The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan's ruling party kicks off campaigning for leadership election
TOKYO - Campaigning for the Japanese ruling party's leadership election to choose the successor to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially started Friday, with four veteran lawmakers vying over policy steps to better fight the novel coronavirus and deal with an increasingly assertive China and other challenges facing the country.
In a tightly contested race for the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, vaccination minister Taro Kono, a reform-minded maverick in the conservative party, who in the past has ruffled feathers by opposing nuclear energy and abandoning a costly missile defense system, is viewed as the early front-runner.
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Japan may start administering 3rd COVID vaccine shots by year-end
TOKYO - Japan may start administering third shots of coronavirus vaccines to people by the end of this year, the health ministry said Friday, as the nation looks to respond to the continued spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Health experts on a government subcommittee agreed on the necessity of the third shot and approved the ministry's plan to start inoculating people at least eight months after they received their second dose.
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Shinsei Bank decides to launch defense against SBI's takeover
TOKYO - Shinsei Bank said Friday it will launch defensive measures against an unsolicited takeover bid by Japanese online financial firm SBI Holdings Inc. and hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting to seek approval for the plan.
The decision by the bank's board marks a further flare-up in tensions, effectively making a tender offer launched a week ago by SBI hostile.
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Typhoon Chanthu makes landfall on southwestern Japan
TOKYO - Typhoon Chanthu made landfall in Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu on Friday evening, the weather agency said, warning of heavy rain, landslides and high waves.
The season's 14th typhoon is forecast to move east and bring torrential rain and strong winds to western and eastern Japan through the weekend, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
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Japan to carefully analyze China's readiness to join TPP after bid
TOKYO - The Japanese government said Friday it will carefully analyze whether China is ready to meet the requirements for joining the trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, a day after Beijing announced it has filed a bid to join the framework.
"We must thoroughly assess whether China is ready to fulfill the high-standard rules of the TPP-11," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said, referring to the deal formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
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Australia signals it may not accept China's TPP talks
SYDNEY - Australia signaled on Friday that it may not accept the start of negotiations on China's possible participation in an 11-country trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal unless Beijing removes retaliatory tariffs on Australian goods.
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said in a statement that existing members want to be confident that China has a "track record of compliance" with its commitments under the World Trade Organization and existing trade agreements.
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Woman chips tooth eating McDonald's Japan burger containing metal
OSAKA - A woman chipped her tooth after biting into a hamburger containing a metal-like object at a McDonald's outlet in southwestern Japan earlier this week, McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Friday.
The 26-year-old woman came to an outlet in Fukuoka city at around 2 p.m. Tuesday and purchased a Rich Cheese Melt Tsukimi hamburger to go. She noticed the foreign object -- shaped like a spring and thought to be a part of a cooking utensil -- just after biting into the burger, according to the fast-food chain.
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Japan, Britain vow to deepen ties toward free and open Indo-Pacific
TOKYO - Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his British counterpart Elizabeth Truss on Friday pledged to enhance cooperation toward a free and open Indo-Pacific.
In their first telephone talks since Truss assumed her new post earlier this week, Motegi welcomed the launch of a trilateral security pact involving Britain, the United States and Australia, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, in their apparent effort to counter China's growing clouts.
