A senior US Defense Department official says America will continue to push South Korea to reconsider its decision to withdraw from an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan.
Toyota Motor has posted record sales and net profit for the first half of the year.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20191107200000_english_1.mp3
Key words : first security sensor
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Key words : officials in Nagoya
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_18/
After the devastating fire at Shuri Castle in Okinawa, officials in Nagoya have carried out emergency inspections at the main castle in the city.
On Wednesday, Nagoya Castle and fire officials gathered to check the structure, which is a symbol of the city in central Japan.
They checked the hose cabinets and went over firefighting drills with security guards for the main building, which doesn't have sprinklers.
Castle official, Mamoru Murano says that although no problems were found, they will continue regular drills and increase checks for electrical safety issues.
Officials in Nagoya say that in response to the fire in Okinawa they will consider further safety measures, as they plan to restore their main tower as a wooden structure. It is now made of concrete.
Key words : senior US
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_16/
A senior US Defense Department official says they will continue to persuade South Korea to reconsider its decision to withdraw from an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan that expires in two weeks.
In an interview with NHK at the Pentagon on Wednesday, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver referred to the General Security of Military Information Agreement, or GSOMIA. The pact expires on November 23.
Schriver said tensions between Japan and South Korea only benefit countries like Russia, China and North Korea. He stressed that cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea is vital for dealing with the North's repeated missile launches and China's increasing maritime activities.
Schriver said there is still time for South Korea to reconsider its decision. He said the US government wants to persuade Seoul to stay in GSOMIA for all the advantages the pact gives the country.
The South Korean government argues that after the expiry of GSOMIA, it still intends to share defense intelligence with Japan, based on an existing trilateral information-sharing framework.
But Schriver said in case of the expiry, Japan and South Korea would become unable to share intelligence unless the US serves as a mediator. He said that would be less efficient and suboptimal for the current security environment.
He added that such arrangements could hamper the three countries from promptly cooperating to address missile launches or other contingencies.
Key words : Japan and Russia
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_10/
Japan and Russia have agreed that senior officials will begin new working-level talks on joint economic activities on the four Russian-controlled islands claimed by Japan.
Japan's Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Takeo Mori and his Russian counterpart Igor Morgulov reached the agreement in Moscow on Wednesday.
Mori told reporters that Japan and Russia both highly appreciate last week's trial sightseeing tour of the islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri. A group of Japanese tourists visited the two islands from last Wednesday through Friday.
Mori said the two sides have agreed to start new working-level talks between their bureau chiefs by consolidating three study groups.
He also said the aim is to start comprehensive discussions on the movement of people and legal and other issues toward realizing full-fledged joint economic activities.
Mori added that he and Morgulov also confirmed that the two governments will make preparations for their foreign ministers to hold talks on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Nagoya on November 22 and 23.
They also agreed to make schedule adjustments for a planned visit to Russia by Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
Key words : welfare launched
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_11/
Japan's welfare ministry has launched a new investigation into Japanese nationals believed to have died in internment in Siberia after World War Two following the discovery of new records.
The ministry says around 53,000 Japanese are believed to have died due to hard labor in the bitter cold while they were interned by the former Soviet Union. Of them, about 15,000 are not confirmed in Russian documentation.
Russian officials recently found that about 400 documents stored as national archives in Moscow may include lists or other records related to the detention. The investigation began on Wednesday after Japanese officials received the information.
Welfare ministry officials say they will look into the documents to find if the names of Japanese people are on the lists.
Ken Isobe, who is in charge of the investigation, said it has been 74 years after the war, and relatives of those interned are aging. He said the ministry wants to discover the fate of their loved ones as soon as possible with the help of Russian officials.
Recently, it was revealed that welfare ministry officials were aware for 14 years that some of the remains collected from Russia may not be of the interned Japanese but left the matter unresolved.
Key words : Toyota
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_30/
Toyota Motor has posted record sales and net profit for the first half of the year.
Officials at Japan's largest carmaker say group sales totaled 15 trillion yen, or about 140 billion dollars, for the period to September. That's up 4.2 percent from the same period last year.
Net profit rose 2.6 percent.
Sales rose in all regions, including Japan, North America, Europe and Asia. Growth was in the double-digits in the domestic market.
