The post PM Modi said in Tokyo that Japan has played an essential role in India’s growth appeared first on The Edge Media.
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To encourage more investment in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed a ‘Japan Week’ to recognize Japan’s contribution to the country’s development. Modi hosted a roundtable discussion with Japanese business leaders, which included top executives and CEOs from 34 Japanese companies. The majority of these businesses invest and operate in India.
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]]>The post India’s Response “Somewhat Shaky”, Biden In Terms of Russia-Invasion appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The US also asked India to consider oil supplies from Moscow after Washington took a major measure prohibiting crude oil shipments from the Kremlin.
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]]>The post Japan’s Princess Mako marries commoner, loses royal status appeared first on The Edge Media.
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Mako and Kei Komuro’s marriage document was presented by a palace official on the morning of October 26 and is now official, according to the Imperial Household Agency. They will give comments at a news conference in the afternoon, but will not take questions, according to the agency, because Mako was afraid and uneasy about the questions that would be asked.
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]]>The post Japan detects submarine believed to be Chinese appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The submarine remained submerged, but the ministry said in a statement that it believes the submarine is Chinese because a Chinese Luyang III-class guided missile destroyer is near the submarine.
The submarine moved northwest off the eastern coast of the Amamioshima Island, about 700 kilometers (420 miles) northeast of the disputed East China Sea islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by Beijing, the ministry said.
The submarine on Sunday morning was heading west in the East China Sea.
Neither the submarine or the ship entered Japanese territorial water. Under international law, submarines passing off the coast of another country are required to surface and show a national flag inside territorial waters.
Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force sent three reconnaissance aircraft and two destroyers to the area for early warning and information gathering to analyze China’s intentions.
A submarine believed to be Chinese also was spotted in the area in June 2020.
China has defended its maritime activities and says it has the right to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.
Japan, alarmed by China’s growing naval activities in the East and South China seas, has been stepping up defense in the country’s southwestern regions and islands north of the disputed islands.
Tokyo says it opposes China’s unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the region, and regularly protests the Chinese coast guard’s growing presence near the disputed islands. Japanese officials say Chinese vessels routinely violate Japanese territorial waters around the islands, sometimes threatening fishing boats.
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]]>The post The World Rally championship event in Japan cancelled due to pandemic appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>It is the second successive year that organisers have had to cancel the Rally Japan which was due to appear last year for the first time since 2010.
Rally Japan was inked in as the 12th and final event of the championship calendar and the WRC said it would announce a replacement event shortly to conclude the season.
After eight rallies, Frenchman Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) leads the drivers’ standings, 38 points ahead of his British teammate Elfyn Evans and Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
Among manufacturers, Toyota is 41 points ahead of Hyundai.
After the Acropolis Rally in Greece which runs this week from Thursday to Sunday, two other events remain on the calendar, in Finland (October 1-3) and Spain (October 14-17).
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]]>The post Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to step down appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>Suga, who took over after Shinzo Abe resigned last September, citing ill health, has seen his support ratings sink to below 30% as the nation struggles with its worst wave of COVID-19 infections ahead of a general election this year.
Suga’s decision on Friday to not run in a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) election in September means the party will choose a new leader, who will become prime minister.
Before Abe – Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, with an eight-year tenure – the country had gone through six prime ministers in as many years, including Abe’s own troubled first one-year tenure.
Japan’s Nikkei average futures jumped 2% immediately after media reports that Suga would not run, while the broader Topix Index extended its gains and hit its highest levels since 1991 following the news.
“I want to focus on coronavirus response, so I told the LDP executive meeting that I’ve decided not to run in the party leadership race,” Suga told reporters.
“There’s immense energy needed to tackle both coronavirus response and preparation for the leadership race,” he added. “I judged that I cannot juggle both and I should concentrate on either of them.”
Suga addressed a scrum of journalists for less than two minutes at his office and left the venue amid shouts for more explanation. He said he would hold a news conference as early as next week.
The address ended a rollercoaster week in which Suga pulled out all the stops to save his job, from suggestions he would sack his long-term ally as party secretary general, to plans to call a snap election and reshuffle party executive and his cabinet.
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]]>The post Japan suspends the use of 1.63 million doses of Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>Both Japan and Moderna said that no safety or efficacy issues had been identified and that the suspension was just a precaution. But the move prompted several Japanese companies to cancel worker vaccinations planned for Thursday.
“Moderna confirms having been notified of cases of particulate matter being seen in drug product vials of its Covid-19 vaccine,” Moderna said in a statement.
“The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address this,” it added, referring to Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical, which distributes the vaccine in the country.
A Health ministry official said Takeda first found out about the contaminated vials on Aug. 16 and reported the issue to the government on Wednesday. The delay was because Takeda needed time to gather information on which vials were affected and where they were in the country, the official said.
