The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
Senior LDP faction members questioned over political funds scandal
TOKYO - Japanese prosecutors have questioned senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, including former top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno, on a voluntary basis over a political fundraising scandal, sources close to the matter said Monday.
The faction, formerly led by slain Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is alleged to have failed to declare hundreds of millions of yen in revenue from its fundraising parties in political funding reports and created slush funds to reimburse its members.
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Japan PM Kishida asks firms to achieve larger pay hikes in 2024
TOKYO - Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday urged Japanese firms to raise pay at a faster pace in 2024 than this year, before the start of annual wage negotiations that would sway the Bank of Japan's monetary policy.
In a joint appearance with Kishida at an event organized by the country's powerful business lobby, BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said the likelihood of attaining the central bank's 2 percent inflation target is "gradually rising" and the outcome of the so-called shunto spring wage talks between management and labor unions holds "the key."
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Japan spacecraft enters lunar orbit for Moon landing on Jan. 20
TOKYO - Japan's lunar explorer successfully entered the Moon's orbit Monday, the country's space agency said, with the spacecraft expected to land on its surface on Jan. 20 if the mission goes as planned.
Using its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, which was launched on an H2A rocket in September, Japan plans to become the fifth country to land an explorer on the lunar surface after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India amid intensifying global competition in space.
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Daihatsu to keep production suspended until Jan. over safety scandal
OSAKA - Daihatsu Motor Co., the small-car unit of Toyota Motor Corp., said Monday it will keep its domestic production suspended until at least the end of January after having halted all domestic shipments due to a safety testing scandal.
Daihatsu, which has been inspected by Japan's transport ministry, said it does not know when it can resume shipments or production. The company plans to stop production at all of its factories in Japan by Tuesday.
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Okinawa rejects court order to OK revised U.S. base transfer plan
NAHA, Japan - The Okinawa prefectural government decided Monday to ignore a court order to approve a modified plan for a key U.S. base relocation within the southern prefecture, an official said, paving the way for the state to take the unprecedented step of doing so by proxy.
The Okinawa governor will appeal the high court ruling to the Supreme Court, the official said. However, the local government cannot halt work at the contested relocation site unless the top court overturns the ruling.
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Japan PM Kishida arranges to visit U.S. as state guest in early March
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is making arrangements to visit the United States as a state guest in early March at the invitation of President Joe Biden, bilateral relations sources said Monday.
Tokyo and Washington will finalize Kishida's itinerary by factoring in the schedules of Japan's parliament and the U.S. Congress, as well as global political issues, according to the sources.
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Japan's nominal GDP per capita at record-low 21st among OECD members
TOKYO - Japan's nominal gross domestic product per capita stood at $34,064 in 2022, ranking 21st among the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a record-low for the world's third-largest economy, the government said Monday.
The figure was also the lowest among the Group of Seven advanced economies for the first time since 2008, highlighting the impact of a sharply weaker yen against the U.S. dollar and the relative decline of Japan's economic standing.
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Iran denies U.S. claim it attacked Japan-owned tanker in Indian Ocean
NEW DELHI/TEHRAN - Iran denied Monday that it attacked a Japanese-owned commercial tanker in the Indian Ocean over the weekend, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson calling the U.S. government accusation "baseless."
The Pentagon had said that the Liberian-flagged, Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck about 370 kilometers off India "by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran." The Wall Street Journal reported that the vessel is connected to Israeli tycoon Idan Ofer.
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Figure skating: Uno expects tough battle vs Malinin at world c'ships
NAGANO, Japan - Defending champion Shoma Uno will face an uphill battle against American "Quad God" Ilia Malinin when he attempts to win his third consecutive world figure skating title in March.
"I know I have to deliver the best performance of my career, otherwise I can't win," Uno told a press conference Monday in Nagano, central Japan, looking ahead to the world championships in Montreal.
Video: A landslide in Nara Prefecture sends a man to hospital