Toyota has also announced a 1.8-billion-dollar share buyback. Its stock gained 1.1 percent on Thursday, a new high for the year.
Key words : stock exchange
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191105_38/
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average closed at a new high for the year on Tuesday on expectations for progress in US-China trade talks.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange got off to a strong start after the Dow Jones Industrial Average in New York shot to a record high overnight.
The Nikkei index of 225 selected issues ended at 23,251, up 401 points from Friday's close. It was the first time since October 2018 that the index topped 23,000. Japanese markets were closed on Monday for a national holiday.
The broader TOPIX was up 27 points to 1,694, also the highest of the year.
Market participants say investor worries eased slightly on news that Washington is considering withdrawing some punitive tariffs on Chinese products. They say auto company shares benefited, along with those of other exporters.
They add that many investors remain cautious, however, given the twists and turns in the US-China trade talks so far.
Key words : Iran did not allow
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_28/
Iran says it did not allow an International Atomic Energy Agency inspector to enter a nuclear facility in Natanz last week.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on Wednesday that the inspector was suspected of carrying suspicious materials during security checks of her belongings.
Iran reported to the IAEA that the inspector's admission was cancelled, and the inspector left Iran for Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered.
The agency did not say what the inspector was carrying.
The matter is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on Thursday.
The IAEA says its Acting Director General Cornel Feruta will report on the inspection activity in Iran.
Iran says its representative will explain at the meeting why the inspector was not given access to the facility.
The incident comes amid a series of steps Iran has been taking to step up uranium enrichment activities by reducing its commitment under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The case is also likely to increase concerns over whether the IAEA can continue its inspections in Iran.
Key words : Hungarian
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_27/
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has indicated that his country wants to boost economic ties with Asian nations, including Japan.
Szijjarto told NHK in Tokyo on Wednesday that Japanese investors are the number one investors from Asia in Hungary, and there are 170 Japanese companies operating in the country that employ 33,000 Hungarians. He said these firms play an important role, and he hopes they will further improve or enhance their investment.
Szijjarto also said China is becoming the world's largest economy, and it has initiatives that definitely have an impact on Europe.
The foreign minister criticized the European Union's sanctions on Russia, saying they are costing central Europe billions of dollars.
He stressed the importance of building relations with Russia that are based on mutual trust and respect.
Hungary has had strong economic growth since it joined the EU in 2004, but the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban opposes the EU's immigration and refugee policies.
Orban is scheduled to visit Japan in early December.
Key words : education hearing
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_32/
Japan's education minister says his ministry will conduct hearings with his predecessors to examine what led to the idea of using private-sector English tests as part of a standardized test for university admission.
Koichi Hagiuda was responding to a question from an opposition party member at a Diet session on Thursday. He was asked about his ministry's abrupt decision last week to postpone the introduction of the English tests planned for next April.
Renho of the Constitutional Democratic Party said too many things remain unclear about how the decision to introduce such tests was made. She said she believes former education minister Hakubun Shimomura is the only one who knows.
She pointed out that before becoming education minister in 2012, Shimomura headed the Liberal Democratic Party's taskforce on education reform and his party's initiative to formally request to the government that such tests be introduced.
Renho said that during Shimomura's three-year tenure as education minister, the ministry worked out the basic design of how to hold such tests as part of national standardized tests for university admission.
Renho said the decision-making process during that period remains mostly hidden to the public. She asked Hagiuda if he plans to hold a hearing with Shimomura, who's now a member of the Lower House.
Hagiuda said he's very interested in hearing directly from his predecessors on how the idea of using private-sector English tests came about.
Key words : one of Japan
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191107_23/
One of Japan's biggest electronics manufacturers and the country's most prestigious university are joining hands in the field of artificial intelligence. Toshiba and the University of Tokyo will be establishing a program aimed at producing more AI experts.
Sources say researchers from the university will teach "deep learning" and other aspects of AI to Toshiba employees using big data from the company's factories.
Toshiba will launch the three-month program in December. It will turn out about 100 experts a year.
The company already has about 750 such people.
But it wants to drastically increase their ranks. Toshiba is planning to conduct aggressive recruiting to bring the number up to about 2,000 by fiscal 2022.
Toshiba's situation is not unique. Japan is expected to experience a shortage of nearly 50,000 experts in AI and other hi-tech fields next year.
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