The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Sapporo mayor to halt 2030 Olympic bid promotion, reconsider tactics
TOKYO - The mayor of 2030 Winter Olympic candidate city Sapporo said Tuesday his city would halt the aggressive momentum of its bid promotion efforts in the wake of scandals surrounding last year's Tokyo Olympics.
"We must first dispel the public's unease rather than rushing forward blindly without regard to appearances," Sapporo Mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto told a press conference held jointly with the Japanese Olympic Committee in Tokyo.
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BOJ widens trade range for Japan bond yields, in surprise change
TOKYO - The Bank of Japan on Tuesday expanded the trade band for long-term Japanese government bond yields in a surprise shift that was taken by financial markets as a rate hike, after the central bank swam against the global trend of monetary tightening.
The yen, which had borne the brunt of the BOJ's persistently dovish streak, spiked relative to the U.S. dollar and 10-year Japanese government bond yields jumped following the decision at the end of the bank's two-day policy meeting.
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Japan's births set to hit new all-time low below 800,000 in 2022
TOKYO - The number of babies born in Japan is set to drop to a record low for seven straight years in 2022, falling below 800,000 for the first time since the government started compiling statistics on births in 1899, data released by the health ministry showed Tuesday.
As the prolonged coronavirus pandemic has continued to cause women to delay plans to become pregnant due to economic reasons and health concerns, the total number of births from January to October fell 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to 669,871, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's preliminary data showed.
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China urges those with mild COVID symptoms to return to work
BEIJING - Chinese authorities have called on those with mild COVID symptoms to return to work, in a radical shift from previous strict restrictions, as the world's second-largest economy promotes the resumption of business activities and hospitals suffer from manpower shortages amid a surge in the virus.
Before Beijing significantly relaxed its "zero-COVID" policy on Dec. 7 amid public frustration, even those with no or mild symptoms had been subject to quarantine at designated facilities.
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Japan, U.S. eyeing Biden visit to Nagasaki in 2023: sources
TOKYO - Japan and the United States are considering a visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to Nagasaki in May 2023 when he travels to Japan for a Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, sources familiar with the plan said Tuesday.
If realized, Biden would become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the southwestern Japan city, which the United States hit with an atomic bomb in the final days of World War II.
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Heavy snow in Japan leaves drivers stranded overnight
NIIGATA, Japan - Heavy snow in coastal cities from Monday through Tuesday northwest of Tokyo has stranded hundreds of vehicles overnight on highways while disrupting local train services and causing electrical outages.
An 85-year-old man died after falling into a drain and five others were injured due to snow-related accidents or snow removal work, the Niigata prefectural government said.
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Japan's new security policy has "unified" support in U.S., says envoy
TOKYO - U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday praised Japan's new security strategy as "momentous," stressing that the key Asian ally's moves to build up its defense had "unified" bipartisan and bicameral support within the United States.
Speaking to Kyodo News in an exclusive interview, Emanuel said Japan's new strategic vision "very much aligned with our vision," adding that the United States would fully cooperate with Tokyo in acquiring so-called counterstrike capabilities amid China's rise and North Korean threats.
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Afghan female TV news anchor who defied Taliban flees to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD - A female Afghan television news anchor fled her war-torn country last month to neighboring Pakistan, after having defied the Taliban's order for women to cover their faces in public, and is now eager to resume her career.
Roma Adil, 27, was working at Kabul News TV when it was forced to end its broadcast operations at the end of October because of "Taliban restrictions and the detention of some of its staffers by security forces," she said.
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Guatemala plans March summit of countries with ties to Taiwan
BUENOS AIRES - Guatemala plans to hold summit talks next March involving countries that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and has invited President Tsai Ing-wen, Spanish news agency EFE said Monday.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei will host the talks in a bid to promote exchanges among the 14 nations friendly to Taipei, the agency said, quoting the Central American country's new ambassador to Taiwan Oscar Adolfo Padilla Lam.
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Fiji's ex-PM Rabuka to return to power after general election
SYDNEY - Fiji's former prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, is set to return to power after over 20 years, following an agreement by his People's Alliance party to form a coalition government with two other opposition parties in the wake of last week's general election, local media reported.
The move ends roughly 16 years of rule under incumbent Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who first came to power as military chief in a 2006 coup. It remains to be seen, however, if the transfer of power will go smoothly in the South Pacific island nation that has suffered four coups since its independence in 1970.
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Japan court rejects halt of Kansai Electric's aging nuclear reactor
OSAKA - A Japanese court on Tuesday rejected local residents' calls to halt an aging nuclear reactor at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Mihama power plant in central Japan that started operations more than 40 years ago in what marked the first judicial decision over the safety of aging reactors.
While the residents sought an injunction to shut down the plant's No. 3 unit in Fukui Prefecture due to safety concerns, the Osaka District Court said there were no problems with quake resistance after the plant underwent reinforcement work against earthquakes.
