The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan, S. Korea discuss Seoul's proposal to solve wartime labor row
TOKYO - Senior Japanese and South Korean diplomats discussed Monday a recent suggestion by Seoul to resolve the long-standing wartime labor issue, a Japanese official said.
Seo Min Jung, director general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, explained the plan to her Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi at their meeting in Tokyo, according to the official. The idea was suggested last week during a public hearing in Seoul held by the ministry.
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Japan, India begin 1st-ever joint fighter drill near Tokyo
TOKYO - Japan and India on Monday began their first-ever joint fighter jet drill near Tokyo, the Japanese Defense Ministry said, in their latest effort to bolster defense ties as they face China's growing military power in the Indo-Pacific region.
Four F-2 and four F-15 fighters from Japan's Air Self-Defense Force are expected to join the 11-day air combat training through Jan. 26 around Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, according to the ministry.
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China OKs some visas for Japan, S. Korea citizens as exceptions
BEIJING - China has approved issuing some types of visas to Japanese and South Korean citizens as exceptions of its policy of suspending visa facilities after the neighbors tightened border controls on visitors from China, a Chinese government source said Monday.
A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official indicated at a press conference last Friday the government has been flexibly implementing the policy introduced earlier last week, with exceptions made for diplomats, government officials and businesspeople facing urgent needs.
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Death toll in Nepal passenger plane crash rises to 70, 2 missing
KATHMANDU - Search teams recovered Monday two more dead bodies from a gorge in Pokhara city in central Nepal, where a Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed the previous day, putting the death toll at 70 in the country's deadliest air disaster in three decades, police said.
Pokhara's police chief Ajaya K.C. said by phone Monday evening after the search operation stopped at nightfall that security personnel will scour the crash site again Tuesday to search for two others who are still unaccounted for.
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German leader Scholz plans to visit Japan in March
TOKYO - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning to visit Japan in March for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a Japanese government source said Monday, as the two countries seek closer ties amid global challenges, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
During the visit, Scholz and Kishida are expected to launch intergovernmental talks, which will also involve their ministers, to discuss issues ranging from an energy and food crisis exacerbated by the Russian war to strengthening supply chains to sustain economic growth, the source said.
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Eisai, Biogen apply for Alzheimer's drug approval in Japan
TOKYO - Japanese pharmaceutical firm Eisai Co. said Monday it and U.S. firm Biogen Inc. applied with the health ministry for approval of an Alzheimer's drug that could become the first available in Japan that both treats the disease's cause and slows symptom progression.
The two companies hope to gain approval by the end of the year following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision earlier in the month to grant it fast-track approval.
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Japan wholesale inflation surges record 9.7% in 2022
TOKYO - Wholesale prices in Japan jumped a record 9.7 percent in 2022 from a year ago after December became another month of double-digit growth, as higher import costs kept up inflationary pressures and squeezed corporate profits, the Bank of Japan said Monday.
The annual gain in wholesale prices was the biggest since comparable data became available in 1981 and twice as fast as in 2021 when a 4.6 percent increase was reported. In December alone, the price of goods traded between companies surged 10.2 percent, topping 10 percent for the second time in 2022 and marking the second-largest gain on record.
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Japan opposition parties unite to take on Kishida over tax hike plan
TOKYO - Japan's opposition parties on Monday banded together against Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's plan to raise taxes to cover an increase in defense spending, hoping to leverage public discontent to challenge the move.
Ahead of a regular parliamentary session starting this month, the Japanese Communist Party agreed with its larger counterparts -- the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Innovation Party -- to take on Kishida who is facing tumbling approval rates for his Cabinet following a series of scandals.
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Video: Fire festival at Katsube Shrine in Shiga Prefecture
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