Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with Chinese and South Korean leaders in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Six Japanese opposition parties are taking steps toward ending their boycott of Diet deliberations over a series of government scandals.
Officials from the UN aviation agency are visiting North Korea to discuss Pyongyang's request to open new flight routes connecting the two Koreas.
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Key words : Abe meet chinese and
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_06/
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with Chinese and South Korean leaders in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit Japan for the first time since they assumed their current positions.
The 3-way meeting among Abe, Li, and Moon will take place ahead of the first-ever summit between the United States and North Korea.
Japanese government officials say Abe wants to confirm close coordination among the 3 countries toward North Korea's complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization, as well as its abandonment of ballistic missiles and the resolution of the abductions issue.
Preparations are being made to allow for the 3 countries to release a joint statement at the end of the meeting.
Li will be the first Chinese premier to visit Japan since Wen Jiabao came in May 2011.
Moon will be the first South Korean president, since Lee Myung-bak's visit to Japan in December 2011.
The last 3-way summit among Japan, China, and South Korea took place in South Korea in November 2015. This will be the 7th such meeting.
Abe is also planning to meet with Li and Moon separately during their visit.
Abe is expected to talk with Li about the start of an emergency communication mechanism to prevent an accidental collision at sea, or in the air.
Abe will also address his plan to work with China on third-country infrastructure construction, citing China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Attention is also focused on whether Abe can set up a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping, following Abe's scheduled trip to China.
Attention is focused on whether a bilateral meeting could lay the groundwork for improved relations between Japan and China.
Key words : six Japanese
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_16/
Six Japanese opposition parties are taking steps toward ending their boycott of Diet deliberations over a series of government scandals.
Senior officials from the parties are calling on Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima to improve the environment for Diet deliberations so that debate can be resumed.
The Diet affairs chief of the Constitutional Democratic Party, Kiyomi Tsujimoto, met Oshima on Monday. Oshima told her that parliament is under the severe scrutiny of the people, and expressed his willingness to try to break the deadlock.
The opposition parties have stayed away from Diet debate since April 20th.
They have been demanding thorough deliberations to uncover the truth about favoritism, document-tampering and other scandals.
Oshima then met the Diet affairs chief of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Hiroshi Moriyama, to convey the opposition's demand. Oshima urged the LDP to make efforts to normalize deliberations.
Some within the opposition camp say the parties should return to debate soon to look further into the scandals.
They are leaning to end the boycott as a key figure in one of the favoritism scandals is said to be planning to admit some of the allegations against him.
Tadao Yanase, a former secretary to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is reportedly going to admit in the Diet that he met officials of the Kake Educational Institution at the prime minister's office in 2015.
Some recently disclosed documents show that they discussed a plan for a new vet school. The institution is headed by a close friend of Abe.
The opposition camp has demanded that Yanase testify in the Diet as a sworn witness.
Some opposition members are also saying that the parties should have a thorough debate on a government-sponsored bill on work-style reforms. They say the opposition should introduce its own reform bill.
Senior officials of the 6 opposition parties are meeting to assess the government and ruling parties' response to decide if they should end their boycott after nearly half a month.
Key words : new opposition
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_21/
A new opposition party in Japan was created on Monday, following a merger between 2 parties.
The Democratic Party For the People held its inaugural meeting on Monday. It is the result of a merger between the Democratic Party and the Party of Hope. It has 39 members in the Lower House and 23 members in the Upper House. It becomes the second-largest opposition party in the Lower House, after the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
President of the Democratic Party, Kouhei Ohtsuka, and president of the Party of Hope, Yuichiro Tamaki, were chosen as co-leaders.
Ohtsuka said the party was a fresh chance to enhance democracy, improve living standards, and develop the economy.
Tamaki said the party will grill the government more fiercely than other parties, while also presenting new visions and policies.
Before the merger, the 2 parties had more than 100 lawmakers in the Diet. More than 40 have not joined the new party. They include former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and former Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada from the Democratic Party, and former Environment Minister Goshi Hosono from the Party of Hope.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike founded the Party of Hope last September, saying it would reset Japanese politics.
The Democratic Party was the largest opposition party at the time but its leader and former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara proposed dissolving it to join the Party of Hope.
The party split into 3 groups, with some members becoming independents. The first group formed the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, which became the Lower House's largest opposition force after last October's general election. The second group joined the Party of Hope. The third group remained the Democratic Party, led by Ohtsuka.
Key words : UN aviation
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_18/
Officials from the UN aviation agency are on their way to North Korea to discuss Pyongyang's request to open new flight routes connecting the two Koreas.
Two officials from the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, left Beijing for Pyongyang on Monday.
They will discuss aviation safety with North Korean officials.
North Korea proposed in February setting up new air routes between Pyongyang and the city of Incheon near the South Korean capital of Seoul.
Inter-Korean relations had only just begun to improve at that time with the North sending high-level delegations to the South for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
ICAO officials say Pyongyang recently agreed to accept a visit by the agency.
In October, ICAO member states unanimously issued a condemnation of North Korea for repeatedly test-firing ballistic missiles, posing a serious threat to aviation safety.
The agency plans to ask North Korea how it will ensure the safety of civilian aviation in international air space.
Key words : Insight deployment US airforce transport aircraft in Tokyo
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Key words : official land ministry
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_20/
Officials of Japan's land ministry have held a drill on how to respond to emergency information about a possible mega-quake along the Nankai Trough off the country's Pacific coast.
Monday's exercise is the first since the Meteorological Agency set up a new system last November to provide information on a huge quake that could strike the region.
The agency will issue an alert when abnormal phenomena are observed along the trough, suggesting the increased possibility of a mega-jolt.
The drill was based on the scenario of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurring off the coast of central Japan at 4:30 AM. The agency issued emergency information at 7 AM, as the jolt was regarded as a foreshock.
Under the scenario, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck at noon the next day in waters south of Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan.
Following the emergency notice, land minister Keiichi Ishii instructed officials of the relevant regional bureaus to continue strict monitoring of their areas.
Ishii also told them to provide appropriate information to local governments and residents about the increased risks.
Regional bureau officials also took part in a teleconference for the drill to coordinate their responses.
They reported that they had closed flood gates to prepare for tsunami, and sent staff workers to regions that were likely to be severely affected by the jolt.
The agency introduced the new system after the government acknowledged the difficulty of predicting earthquakes in the region.
Key words : Putin 4th
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180507_25/
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been sworn in for his 4th term.
The inaugural ceremony was held on Monday at the Kremlin in Moscow.
Putin took the oath with his hand placed on the constitution. He said in a speech later that Russia needs to use all of its capabilities to develop its economy, launch innovation, and increase competitiveness. He promised to do his best to boost the nation's power and bring about prosperity.
Putin is 65 years old. He was first elected president in 2000.
After consecutive terms as president, he served as prime minister for 4 years before returning to the presidency in 2012 for a 3rd term.
He will have been in power for almost a quarter of a century when his new 6-year term ends in 2024.
Putin's new term begins amid increasing public frustration over widespread corruption.
On Saturday, nationwide protests against Putin took place in response to a call by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. About 1,600 people, including Navalny, were briefly detained.
Russia's relations with the United States and Europe have worsened in recent years, and the country has been subject to heavy sanctions for its actions in Ukraine and Syria.
As a result, the economy has been sluggish and the number of those living in poverty has been increasing. Analysts say the country needs foreign investment if it is to rebuild its economy, and that Putin will have to mend ties with the West if he hopes to drum up interest.
