The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan PM Kishida dissolves lower house for Oct. 31 election
TOKYO - Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved the House of Representatives on Thursday for a general election at the end of the month as he seeks a public mandate for his government launched just last week.
The election, with the coronavirus response and economic policies of the various parties to the fore, will be held on Oct. 31 after the four-year term of lower house members expires on Oct. 21.
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TSMC eyes building Japan plant in 2022, start of operations in 2024
TAIPEI - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to build an advanced chip-making factory in Japan in 2022 and start operations there in 2024, CEO C.C. Wei said Thursday.
Wei told an on-line investor's conference that after conducting due diligence, the company decided to build a specialty technology fab, subject to the approval of its board of directors.
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U.S., Japan, S. Korea diplomats may meet next week over N. Korea
WASHINGTON - Japan, the United States and South Korea are considering bringing together their senior officials in charge of North Korea issues in Washington possibly next week, their first such meeting since the change of Japanese prime minister, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.
The meeting is expected to demonstrate their trilateral cooperation as North Korea continues to alarm the region such as through the recent test-firing of short-range ballistic missiles and what Pyongyang claims to be a newly developed hypersonic missile.
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Nippon Steel sues Toyota, Chinese steelmaker for patent violation
TOKYO - Nippon Steel Corp. said Thursday it has filed lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. and Chinese steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. alleging infringement of a patent related to a key steel product for electric vehicles.
The steelmaker said it is seeking damages of 20 billion yen ($176 million) from each company and has also asked the Tokyo District Court for an injunction prohibiting Toyota from manufacturing and selling in Japan electric vehicles made with non-oriented electrical steel sheets suspected of violating its patent.
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46 killed in building fire in southern Taiwan
TAIPEI - Forty-six people were killed and 41 injured in a predawn blaze at a commercial and residential building in Taiwan's southern port city of Kaohsiung on Thursday, authorities said.
The fire broke out in the 13-story building in the city's Yancheng District at 2:54 a.m. and was extinguished at 4:51 a.m., according to the local fire bureau.
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ASEAN ministers to hold emergency meeting on Myanmar on Fri.
SINGAPORE - ASEAN foreign ministers will hold an emergency online meeting Friday to discuss military-ruled Myanmar, including the member country's representation at a summit meeting late this month, ASEAN sources have said.
The ministers are expected to consider a proposal from some member countries that Myanmar's military leader not be invited to the summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while also repeating their calls for the military government to accept a special ASEAN envoy.
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Japan opposition lambastes "inconsistent" Kishida ahead of election
TOKYO - Japanese opposition parties lashed out Thursday at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who dissolved the lower house for a general election, terming his remarks on key issues including raising the capital gains tax as "inconsistent."
Kishida is seeking a mandate in the Oct. 31 election to proceed with his priorities of bolstering the coronavirus response and making sure the economy recovers from the COVID-19 fallout and grows, a requisite for him to follow through on his campaign pledge of redistributing wealth.
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Fast Retailing posts record net profit on robust Uniqlo sales
TOKYO - Fast Retailing Co. said Thursday its net profit rose to a record 169.85 billion yen ($1.50 billion) in the year through August from a year earlier and projected further growth in the current fiscal year on robust sales for its Uniqlo casual clothing amid a decline in coronavirus infection cases in some countries.
The net profit surged 88.0 percent on year and surpassed the previous all-time high of 162.58 billion yen logged before the coronavirus pandemic in the year ended in August 2019.
