Key words : Kishida has started
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230429_14/
Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has started a tour of four African nations for talks with their leaders.
The seven-day trip takes him to Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique. He will also stop by in Singapore on his way back to Japan.
This will be Kishida's first trip to Africa since taking office in October 2021.
Kishida left Tokyo's Haneda airport on Saturday for Egypt.
He said, before departing, that he wants to confirm cooperation with African leaders over global issues including the situation in Ukraine. He said Russia's invasion has shaken the foundations of the international order.
He also said he hopes his meetings will enhance discussions at the upcoming G7 summit in Hiroshima.
Kishida added he will seek cooperation to help stabilize the security situation in Sudan.
The prime minister is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the first leg of his tour.
Key words : relieve safely
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230429_07/
The head of the Japanese nonprofit aid organization Rocinantes has recounted the difficult journey out of Sudan and his sense of relief of returning home safely.
Kawahara Naoyuki was among a group of 48 Japanese citizens including family members who evacuated from Sudan.
They arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Saturday aboard a chartered flight from Djibouti.
Rocinantes has been providing medical, educational and other support in Sudan.
Kawahara told reporters that he is grateful to the people who helped make their evacuation possible.
He added that when he spotted Mount Fuji from the plane tears welled up in his eyes.
He described the overland journey from the capital Khartoum to the eastern city of Port Sudan as harrowing and said that he just focused on staying with the motorcade and reaching the port city where a Japanese Self-Defense Force plane would pick them up and fly to Djibouti.
Kawahara said the situation in Sudan is very intense and that he wants the international community to jointly intervene in arranging a ceasefire.
He added he hopes to return to Sudan once the conditions calm down.
When asked who he hoped to meet first in Japan, Kawahara said his wife Kayo as Saturday happens to be their 31st wedding anniversary.
He later met Kayo at the airport and the couple looked very much relieved.
Key words : cabinet ministers takasaki
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230429_08/
Cabinet ministers of the Group of Seven nations have begun talks on how best to use artificial intelligence and ways to promote and regulate it.
The G7 ministers for digitalization and technology are meeting on Saturday and Sunday in the city of Takasaki, north of Tokyo, with Japan serving as the chair.
The meetings come at a time when programs like ChatGPT and generative AI are rapidly gaining popularity. Generative AI can automatically produce text and images.
High hopes are being placed on the technology, which could drastically change society. But a variety of concerns are arising regarding breaches of privacy and information leakage.
The ministers aim to compile guidelines for the proper use of AI in a way that can be trusted.
They will also discuss plans to set up a data free flow system with trust, which is called "DFFT."
Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Nishimura Yasutoshi told reporters on Friday night that a uniformly pre-set regulation does not suit today's new technologies.
He added that regulations should be implemented in a dynamic and flexible manner.
He expressed the hope that the ministerial discussions will lead to an overall agreement on enhancing international cooperation in that direction.
Key words : starting random
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230428_19/
Japan will end its COVID-19 requirements for people arriving in the country starting on Saturday.
The Japanese government currently requires people entering the nation to show proof that they have received three or more vaccinations, among other requirements.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsuno Hirokazu said in a news conference on Friday that the requirements will be lifted for people arriving on Saturday onwards.
Matsuno also said Japan will end random testing of a limited number of people arriving on direct flights from mainland China.
The government initially planned to end the requirements on May 8, when the legal classification of COVID-19 will be downgraded to the lowest level -- the same group as seasonal influenza.
Matsuno said the government decided to end the requirements earlier than scheduled to facilitate the return of travelers who will go overseas during the holiday period starting this weekend.
The government plans to continue COVID-19 tests for people entering the country with symptoms including fever and coughing.
Key words : north reacted
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230429_09/
North Korea has reacted sharply to a US-South Korea agreement to strengthen Washington's "extended deterrence" against Pyongyang. The North suggested countermeasures with "more powerful strength."
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, released a statement via state-run media on Saturday.
The statement slammed the Washington Declaration issued after Wednesday's summit between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
As North Korea is accelerating its missile and nuclear development, the declaration said that the US will strengthen its extended deterrence. Such deterrence refers to the US commitment to defend Seoul and other allies with all its capabilities, including nuclear weapons.
Biden and Yoon also agreed to create a framework for sharing information on nuclear weapons, and for a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine to make a port call in South Korea.
Kim Yo Jong criticized the agreement as a typical product of the two leaders' extreme anti-North Korea hostile policy.
She also denounced Biden's warning in a news conference after the summit that a nuclear attack by North Korea would mean "the end of whatever regime." She also called the president "an old man with no future."
She went on to warn that "the pipe dream of the US and South Korea will henceforth be faced with the entity of more powerful strength."
Key words : donated books
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230429_10/
A reading corner with donated books and a bookshelf has been set up in the alma mater of an American woman who was killed in the tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in 2011.
Taylor Anderson was an assistant English teacher in Ishinomaki City in Miyagi Prefecture. She died when the tsunami struck on March 11 of that year.
Her parents have given books and book shelves to 29 schools in the disaster-hit area to fulfill the wish of their daughter, who had wanted to be a bridge between Japan and the US. The nooks are known as Taylor Bunko or Taylor's Reading Corners.
The 30th recipient of a book corner, and the first outside of the disaster-affected area in Japan, is Randolph-Macon College in the US state of Virginia, where Taylor studied. The college offers Japanese language studies.
Taylor Anderson's mother Jeanne said that over the past 12 years they have been blessed to be connected to so many people who have worked to keep Taylor's wishes alive. She added that she wants college students to become a bridge connecting the US and Japan.
Woodwork artist Endo Shinichi who has been making the bookshelves for the Taylor Bunko project, was present at a donation ceremony on Friday. He lost three children in the tsunami.
Endo said that he could not imagine 12 years ago when he was at the height of his despair, that a day like this would come. He said he hopes students will share Taylor's aspiration.
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