Moderna said the contamination could be due to a manufacturing issue in one of the production lines at its contract manufacturing site in Spain.
Spanish pharma company Rovi, which bottles or “fills and finishes” Moderna vaccines for markets other than the United States, said it is investigating possible contamination of Moderna doses and the issue appeared to be limited to a few batches bound for Japan.
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]]>The post Japan government to extend a virus state of emergency to eight more regions appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>The step comes with summer school holidays ending and top infection experts suggesting delaying the start of classes to reduce contagion risks.
The country has been recording more than 20,000 new cases a day in recent weeks as the more infectious Delta variant spreads.
In urban areas like Tokyo, patients in serious condition have been left waiting for hours or travelling long distances in ambulances to find available hospital beds.
“The number of new cases has continued to hit record highs nationwide,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told ministers and government officials as he announced the expansion.
“The transmissibility of the Delta variant is extremely strong. We need people’s further cooperation in order to overcome this crisis.”
Eight more regions will be placed under the virus emergency already in force in 13 areas including Tokyo, with a provisional end-date of September 12.
The measure largely limits the sale of alcohol by restaurants and bars and asks them to close early, while urging the public to work from home and avoid non-urgent outings.
The government also plans to bring four other regions under a less strict measure.
In all, the planned move will mean 33 of Japan’s 47 regions are under heightened anti-infection rules as the country hosts the Paralympics after the Olympics.
Organisers say their countermeasures have stopped infections spreading from participants to the Japanese public, but some experts argue holding the events has undermined government messaging on the virus and encouraged people to go out.
A top adviser to the government on the virus told lawmakers Wednesday that municipalities should be able to consider extending the summer vacation for school children to prevent infections.
The government has so far ruled out blanket school closures and is proceeding with a vaccination programme that began slowly but has picked up speed, with around 40 percent of the population now fully inoculated.
So far, Japan has recorded around 15,500 deaths in the pandemic.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Edge Media staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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]]>The post Japan marks the 76th anniversary of its World War II surrender appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>“We will commit to our pledge to never repeat the tragedy of the war,” he said in his first speech at the event since becoming prime minister.
Suga did not offer an apology to the Asian victims of Japanese aggression across the region in the first half of the 20th century – a precedence set by his predecessor Shinzo Abe, who was frequently accused of trying to whitewash his country’s brutal past.
In a largely domestic-focused speech, Suga listed damage inflicted on Japan and its people, including the U.S. atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities and the fierce battle of Okinawa, and mourned for them.
Emperor Naruhito, in contrast, expressed “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions in a carefully nuanced speech that followed the footsteps of his father, who devoted his 30-year career to making amends for a war fought in the name of Hirohito, the current emperor’s grandfather. Naruhito also said he hoped that people can put their hearts together to overcome the difficulty of the pandemic while seeking happiness and peace for all.
Amid Tokyo’s surging coronavirus infections, about 200 participants, reduced from about 6,000 before the pandemic, mourned for the dead with a minute of silence. Masks were required, and there was no singing of the national anthem.
Suga vowed to cooperate with the international community in tackling global issues under “proactive pacifism,” a vision that Abe promoted to allow Japan to play a greater military role in international conflicts.
Beginning 2013, Abe stopped acknowledging Japan’s wartime hostilities or apologize in his Aug. 15 speeches, scrapping a nearly 20-year tradition that began with the 1995 apology of Socialist leader Tomiichi Murayama.
On Sunday, before attending the ceremony at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, Suga laid flowers at a nearby national cemetery for unknown soldiers. While Suga stayed away from controversial Yasukuni shrine, he did send a religious offering to the shrine, Japanese media reported.
Victims of Japanese actions during the first half of the 20th century, especially the Koreas and China, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism because it honors convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.
Abe, who stepped down as prime minister last year, prayed at the shrine Sunday, and so did three other members of Suga’s Cabinet. Two other ministers visited the shrine Friday.
The visits sparked criticism from China and South Korea.
On Sunday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed “deep disappointment and regret” over the Japanese leaders’ visits and offerings to the shrine, saying it “beautifies Japan’s past war of aggression” and honors “war criminals.” It urged them to show “sincere remorse through action” so that the countries could develop “future-oriented ties.”
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]]>The post Ship snaps in two off Japan’s Coast , Crew onboard safe : Officials. appeared first on The Edge Media.
]]>Aerial images showed the separated stern of the Crimson Polaris tipped upwards and the other part of the stricken boat listing into the sea.
A fuel leak from the ship has spread around 24 kilometres (15 miles), a coastguard spokesman told AFP, but the extent of any environmental impact was unclear.
“Crimson Polaris ran aground in Hachinohe port in Aomori,” said the spokesman, who declined to be named.
“All the 21 crew members — Chinese and Filipino — were rescued safely,” he said.
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