Kyodo News Digest: May 30, 2025

Kyodo News

3 days ago

KYODO NEWS - 6 minutes ago - 09:23 | All, Japan, World
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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China agrees to begin steps to resume Japanese seafood imports: Tokyo
TOKYO - Japan's government said Friday that China has agreed to begin procedures to resume imports of Japanese seafood, lifting a ban imposed after the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.
Chinese authorities are expected to issue a public notice easing the blanket ban in place since August 2023 and soon open registration for Japanese facilities that process and preserve marine products, sources familiar with the matter said.
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Japan PM says mutual understanding "deepened" with Trump over tariffs
TOKYO - Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Thursday he and U.S. President Donald Trump deepened their understanding of each other's positions on tariffs and agreed that their ministers should accelerate ongoing negotiations in greater detail.
Ishiba made the comment after a roughly 25-minute phone call with Trump ahead of the next round of bilateral tariff negotiations at the ministerial level.
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U.S. appeals court says Trump's hefty tariffs can continue for now
WASHINGTON - A U.S. federal appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump's administration to continue with its most sweeping tariffs for the time being.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington granted the administration's request to temporarily suspend a lower court ruling a day before that invalidated its so-called reciprocal tariffs along with some other levies.
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Japan's April jobless rate remains unchanged at 2.5%
TOKYO - Japan's unemployment rate in April remained unchanged from the previous month at 2.5 percent, government data showed Friday.
The job availability ratio was also unchanged from March at 1.26 in the reporting month, meaning there were 126 jobs available for every 100 job seekers, according to separate data.
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Ex-Japan PM Abe's widow Akie meets Putin, welcomed with large bouquet
TOKYO - Akie Abe, widow of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, his presidential office said, with a photo showing him welcoming her with a large bouquet of flowers.
Putin, who held in-person talks 27 times with Shinzo Abe during his tenure as prime minister until 2020, was quoted by the office as saying, "We remember his contribution to the development of Russian-Japanese cooperation."
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Japan, U.S. eye "2-plus-2" security talks in Washington
TOKYO - Japan and the United States are considering holding "two-plus-two" ministerial security talks in Washington this summer, Japanese government sources said Thursday, as the allies face ongoing security challenges from China and North Korea.
The meeting involving foreign and defense ministers from the two countries will be the first for the governments of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump. The two leaders took office in October last year and January, respectively.
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Sony's financial arm aims to launch overseas businesses after listing
TOKYO - The top executive of the financial unit of Sony Group Corp. said Thursday that it aims to launch overseas operations after it is spun off from the parent company and listed on the Tokyo stock market later this year.
Toshihide Endo, CEO of Sony Financial Group Inc., said the company will focus on "honing our business model at home "through March 2027, adding that expanding its business abroad is "on the menu as an excellent strategy for the mid-term."
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Group held in Cambodia for alleged fraud involves some 20 Japanese
TOKYO - Japanese police said Thursday that at least 20 Japanese were among roughly 30 people believed to be involved in scams and detained by local authorities in northwestern Cambodia.
The group's detention in Poipet, mostly comprising people in their 20s, comes amid a rise in cases of Japanese nationals committing fraud and scams while hiding in Southeast Asia.
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