Japan | Pakistan

A fire ripped through more than 170 buildings and killed one person in a southern Japanese coastal city on Wednesday, with military and firefighting helicopters scrambling to extinguish the country’s largest urban blaze in almost half a century. Aerial footage from broadcasters showed houses reduced to rubble and thick plumes of smoke rising from the hilly Saganoseki district of Oita city, which overlooks a fishing harbour renowned for its premium Seki-brand mackerel. The flames had also spread to nearby forested slopes and an uninhabited island more than one kilometre off the coast, likely due to strong winds, local media reported. The blaze started on Tuesday evening and has burned 48,900 square metres — roughly the size of seven soccer fields — forcing 175 residents in the district, some 770 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, to flee to an emergency shelter, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. The cause of the fire was under investigation, the agency added. One person has been found dead, local m...

A volcano on Sakurajima in southwestern Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture erupted early on Sunday morning, spewing ash and smoke up to 4,400 metres into the atmosphere, according to Kyodo News. As the eruption continued, the weather agency issued an ashfall forecast for parts of Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Miyazaki prefectures. However, no injuries or building damages have been reported. “An explosive eruption around 12:57am (8:57am PKT) on Sunday at the Minamidake crater sent a plume rising above 4,000m for the first time since October 18 last year,” the news agency said citing the local meteorological observatory. In the latest series of eruptions, large volcanic rocks flew “as far as the fifth station”, but no pyroclastic flows were detected, said Kyodo News. It added that the alert level remains at a three on a scale of five, restricting access to the mountain. Sakurajima is one of Japan’s most active volcanoes and is linked to the Osumi Peninsula on Kyushu, the country’s southwestern main island. The agency adds ...

The sense of fear is palpable in parts of northern Japan, where some locals have fastened bells to their bags hoping the noise will keep bears away, while signs warn people to be on guard. The animals have killed a record 13 across the country since April, with a steady flow of reports of bears entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging in supermarkets. “We hear news almost every day about people being attacked or injured,” said 28-year-old Kakeru Matsuhashi, a traditional “Matagi” hunter, as he walked through a forest clutching a knife. “It’s becoming something that feels personal, and it’s simply frightening,” he added in the northern prefecture of Akita, an area hit by a series of attacks. This year, the number of fatalities is double the previous record of 2023-24, with five months of the fiscal year still to go. Data is patchy from certain regions, but in recent years, Japan has seen among the highest number of fatal attacks globally. Bells used for warning bears of approaching hikers are seen at...

United States President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signed a framework agreement on Tuesday for securing the supply of rare earths, as both countries aim to reduce China’s dominance of some of the key electronic components. The leaders signed the documents, which included critical minerals, at the neo-Baroque-style Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, beneath three chandeliers decorated from top to bottom with gold ornamentation, as aides applauded. View this post on Instagram No direct mention was made publicly by the leaders about China, which processes over 90 per cent of the world’s rare earths, making it the source of each country’s concern about its mineral supply chain. Beijing has recently expanded export curbs. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in South Korea to discuss a deal that would pause steeper US tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls. Japan and the US would use economic policy ...

Japan got its first woman prime minister on Tuesday after Sanae Takaichi, a China hawk and social conservative, forged an 11th-hour coalition deal. Japan’s fifth premier in as many years will lead a minority government and has a full in-tray, not least a scheduled visit by US President Donald Trump next week. Parliament appointed Takaichi, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, as prime minister on Tuesday, after she unexpectedly won a majority in a first round of voting. She will formally take office after meeting the emperor later. The former heavy metal drummer became on October 4 head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost non-stop for decades but is losing support. Six days later the Komeito party, uncomfortable about Takaichi’s conservative views and an LDP slush fund scandal, quit their coalition. This forced Takaichi to form an alliance with the reformist, right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), which was signed on Monday evening. JIP wants to lower the consumption tax rate on ...

Japan’s former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, best known for making a statement apologising over World War II, died Friday aged 101, officials said. Murayama issued the 1995 proclamation on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, expressing “deep remorse” over the country’s atrocities in Asia. The statement became a benchmark for Tokyo’s subsequent apologies over World War II. “Tomiichi Murayama, the father of Japanese politics, passed away today at 11:28am at a hospital in Oita City at the age of 101,” Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party, seen as the successor to Murayama’s now-defunct Socialist Party, said on X. Hiroyuki Takano, the secretary general of the Social Democratic Party in Oita, Murayama’s hometown, told AFP he had been informed that the former premier died of old age. In the landmark statement in August 1995, Murayama said that “Japan … through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those o...

Human remains found in Japan have been identified as those of a six-year-old girl missing since the massive earthquake and tsunami of 2011, police said on Friday. The disaster killed 15,900 people, with 2,520 people still listed as missing as of the end of February, according to the National Police Agency. Teeth and fragments of jaw were discovered in February 2023 in the northern region of Miyagi, a spokesman for the local police told AFP. “After dental and DNA identification analyses, it was confirmed the remains belong to Natsuse Yamane, female, who was six years old at the time,” he said. The girl had been at her home in Yamada, a town around 100 kilometres away in Iwate Prefecture, when the tsunami swept her away, the spokesman added. She had been listed as missing ever since. The remains were found by construction workers sifting through material amassed in a clean-up of coastal areas, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported. The child’s family issued a statement of thanks. “We are very happy to have been cont...

