The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan ends COVID-19 border controls before Golden Week holidays
TOKYO - Japan lifted its COVID-19 border controls for all arrivals on Saturday, with the decision brought forward by the government in anticipation of an increase in travelers during the annual Golden Week holiday that began the same day.
The change means Japan will no longer require all entrants to present certification of at least three COVID-19 vaccination doses or a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of departure.
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G-7 ministers meet with AI risks, digital infrastructure in focus
TAKASAKI, Japan - Ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations met Saturday in eastern Japan to discuss artificial intelligence governance amid the rapid increase in the use of AI chatbots, as well as other high-priority issues like secure digital infrastructure.
The two-day G-7 Digital and Tech Ministers' Meeting in the Gunma Prefecture city of Takasaki, northwest of Tokyo, is one in a series of ministerial meetings taking place in the run-up to the G-7 summit next month. Among its aims is the promotion of technologies to improve the flow of cross-border data and a free and open internet.
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Japan PM Kishida departs for African tour ahead of G-7 summit
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida departed for Egypt Saturday in the first leg of a week-long tour to four African countries and Singapore, around three weeks before he hosts a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.
Kishida's first visit to Africa since taking office in October 2021 comes amid a push to strengthen ties with the "Global South," a term that collectively refers to developing nations in areas including Asia, Africa and Latin America.
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Sudan evacuation flight carrying Japanese nationals lands in Tokyo
TOKYO - A charter flight carrying 48 Japanese nationals and their family members who were evacuated from conflict-torn Sudan landed in Tokyo on Saturday morning.
The flight departed on Friday from a Japan Self-Defense Forces base in Djibouti, a small African nation near Sudan, according to the Foreign Ministry.
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Cyberattacks increasing in Japan ahead of G-7 summit
TOKYO - The number of cyberattacks against companies and government offices has been increasing in Japan since March, ahead of a Group of Seven summit the country is set to host in May, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
Troubles caused by DDoS attacks, which attempt to disrupt the online traffic of a server or network by overwhelming it with data, were mostly fixed quickly, the sources said.
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FOCUS: BOJ review under Ueda may help end overreliance on monetary easing
TOKYO - New Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda is keeping market expectations alive that he will slowly put the central bank on a path toward an exit from his predecessor's overreliance on unconventional monetary easing.
At Ueda's first policy-setting meeting, the BOJ decided to conduct a broad review of monetary policy over the past quarter of a century to learn its lessons and prepare for future policy maneuvers.
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Less than 1% of top-listed firms on Tokyo bourse led by women
TOKYO - Just 0.8 percent, or 15, of the 1,836 companies listed on the top-tier Prime Market on the Tokyo bourse were headed by women as of the end of January, according to credit research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd., reflecting the struggle among major businesses to embrace diversity in management.
The small number of women in positions with representative rights at top-tier firms compares unfavorably with a record high 8.2 percent of approximately 1.19 million businesses in Japan reporting they had a female president in 2022, the research found.
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Baseball: Orix ace Yamamoto picks up 2nd win with 6 solid innings
OSAKA - Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a key member of Japan's World Baseball Classic-winning team, threw six innings of one-run ball as the Orix Buffaloes beat the Lotte Marines 3-2 on Saturday.
Yamamoto (2-2) allowed four hits, walked three and struck out six in a 98-pitch outing at Kyocera Dome Osaka. Yoshihisa Hirano closed out the ninth for his sixth save.
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Video: "Golden Week" holidays begin in Japan
