The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan to run new domestic travel subsidy program to late Dec.: gov't
TOKYO - Japan will run a new domestic tourism subsidy program from Oct. 11 to late December as part of efforts to spur domestic tourism and revive the coronavirus-hit economy, tourism minister Tetsuo Saito said Monday.
The "National Travel Discount" will provide the equivalent of up to 11,000 yen ($77) in discounts and coupons per traveler per day, which can be used for meals, shopping and accommodation expenses.
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Japan's Kishida kicks off "condolence diplomacy" around Abe funeral
TOKYO - Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday kicked off "condolence diplomacy" with foreign dignitaries scheduled to attend the state funeral for former leader Shinzo Abe, trying to boost ties with other countries amid an unstable regional security environment.
On the first of three days of talks with overseas delegations, Kishida received a pledge from Vice President Kamala Harris that the United States would work with Japan if the Asian nation faced security threats.
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FOCUS: "Abenomics" lives on after ex-PM's death, but economy still fragile
TOKYO - Nearly a decade after the launch of "Abenomics," Japan cannot still do without massive monetary and fiscal stimulus -- the two features of the economy booster program pushed by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
A weaker yen, a byproduct of the Bank of Japan's monetary easing and welcomed as beneficial for the export-reliant economy, has reached a point where the current leader Fumio Kishida had to say its rapid weakening pace is one of the "crises" facing the country.
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Japan vigilant about speculative yen moves, ready to act if needed
TOKYO - Japan is on alert against speculative yen moves against the U.S. dollar and is ready to act again in the currency market if needed, after its intervention last week had a "certain effect," the country's finance minister said Monday.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said the government is "strongly concerned" about one-sided, rapid yen moves. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda also said such currency fluctuations are not desirable and backed last Thursday's yen-selling intervention as "appropriate."
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Japan on high alert as it readies for ex-PM Abe's state funeral
TOKYO - Japan has imposed tight security measures in the capital as it prepares to hold a state funeral for slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday with foreign dignitaries attending.
Two stands for the general public to lay tribute flowers will be set up at a park near the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, the venue for the major event, with baggage inspection to be conducted for those offering flowers and access to streets around the site restricted, the government said.
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OECD cuts 2023 global growth outlook to 2.2% amid monetary tightening
TOKYO - The global economy will likely grow 2.2 percent in 2023, slower than the 2.8 percent projected earlier, weighed down by monetary tightening in advanced economies to fight inflation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday.
Japan will see growth of 1.4 percent next year, slower than the 1.8 percent expansion previously forecast in June, the OECD's economic outlook report showed, even as the Bank of Japan is in no rush to tweak its ultralow rate policy.
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China-North Korea freight train operation resumed after 5-month hiatus
BEIJING - A freight train service between China and North Korea resumed Monday after it was suspended in late April amid a coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese border city of Dandong, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.
The train with more than 10 cars from Dandong was spotted crossing a bridge to the North's border city of Sinuiju at 7:43 a.m., Yonhap said. China is the country' closest and most influential ally in economic terms and the move signals the expansion of bilateral trade.
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Japan simplifies COVID tracking to focus on elderly, high-risk people
TOKYO - Japan began Monday to simplify its coronavirus reporting system by targeting elderly and high-risk people in a bid to reduce the administrative burden on hospitals and local health centers.
The new system will not require medical facilities to report details such as names and addresses of younger people with milder symptoms that have made up around 80 percent of the country's COVID-19 cases since the Omicron strain drove numbers sharply higher and stretched the medical system thin.
