Kyodo News Digest: April 24, 2025
KYODO NEWS - 14 minutes ago - 09:00 | All, Japan, World
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Pacific island eyes "big" ceremony on 80th atomic bombing anniversary
TINIAN/GUAM - The Pacific island of Tinian is planning a "big" commemoration in August to mark the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, according to the mayor of the island, which served as the launching point for the nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II.
Mayor Edwin Aldan said Tuesday that the island, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, has invited senior officials from the U.S. Department of Defense and relatives of war veterans to a ceremony on the morning of Aug. 6 at the airfield where a B-29 bomber took off to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, to "recognize the significance" of the bombing.
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U.S. Marine suspected of raping woman at Okinawa base
NAHA, Japan - A U.S. Marine in his 20s is facing criminal charges including allegedly raping a woman last month in a restroom of an American military base in Japan's Okinawa, investigative sources said Wednesday.
The Okinawa prefectural police referred the case to prosecutors on April 7, the sources said, adding the suspect is also accused of injuring another woman who tried to rescue the victim, who was a resident of Okinawa and a civilian worker at the base.
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EU mulls imposing trade restrictions on all eels under int'l treaty
TOKYO - The European Union is preparing a proposal to impose export restrictions on all eel species under an international agreement regulating trade in endangered species, EU sources said Wednesday -- a move that could affect supplies to Japan, which has relied heavily on imports.
The proposal, if approved at the conference of the parties to the Washington Convention to be held in Uzbekistan later this year, would place Japanese eel for consumption, among other species, on the list requiring an export permit issued by the exporting country, the sources said.
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Japan mulls sending foreign minister to Pope Francis funeral
TOKYO - The Japanese government is considering sending Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya to the Vatican later this week for the funeral of Pope Francis, a government source said Wednesday.
After attending the funeral on Saturday, Iwaya will tour the United States, Senegal, Saudi Arabia and France as originally planned, the source said.
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Japan junior ruling party head urges China to lift seafood ban
BEIJING - Tetsuo Saito, chief of Japan's junior ruling coalition partner, the Komeito party, on Wednesday urged China to lift its blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports during his meeting in Beijing with Wang Huning, who is ranked No. 4 in the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.
Saito, who is on a three-day visit to China through Thursday, handed Wang a personal letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping from Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
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Man sent to prosecutors over naked trespassing, suspected in 20 cases
TOKYO - A 48-year-old Japanese man was sent to prosecutors Wednesday after breaking into a cram school near Tokyo completely naked, in a case that police believe may be connected to about 20 other incidents in less than two hours, including a hit-and-run that left one man dead.
Daisuke Nishimura, who was arrested in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday, is suspected of committing a range of crimes in the area within approximately 90 minutes -- from hit-and-runs to theft at a convenience store -- injuring about a dozen people during the chaos.
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Japan, Britain, Italy defense chiefs to forgo 3-way talks
TOKYO - Defense ministers of Japan, Britain and Italy will likely forgo their plan to meet in Italy next month due to a schedule conflict, a Japanese Defense Ministry source said Wednesday.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his British and Italian counterparts, John Healey and Guido Crosetto, were expected to discuss their joint project of developing a next-generation fighter jet by 2035.
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Baseball: Gu Lin struggles in NPB debut as Eagles beat Fighters
KITAHIROSHIMA, Japan - The Rakuten Eagles roughed up Taiwan's 2024 MVP pitcher Gu Lin Ruei-yang on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Nippon Ham Fighters on Wednesday.
Rakuten took advantage of a defensive miscue to take a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning. Hideto Asamura's three-run homer off Gu Lin (0-1), who was making his Nippon Professional Baseball debut, capped a four-run sixth that made it 7-0 at Es Con Field Hokkaido.
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