at 18:30 (JST), September 22

Asian View

"Asian View" is a five-minute news segment broadcast by NHK WORLD-JAPAN. It features the latest news and deep analysis from Japan and the rest of Asia. Listen to "Asian View" and get the latest information from a region that's playing an increasingly important role in the world.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20210922183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : united states lifted
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210922_15/

The United States has lifted import restrictions it placed on some Japanese food products following the 2011 nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima.

The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it is deactivating an import alert covering 100 food items from Fukushima and 13 other prefectures.

The US is the third largest importer of Japanese foods, including farm and fisheries products. The total value of such imports from Japan topped 1 billion dollars last year.

With the ban lifted, Japan can now ship products such as rice from Fukushima, and shiitake mushrooms from neighboring Tochigi and Ibaraki prefectures.
Meanwhile, the European Union has announced plans to ease some of its import restrictions on Japanese food items from October.

However, 14 countries and territories, such as China, South Korea, and Taiwan are continuing to block some Japanese food products.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says the US move is likely to influence the decisions of their governments on whether to resume imports.

Key words : mizuho less than two week
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210922_06/

Japan's Financial Services Agency is making final coordination to issue a business improvement order against Mizuho Financial Group and its banking unit following a series of system glitches.

Mizuho Bank experienced four system failures in less than two weeks starting in late February. The incidents included bank cards and passbooks getting stuck inside automatic teller machines, forcing customers to wait for hours at the site.

System trouble also halted over-the-counter transactions nationwide in August.

Earlier this month, a malfunction in the bank's core computer system knocked out about 100 ATMs and internet-banking services.

Officials want the bank to report in detail how it has checked its systems and made revisions to them. They plan to strengthen their supervision to prevent a recurrence of a similar problem.

The officials also plan to continue their inspection of the bank, which has been going on for about six months, to verify the cause of the trouble as well as the responsibility of executives for it.

This will be the third business improvement order against Mizuho by the Financial Services Agency. The agency penalized the bank in 2002 and 2011 for large-scale system failures.

Key words : third booster
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210922_01/

Japan's Regulatory Reform Minister Kono Taro says the government intends to roll out third booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine for healthcare workers before yearend, and for elderly people in the coming year.

Kono, who is in charge of the country's vaccine program, made the remarks at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said the health ministry had decided to offer booster shots to people who received their second dose at least eight months ago.

Kono noted there were cases in which making reservations were difficult for first and second shots.

But he said that, because of the time frame for receiving third doses, rough dates can be derived from people's previous vaccination records. He added it might be possible for local municipalities to designate the date and time for third jabs.

Key words : singapore test-run
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210921_19/

Singapore has begun test-runs of autonomous robots to monitor social behavior amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates of any country in the world, at 82 percent.

Despite this, the highly transmissible Delta variant has produced infection clusters. Around 1,000 new daily cases have been confirmed in recent days, for a tenfold increase over the past month.

Authorities have begun using autonomous robots to check whether people are following anti-infection rules.

The wheeled robots move at walking speed and send 360-degree images to a monitoring center.
They approach pedestrians with audio and visual warnings, urging them to maintain social distancing and not be in groups of more than five.

One pedestrian said the robots remind people to put on face masks and stay apart from each other.

But some are concerned that the robots might invade their privacy.

Key words : biden general assembly Takao Minori
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/videos/20210922082745111/

US President Joe Biden has used the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to convince allies that his country is still a reliable partner. He told world leaders that his administration is launching what he called "a new era of relentless diplomacy." NHK World's Takao Minori reports.