The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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China skips talks with Japan in Cambodia over Taiwan
BEIJING - China said Thursday it has decided not to hold a foreign ministers meeting with Japan on the fringes of ASEAN-related gatherings in Phnom Penh, describing it as fallout from U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a press briefing that the Group of Seven industrialized nations, including Japan, unreasonably blamed China over its response to Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled democratic island in a statement issued Wednesday by their foreign ministers.
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China begins military exercise near Taiwan after Pelosi visit
BEIJING - The Chinese military said Thursday it has conducted a live-fire drill in the strait dividing Taiwan and the mainland, beginning a four-day large-scale exercise in areas encircling the island in response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered Beijing.
The military's Eastern Theater Command said that at around 1 p.m., its armed forces carried out long-range precise strikes at specific areas in the eastern part of the Taiwan Strait and achieved expected results.
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U.N. chief hopeful NPT will reaffirm non-use of nuclear weapons
NEW YORK - U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he has high hopes that a disarmament conference starting this week will lead to the reaffirmation of the norm that nuclear weapons should never be used, in comments ahead of his visit to Hiroshima for the upcoming anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the western Japanese city.
"Those that possess nuclear weapons have a clear responsibility not to admit the possibility of any kind of nuclear confrontation," Guterres said in a meeting with Japanese media organizations on the sidelines of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference at the U.N. headquarters. The four-week conference started Monday.
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Japan, S. Korea to accelerate consultations over wartime labor issue
PHNOM PENH - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his South Korean counterpart Park Jin agreed Thursday to speed up their consultations over a wartime labor issue that has soured bilateral ties, a Japanese official said.
The talks were held in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on the sidelines of regional gatherings, with Tokyo and Seoul expressing readiness to improve their relations following Yoon Suk Yeol's inauguration as new South Korean president in May.
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Japan, ASEAN vow to cooperate in maritime security in Indo-Pacific
PHNOM PENH - Foreign ministers from Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Thursday pledged to cooperate in promoting maritime security in the Indo-Pacific in a veiled counter to China's muscle-flexing in regional waters.
In a meeting with his ASEAN counterparts in Phnom Penh, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi voiced "strong opposition" to any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the East and South China seas, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
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Toyota lifts net profit outlook as yen expected to absorb higher costs
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. on Thursday lifted its net profit forecast for the current business year to 2.36 trillion yen ($17.6 billion), as a greater windfall from a weaker yen is expected to more than offset the impact of higher material costs and production loss from chip shortages.
The new outlook for the year to March 2023 compares with the previously projected 2.26 trillion yen and represents a 17.2 percent drop from the record net profit the previous year.
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U.S., S. Korea assembly speakers vow to boost N. Korea denuke efforts
SEOUL - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Kim Jin Pyo, speaker of South Korea's National Assembly, vowed on Thursday to boost efforts in achieving the denuclearization of North Korea, while stressing their legislatures' pivotal roles in it.
Pelosi, who has infuriated China by visiting Taiwan to meet with its leader during her Asia trip, also held phone talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, agreeing to enhance U.S.-South Korean relations to address global and regional challenges. Yoon is currently on holiday, according to the presidential office.
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Russian ambassador offers flowers at Hiroshima atomic bomb memorial
HIROSHIMA - Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin on Thursday laid flowers at the cenotaph for victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing in Hiroshima, just two days before an annual memorial ceremony where he was uninvited due to Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.
"I came to express Russia's positive attitude toward nuclear weapons reduction," Galuzin told reporters, after paying his respects at the Peace Memorial Park, in a veiled jab at the United States that carried out the world's first atomic bomb attack on the western Japan city on Aug. 6, 1945, in the final stages of World War II.
