at 18:30 (JST), July 13

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/20220713183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : sri lanka new president
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220713_09/

Sri Lanka's parliament will reportedly elect a new president on July 20, after the current leader expressed his intention to step down.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the speaker of the parliament on Saturday that he will resign as president. The move follows anti-government protests that grew over the country's economic crisis.

Rajapaksa has since not been seen in public.

Media including local outlets and the Reuters news agency report that the parliament will vote to elect his replacement on July 20.

People in Sri Lanka have been struggling to buy fuel, food and other essentials as the country's economic turmoil continues.

The nation's central bank said its outstanding external debt was 50.7 billion dollars as of the end of last year.

Observers say they are uncertain whether the change of power will help bring the situation under control, as it will likely take time to rebuild the economy.

Key words : national police examine
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220712_39/

Japan's National Police Agency has set up a task force to examine the security provided for former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who was shot dead on Friday.

The suspect in the shooting, Yamagami Tetsuya, was able to approach Abe from behind and is alleged to have fired two shots from a distance of several meters' away. Abe was making an open-air speech in the western city of Nara as part of the campaign for an election.

Police say several officers at the scene reported that they first recognized the presence of a suspicious person only after they heard the first shot. The police also say the officers likely failed to carry out some of the procedures laid out for such occurrences, such as having Abe take a low posture.

The agency says the team, which began its work on Tuesday, will examine things such as the way personnel were deployed, the equipment they were provided with and the capabilities of the officers in charge.

The team will highlight problems and put forward recommendations for improving the security provided to VIPs.

The agency says the team will hand over the results of its examination next month.

Key words : gender gap
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220713_06/

The latest gender gap rankings show that men in Japan still have a lot more opportunities in politics and in the economy than women do.

Japan ranks 116th out of 146 countries in the annual Global Gender Gap Report that was released by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.

The report examines gender gaps in four areas: political empowerment, economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, as well as health and survival.

Iceland tops the list for the 13th straight year. It is followed by Finland and Norway.

Japan fared well in the education and health categories. But it received poor assessments in the political and economic ones.

The report notes that the percentage of women working in the Lower House of the Diet, the Cabinet, and corporate managerial positions is low.

It states that the coronavirus pandemic had a detrimental effect on gender equality, because women provided most of the care for their children when daycare centers and schools were closed. It adds that the jobless rate for women remained high.

The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 132 years to close the gender gap worldwide.

Key words : myanmar civil war quagmire
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/videos/20220627195346281/

With the international community's attention on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the civil war in Myanmar has become a quagmire. Fighting between the military and armed pro-democracy forces has intensified, especially in border areas. NHK World's Koga Takashi meets a violinist who explains why he has exchanged his instrument for weapons to fight for democracy.