South Korea waits for presidential election results
It's presidential election day in South Korea. The vote is expected to be a showdown between the two major parties. NHK World's Tokuda Ryosuke and Kim Chan-ju were at each party's headquarters with the latest.
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Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Japan enacts law to gradually boost teachers' pay
Parliament enacted a bill Wednesday to raise in stages what is called adjustment allowances for public school teachers to 10% of base salaries from the current 4%. The revised special measures law on teachers' salaries was approved by a majority vote in a plenary meeting of the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of parliament, after its passage through the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, last month. Following the revision, the adjustment allowances, given instead of overtime pay, will be raised by 1 percentage point annually from next year until it reaches 10% in 2031. The revision also requires all prefectural and municipal boards of education to draw up and publish plans to manage teachers' workloads, in a bid to resolve the worsening problem of long working hours. During Lower House deliberations. the bill, originally submitted by the government, was amended as agreed among ruling and opposition parties, namely the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People. As part of the amendment, a target to cut teachers' average monthly overtime by around 30% to 30 hours was added as a supplementary provision. The bill also seeks government support for teachers to deal with parents who make unreasonable demands. During parliamentary debates, however, some lawmakers called for a more drastic change to the law, saying that the supplementary provision would not eliminate the cause of long working hours as teachers are not paid according to hours worked overtime. The CDP, which jointly submitted the amended bill in the Lower House, argued for a further review of the law in deliberations at the Upper House education committee, saying, "This revision provides a path to a new revision."
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
Survey finds nearly 70% of people in Japan trust mass media
Nearly 70% of people in Japan trust mass media such as television, newspaper and radio to report news accurately, a survey by news distribution app operator SmartNews showed Tuesday. A combined 68.7% were very or moderately trustful of mass media, little changed from 68.2% in the previous 2023 poll, according to the latest survey. Meanwhile, 6.7% said they do not trust mass media at all. The postal survey was conducted by the company's in-house think tank between January and March this year, covering 4,460 people between the ages of 18 and 79. Valid responses were provided by 2,117 people. The survey also showed that 46.5% picked television as their most frequently used source of information on elections and politics. Internet news sites or apps were selected by 17.8%, exceeding traditional forms of newspapers and magazines, chosen by 16.0%. Social media was selected by 10.9%. "It appears that a majority of people do not necessarily link trust in mass media as a whole to criticism about mass media over Fuji Television Network's handling of an alleged sexual assault by a former TV star, as well as over some gubernatorial elections," said Doshisha University professor Kenichi Ikeda, who analyzed the survey results.
Japan Today
5 hours ago
- Japan Today
U.S., China reach deal to ease export curbs, keep tariff truce alive
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng leaves Lancaster House, on the second day scheduled for trade talks between the U.S. and China, in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Toby Melville By Kate Holton, Alistair Smout and Andrea Shalal U.S. and Chinese officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earths while offering little sign of a durable resolution to longstanding trade differences. At the end of two days of intense negotiations in London, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the framework deal puts "meat on the bones" of an agreement reached last month in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached crushing triple-digit levels. But the Geneva deal had faltered over China's continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls of its own preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, chemicals and other technology goods to China. Lutnick said the agreement reached in London would remove some of the recent U.S. export restrictions, but did not provide details after the talks concluded around midnight London time. "We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents," Lutnick said. "The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework." In a separate briefing, China's Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also said a trade framework had been reached that would be taken back to U.S. and Chinese leaders. "The two sides have, in principle, reached a framework for implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state during the phone call on June 5th and the consensus reached at the Geneva meeting," Li told reporters. The dispute may keep the Geneva agreement from unravelling over duelling export controls, but does little to resolve deep differences over Trump's unilateral tariffs and longstanding U.S. complaints about China's state-led, export-driven economic model. The two sides left Geneva with fundamentally different views of the terms of that agreement and needed to be more specific on required actions, said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center in Washington. "They are back to square one but that's much better than square zero," Lipsky added. The two sides have until August 10 to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement to ease trade tensions, or tariff rates will snap back from about 30% to 145% on the U.S. side and from 10% to 125% on the Chinese side. Investors, who have been badly burned by trade turmoil before, offered a cautious response and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%. "The devil will be in the details, but the lack of reaction suggests this outcome was fully expected," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone in Melbourne. "The details matter, especially around the degree of rare earths bound for the U.S., and the subsequent freedom for U.S.-produced chips to head east, but for now as long as the headlines of talks between the two parties remain constructive, risk assets should remain supported." RESOLVING RESTRICTIONS Lutnick said China's restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S. will be resolved as a "fundamental" part of the framework agreement. "Also, there were a number of measures the United States of America put on when those rare earths were not coming," Lutnick said. "You should expect those to come off, sort of as President Trump said, in a balanced way." U.S. President Donald Trump's shifting tariff policies have roiled global markets, sparked congestion and confusion in major ports, and cost companies tens of billions of dollars in lost sales and higher costs. The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.3%, saying higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies. But markets have made up much of the losses they endured after Trump unveiled his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs in April, aided by the reset in Geneva between the world's two biggest economies. PHONE CALL HELPED The second round of U.S.-China talks was given a major boost by a rare phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, which Lutnick said provided directives that were merged with Geneva truce agreement. Customs data published on Monday showed that China's exports to the U.S. plunged 34.5% in May, the sharpest drop since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. While the impact on U.S. inflation and its jobs market has so far been muted, tariffs have hammered U.S. business and household confidence and the dollar remains under pressure. Lutnick was joined by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the London talks. Bessent departed hours before their conclusion to return to Washington to testify before Congress on Wednesday. China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors, and its decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended global supply chains. In May, the U.S. responded by halting shipments of semiconductor design software and chemicals and aviation equipment, revoking export licences that had been previously issued. Just after the framework deal was announced, a U.S. appeals court allowed Trump's most sweeping tariffs to stay in effect while it reviews a lower court decision blocking them on grounds that they exceeded Trump's legal authority by imposing them. The decision keeps alive a key pressure point on China, Trump's currently suspended 34% "reciprocal" duties that had prompted swift tariff escalation. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
