The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Okinawa marks 77th anniversary of significant WWII ground battle
NAHA, Japan - Okinawa on Thursday marked the 77th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the first Japanese leader in three years to attend the memorial service due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki in a "peace declaration" said Russia's invasion of Ukraine evoked memories of the conflict in the southern island prefecture while pledging to "continue efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and renounce war, so that Okinawa will never become a battlefield again."
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1st U.N. nuke ban treaty meeting calls for "immediate action": draft
VIENNA - Parties to a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons will agree to call for "immediate action" in a statement on achieving a nuclear-weapons-free world when they wrap up their first meeting later Thursday, a draft obtained by Kyodo News showed.
The statement, expected to be adopted at the end of the three-day meeting of parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna, says a prompt response is the only way for such weapons to be never used again at a time when Russia is threatening to use them in its war against Ukraine.
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Sumitomo Mitsui to take 10% stake in SBI Holdings for 79 bil. yen
TOKYO - Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Thursday it will acquire a roughly 10 percent stake in Japanese internet financial giant SBI Holdings Inc. in a deal worth 79.6 billion yen ($585 million) to strengthen its online brokerage service.
Through the capital alliance, the two financial giants aim to expand their customer base by making use of SMFG's wide customer base, ranging from retail and corporate clients, and of SBI Holdings' younger customers.
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Court rejects claim 7-Eleven unjustly ended franchise contract
OSAKA - The Osaka District Court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit claiming Seven-Eleven Japan Co. unjustly terminated its contract with a convenience store franchisee over his decision to stop late-night operations.
Accepting the chain operator's claim that the termination resulted from his handling of customers, the court also ordered Mitoshi Matsumoto, the 60-year-old former franchisee, to give up the store and pay damages to the company.
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Japan city loses memory drive with info on all 460,000 residents
KOBE - The western Japan city of Amagasaki said Thursday it has lost a USB flash drive containing personal information on all of its roughly 460,000 residents.
The lost data included residents' names, addresses, dates of birth and the bank account numbers of welfare-receiving households, among other things. There is no evidence of data being leaked so far, according to the city in Hyogo Prefecture.
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Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi moved to prison: military
YANGON - Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been transferred to a prison from a secret location where she had been detained, a military spokesman said Thursday.
Suu Kyi has been tried on a dozen criminal charges over the period since the military ousted her democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup and put her under house arrest.
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Sharp to make English its official language in a year: CEO
OSAKA - Sharp Corp. will make English its official language in a year, Wu Po-hsuan, chief executive of the Japanese electronics company, said Thursday.
The company, headquartered in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, plans to expand its overseas business by strengthening human resource development, said Wu, who replaced Tai Jeng-wu in April. Both Tai and Wu have been sent to Sharp by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
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Baseball: Ohtani magic on mound with 13 Ks in record-setting night
ANAHEIM, California - Shohei Ohtani threw eight shutout innings with 13 strikeouts, his most in MLB, in the Los Angeles Angels' 5-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.
Ohtani (6-4), who homered twice and drove in eight runs a day earlier, is the first player with eight or more RBIs and 10 or more strikeouts in consecutive games, in either order, since RBI became an official stat in 1920, according to a tweet posted by MLB.
