,000 users were subject to unauthorized access in a breach of its email system for internet service providers.

Japan's inflation-adjusted real wage index rose 1.4pctfrom a year earlier in May, up for the fifth consecutive month, labor ministry data showed Tuesday.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has urged agriculture minister Norikazu Suzuki to consider the impact on the country's agricultural and livestock production when negotiating an economic partnership agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc in South America.

Keisei Electric Railway Co. plans to introduce a new limited express train service directly connecting Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, east of the Japanese capital, in the 2030s, it was learned Monday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, on Monday released a photo of Torifune that was taken by Hayabusa2 at close range when the unmanned probe flew past the asteroid the previous day.

Expectations that rice prices will fall in Japan in the months ahead are increasing among rice growers and traders, an industry group said Monday.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that her plan to submit a document summarizing an aide's explanations over a campaign video scandal was not an attempt to avoid answering questions about it in the Diet, the country's parliament.

The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, an opposition party, is increasingly concerned about the risk of a split over its potential merger with two other opposition parties--the Centrist Reform Alliance and Komeito.

Japan's Sapporo Breweries Ltd. said Monday that it will form a capital and business tie-up with Danish brewing giant Carlsberg Breweries A/S.

Shunichi Mizuoka, who heads the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on Monday criticized the government's bill to revise the Imperial House Law for including items not taken up in ruling-opposition discussions.

Powerful Typhoon Bavi is expected to approach the Sakishima Islands of the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa from Friday to Saturday, possibly bringing strong winds and heavy rain, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Monday.

Residents across the Chugoku western Japan region on Monday mourned over 300 people who lost their lives in a devastating rain disaster that mainly hit the area in 2018.

Tokyo police have arrested a 15-year-old high school student on suspicion of fraudulently canceling the subscriptions of about 46,800 accounts on the Bandai Channel video streaming service by exploiting a system vulnerability.

Six Japanese opposition parties in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, agreed Monday to return to parliamentary proceedings on Tuesday.

Maintaining stability in Europe, with which Japan shares fundamental values, serves the country's interests, Japanese Ambassador to NATO Osamu Izawa said in an interview with Jiji Press.

The Defense Ministry introduced Luup Inc.'s electric scooter-sharing service at its Ichigaya headquarters in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward this month to help employees travel inside and outside the 25-hectare site, which is five times larger than the Tokyo Dome stadium.

A Chinese navy submarine has fired a missile toward the Pacific, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

Companies in Japan face the need to improve job opportunities and work environments for people with disabilities, after the statutory minimum employment rate for such people was raised to 2.7pctfrom 2.5pcton Wednesday.

Japan should engage in discussions involving all stakeholders on whether and how to reform its public medical insurance system, Takashi Yonekawa, deputy head of the National Federation of Health Insurance Societies, or Kenporen, said in a recent interview.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has sent a congratulatory letter to Peruvian President-elect Keiko Fujimori over her election victory in the South American country.

Taizo Mikazuki won a fourth term as governor of the western Japan prefecture of Shiga in an election Sunday, defeating three rivals.

Japan's Hayabusa2 unmanned probe successfully flew past the asteroid Torifune at close range on Sunday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.

Japanese police served fresh arrest warrants on three people on Sunday, including a 44-year-old man believed to be an executive of one of Asia's largest international fraud organizations, for allegedly violating the immigration control law by illegally using a residence card.

Japan's Foreign Ministry is considering the possibility of easing its evacuation advisory for Iran and three other Middle Eastern countries in response to a deal between the United States and Iran to end their fighting.

Ryoma Hudzeleu, a Japanese national from Mitaka, Tokyo, has won the gold medal in the senior men's solo category at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow, held at the Bolshoi Theater in the Russian capital.

A memorial ceremony was held in Kumamoto Prefecture on Sunday to mark the sixth anniversary of the heavy rain disaster that left 67 people dead and two others unaccounted for in the southwestern Japan prefecture.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's decision on whether to attend intensive Budget Committee discussions at the Diet, the country's parliament, appears to hold the key to breaking the deadlock in the ongoing Diet session over two controversial bills sponsored by the ruling coalition.

Japanese industry minister Ryosei Akazawa inspected U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.'s semiconductor plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, on Saturday.

Japan's Sharp Corp. aims to log sales of 200 billion yen to 300 billion yen from new businesses it is launching in collaboration with its parent company, Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., its president and CEO, Tetsuji Kawamura, has said.

The Japanese government is considering providing financial support to cover the training costs of pilots for firefighting and disaster relief helicopters as well as doctor helicopters.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his counterpart from the Marshall Islands, Kalani Kaneko, agreed Friday to cooperate closely for the stability of the Indo-Pacific region.

A Chinese maritime survey ship appeared to be extending a wire into the sea within Japan's exclusive economic zone on Friday, the Japan Coast Guard said.

The Japanese government's tax revenues in fiscal 2025 rose 12.0pctfrom the previous year to 84,222.6 billion yen, hitting a record high for the sixth consecutive year, the Finance Ministry said Friday.