Key words : boycott takaichi
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_07/
The Japanese government is leaning toward not sending cabinet ministers to the upcoming Beijing Olympics. It says it will make a final decision by the end of this year.
The administration of US President Joe Biden has announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Games, citing alleged human rights violations in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, among other abuses. Australia, Britain, and Canada have followed suit.
The policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Takaichi Sanae earlier spoke against sending an official mission or diplomatic mission, citing China's human rights violations. A number of LDP lawmakers, mainly conservatives, have demanded the government join the diplomatic boycott.
The government has said it will make a decision at the right time after giving careful consideration to a range of factors.
It is believed to be weighing the recent moves by Washington and other countries, and the fact that China sent the head of the General Administration of Sport to the 2020 Tokyo Games as the head of its team.
Key words : united states afghanistan worsen
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_08/
The United States has announced guidance allowing non-commercial personal remittances to Afghanistan.
The Treasury Department issued the formal guidance Friday.
It comes as the Afghan economy continues to worsen, triggering serious shortages of food and other items.
The guidance allows remittances from family and friends abroad through financial institutions.
The US has banned transactions with the Taliban and Haqqani Network, which has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization, as well as their affiliate companies.
Department officials say remittances to the Taliban or its affiliate organizations are still not allowed.
Also on Friday, the World Bank announced it will resume providing funds to Afghanistan for humanitarian purposes, with a transfer of 280 million dollars from a frozen trust fund.
The United Nations World Food Programme is warning that 22.8 million people in Afghanistan, more than half the population, will face serious food shortages by March next year.
Key words : british health booster
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_09/
A British health authority says preliminary figures suggest a booster shot for the coronavirus gives 70 to 75 percent protection against symptomatic infection by the Omicron variant.
The Health Security Agency on Friday released the early results of a study covering 581 people who had been infected with the Omicron strain. Some of the participants had received two doses of vaccine, while others had already had a booster.
The results showed that people with just two shots had lower levels of protection against symptoms from Omicron than against the Delta variant. Seventy to 75 percent of people who had received a booster did not have any symptoms.
The agency warns these early estimates should be treated with caution. It says more research is needed to determine how long a booster remains effective against the latest variant.
Britain recorded an additional 448 cases of Omicron infections on Friday, bringing the total to 1,265.
The agency says at the current pace, Omicron will account for more than 50 percent of all COVID-19 infections by mid-December.
London is scrambling to get everyone aged 18 or older a booster shot by the end of next month.
Key words : united states health 118,000 per
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_06/
Health officials in the United States say the weekly average number of new coronavirus cases there has shot up to more than 118,000 per day, and roughly 7,400 people are receiving treatment in hospital.
The weekly average has jumped by more than 37 percent from the previous 7-day period.
The spike in infections has prompted authorities in the state of New York to mandate mask-wearing at all public indoor places unless businesses and venues have a vaccine requirement in place.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the regulation on Friday. The measure will go into effect on Monday and remain in place through January 15, at which time the state will reassess the situation.
Hochul said the measure should help accomplish her priorities, which are to protect the health of New Yorkers and the local economy, through the holiday season.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there have been no reports yet of deaths caused by the Omicron variant, which has been detected in 25 states. It said that of the 43 confirmed cases, only one has resulted in hospitalization.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky called on people to get vaccinated. She said initial data suggests vaccine boosters offer increased protection against the variant.
Key words : evacuate akuseki
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_11/
The evacuation of residents from Akusekijima Island in southwestern Japan has gotten underway following an earthquake on Thursday that registered five-plus on the Japanese seismic scale of zero to seven.
There have been more than 260 quakes with an intensity of one or higher between December 4 and 11:00 a.m. on Saturday in waters near the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecture.
On Saturday, municipal authorities in Toshima Village started to evacuate residents who wish to leave the island.
Officials say 30 of a total of 75 islanders are hoping to evacuate.
Sixteen of them left on board a ferry on Saturday morning for the port of Naze in Amami-Oshima Island.
The remaining 14 will depart for Kagoshima City on the main island of Kyushu aboard a ferry on Sunday.
The number of earthquakes rattling the Tokara island chain began to decrease on Friday.
Officials with Japan's Meteorological Agency say the risk of falling rocks and landslides is high as the ground has been loosened due to the spate of quakes. They are calling for caution as a quake as powerful as five-plus could still strike over the next few weeks.
Key words : shigeo abductee 83-year-old
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_10/
The head of a group of Japanese relatives of people abducted and taken to North Korea some 40 years ago is stepping down due to ill health.
The group approved 83-year-old Iizuka Shigeo's resignation on Saturday and appointed Yokota Takuya, a younger brother of abductee Yokota Megumi, as his successor.
Iizuka is the older brother of abductee Taguchi Yaeko. He has represented the group since 2007, when he succeeded Yokota Shigeru, whose daughter Megumi was abducted when she was 14. Yokota was the head of the group for the first 10 years after its founding in 1997.
Iizuka has spent years traveling the country, conducting petitions and giving lectures. He has met seven Japanese prime ministers in his capacity as the group's representative.
He has been in poor health since 2017, and was hospitalized in mid-November.
Key words : anime tax
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211210_26/
A Japanese anime studio, known for producing the "Demon Slayer" series, and its president have been found guilty of evading taxes worth 138 million yen, or about 1.2 million dollars.
The studio, ufotable, and Kondo Hikaru were accused of hiding roughly 3.9 million dollars, of the company's income from 2015 to 2018.
The Tokyo District Court passed the ruling on Friday.
Presiding judge Tanaka Akiyuki said the studio's anime work received much acclaim for its quality and the company stayed hugely in the black, including the sales of related goods. However, he said, the company repeatedly failed to post some of its earnings. He said their criminal liability is heavy, even taking into account their anxiety and wish to put aside funds for the future.
But he noted that the company had made a corrected tax filing and was arranging for its management to receive support from tax experts. He ordered the studio to pay a fine of about 264,000 dollars, and handed down a 20-month prison sentence to Kondo, suspended for three years.
Ufotable posted a statement on its website following the ruling. The firm said it will comply with the law and make further efforts to improve its management to create a sustainable environment for producing better works.
The studio released the animated film "Kimetsu no Yaiba," or "Demon Slayer," last year. The feature became the country's highest-grossing film of all time.
Key words : nobel peace speech
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20211211_03/
The joint winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize have collected their awards in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Russian Dmitry Muratov stressed the need to uphold the truth and protect free speech.
Both delivered lectures at Friday's ceremony. Ressa, who co-founded Philippine digital media company Rappler, said independent journalists must stand up to the states that target them. She added that she risks spending the rest of her life in jail, but it's "worth the risk."
Ressa also pointed out that social media allows lies laced with anger and hate to spread faster and further. She said, "Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world's existential problems: climate, coronavirus, the battle for truth."
Muratov, the editor-in-chief of independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said journalism in his country is "going through a dark valley."
He pointed out that journalists, media outlets and human rights defenders are branded "enemies of the people," and that many of his colleagues have lost their jobs, while some have even left the country.
Muratov said it is the mission of journalists "to distinguish between facts and fiction." He asked for a minute's silence in honor of those who have sacrificed their lives to uncover abuses of power.
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