The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Prosecutors to build case on Kishida faction over LDP funds scandal
TOKYO - Japanese prosecutors will build a case against a former accountant of a ruling Liberal Democratic Party faction, previously led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in connection with a political fundraising scandal, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The prosecutors have been investigating several LDP factions amid allegations that they failed to report revenue from fundraising parties in violation of the political funds control law.
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Japan, U.S. arranging summit around April 10: sources
TOKYO - Japan and the United States are arranging a summit between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden around April 10, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The two governments had been working toward a visit by Kishida as a state guest in early March but moved the date back since Biden's State of the Union address to Congress is now set for March 7, the sources said.
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21-yr-old man given death penalty for 2021 murder, arson in Japan
KOFU, Japan - A Japanese court sentenced a 21-year-old man to death on Thursday for the 2021 murder of two and arson, in the first case of capital punishment being given to an offender who was a minor at the time of the crime but whose name has been revealed under a 2022 revision of the Juveniles Law.
The defendant, Yuki Endo, was 19 at the time of the attack in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, in central Japan. The law change in April 2022 allows media to reveal the identities of 18- and 19-year-old offenders once they are indicted.
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China's Japan seafood imports sink 40% over treated radioactive water
BEIJING - China's seafood imports from Japan sank 40.9 percent from a year earlier in 2023, Chinese customs data showed Thursday, after Beijing introduced a total ban on marine products shipped from the neighboring country last August.
Due to the ban imposed in response to the discharge of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, China's seafood imports from Japan dropped to $299.49 million last year, their lowest level since 2020 when bilateral trade shrank amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the data showed.
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Japan, South Korea, U.S. vow deeper ties after North Korea missile launch
SEOUL - Senior diplomats from Japan, South Korea and the United States on Thursday affirmed closer cooperation to address the threat from North Korea after its firing of an intermediate-range solid-fuel ballistic missile last weekend.
During their meeting in Seoul, the officials also shared their "deep concern" over weapon transfers from North Korea to Russia, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, as Pyongyang and Moscow ramp up their military ties amid the latter's war in Ukraine.
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China-North Korea trade in 2023 recovers to 82% of pre-pandemic levels
BEIJING - China's trade with North Korea in 2023 recovered to roughly 82 percent of the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, official data showed Thursday, with bilateral freight shipments via train and trucks resumed, although Pyongyang has yet to lift its COVID-19 travel restrictions fully.
In 2023, the total value of China's trade with North Korea more than doubled from the previous year to $2.3 billion.
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Japanese Communist Party taps 1st female leader
TOKYO - The Japanese Communist Party appointed policy chief Tomoko Tamura to be its new chairperson on Thursday, making her the first woman to take the helm of the party.
Tamura replaces Kazuo Shii, who had led the party since November 2000. The appointment was endorsed on the final day of the four-day party congress held in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan.
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Man convicted for injuring 7 while driving near Shibuya crossing
TOKYO - A Japanese court on Thursday convicted a man for injuring seven pedestrians while he was driving a lowrider car last October near the iconic Shibuya scramble crossing in Tokyo.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Ryuta Imaizumi, a 21-year-old man, to a prison term of two years, suspended for four years, for negligent driving resulting in injury, calling the maneuver he carried out to lift one of the vehicle's front wheels that resulted in the accident "dangerous."
Video: Drift ice in northern Japan