Japan’s ruling party picked hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi as its head on Saturday, putting her on course to become the country’s first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbours. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, elected Takaichi, 64, to regain trust from a public angered by rising prices and drawn to opposition groups promising stimulus and clampdowns on migrants. A vote in parliament to choose a replacement for outgoing Shigeru Ishiba is expected on October 15. Takaichi is favoured as the ruling coalition has the largest number of seats. Inherits party in crisis Takaichi, the only woman among the five LDP candidates, beat a challenge from the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become the youngest modern leader. A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world’s fourth-largest economy, Takaichi takes over a party in crisis. Various other part...

Pensioner Shizue Kato didn’t fancy the new “Demon Slayer” anime blockbuster and instead watched “Kokuho”, a rare live-action cinema hit in Japan, where animation rules. “Many of our friends already watched the film, and they were amazed we hadn’t yet,” Kato told AFP as she emerged from a Tokyo cinema on a recent weekday. “I read the original novel,” her husband Kuni said. Lasting almost three hours, “Kokuho” is about two “onnagata”, male players of female roles in kabuki, a rarefied form of classical Japanese theatre. Lee Sang-il’s film, shot by Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fan, follows the friendship and rivalry of the son of a slain yakuza gangster and a boy born into a kabuki family. The plot is gripping but markedly more sedate than this summer’s other hit, the second movie from the “Demon Slayer” anime and manga mega-franchise. That dark fantasy, the first of a trilogy, is about sword-swishing Tanjiro Kamado’s final showdown to slay demons and make his sister human again in a kaleidoscopic castle. ...

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned on Sunday, ushering in a potentially lengthy period of policy uncertainty at a shaky moment for the world’s fourth-largest economy. Having just ironed out final details of a trade deal with the United States to lower President Donald Trump’s punishing tariffs, Ishiba, 68, told a press conference he must take responsibility for a series of bruising election losses. Since coming to power less than a year ago, the unlikely premier has overseen his ruling coalition lose its majorities in elections for both houses of parliament amid voter anger over rising living costs. He instructed his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) — which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war period — to hold an emergency leadership race, adding he would continue his duties until his successor was elected. “With Japan having signed the trade agreement and the president having signed the executive order, we have passed a key hurdle,” Ishiba said, his voice seeming to catch with emotion. “...

With Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announcing his resignation, attention turns to who will next steer the world’s fourth-largest economy. The process to pick Japan’s next leader is more complicated than before, as Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period, and its junior coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses of parliament during his tenure. Party leadership race First, the LDP must pick a new president to replace Ishiba. The date has not been set yet. In the last party leadership race in September 2024, candidates needed to secure 20 nominations from the party’s lawmakers to be eligible to run. Candidates will embark on a period of debates and campaigns across Japan, culminating in a vote by lawmakers and rank-and-file party members. In the last race, there were nine contenders, and Ishiba won in a run-off. LDP vote Based on the last leadership race, each lawmaker has a vote with an equal number distributed among the rank-and-file ...

LAHORE: The Punjab government and opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have been wrangling over “exorbitant spendings, chartered jet and private persons in the delegation” of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s Japan’s five-day tour. Ms Nawaz concluded her Japan visit on Monday and reached Thailand. Questions are also being raised on social media regarding CM Maryam’s ‘official visit’ to Japan, in which ‘private individuals’, including her family members, as also a part. It is being argued that even if such participants claim to bear their own expenses, the practice undermines the sanctity of official delegations and blurs the line between state affairs and personal interests. Questions are also being raised on social media platforms over the inclusion of private persons as part of her visit, causing a huge sum of money to the exchequer. Entourage comes under scrutiny; PTI’s Waqas claims bank borrowing spent on excursion; Azma says PTI will consume in its own frustration Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhar...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has strongly condemned a social media campaign targeting Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s official visit to Japan, terming it an attack on Pakistan-Japan diplomatic relations.

A Japanese city will urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which will be recommended for all residents in central Japan’s Toyoake City — will not be binding and there will be no penalties incurred for higher usage, according to the draft ordinance. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues… including sleep problems”, mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement on Friday. The draft urges elementary school students to avoid smartphones after 9:00pm, and junior high students and older are advised not to use them after 10:00pm. The move prompted an online backlash, with many calling the plan unrealistic. “I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on social media platform X. “In two hours, I cannot even read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone),” wrote another. Others said smartphone use should be a d...

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif met Seishiro Eto, Chairman of the Japan-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship League, during her official visit to Japan and discussed ways to expand cooperation between Punjab and Japan.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz Sharif has said that Punjab will benefit from Japan’s expertise in curbing environmental pollution, improving waste management and developing modern cities on advanced lines, according to a handout issued by the Information Department here on Monday.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif arrived in Japan on an official visit after concluding her trip to Thailand.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday embarked on a five-day official visit to Japan aimed at enhancing economic cooperation and attracting foreign investment to the province.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Japan in the first week of October on the special invitation of the Japanese government, marking the first trip by a Pakistani premier to Japan in two decades.

TOKYO: The Japan Digital Nomad Visa, introduced in 2024, enables remote workers to live and work in Japan for up to six months. To qualify, applicants must be from specific countries, hold a valid passport, earn a minimum of 10 million yen annually (around $62,166 USD), and have private health insurance. This visa suits freelancers, […]