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Photo shows (L-R) silver medallist Loena Hendrickx of Belgium, gold medallist Kaori Sakamoto of Japan and bronze medallist Alysa Liu of the United States at the figure skating world championships in Montpellier, France, on March 25, 2022. (Kyodo)
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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U.S. envoy, Japan PM visit Hiroshima A-bomb memorial amid nuclear fears
HIROSHIMA – U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited an atomic bomb memorial site in Hiroshima on Saturday in a show of support for a world without nuclear weapons as fears about Russia using the devastating arms are growing.
Emanuel, once a top aide to former President Barack Obama, and Kishida, a lawmaker representing a constituency in the city, offered flowers for the victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing at the Peace Memorial Park near ground zero. It followed their visit to the Peace Memorial Museum, which has belongings of the victims, photos and other materials on display.
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Major Japan banks to halt dollar transactions with Russia’s Sberbank
TOKYO – Japan’s three major banks will halt dollar transactions and money transfers with Russia’s largest financial institution Sberbank following the United States’ sanction against it in response to the Ukraine invasion, sources close to the matter said Saturday.
MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. have been settling dollar transactions with Sberbank via the United States. Disruption of their dollar dealing with the Russian bank will likely force Japanese companies doing business in Russia to seek alternative ways to settle payments such as using non-U.S. banks, the sources said.
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Baseball: Shohei Ohtani to pitch for Angels on Opening Day
TEMPE, Arizona – The Los Angeles Angels named two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani as their Opening Day starting pitcher on Friday, adding another accolade to the reigning American League MVP’s resume.
The 27-year-old became the seventh Japanese pitcher to be appointed Opening Day starter by a major league team, following in the recent footsteps of the San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish and the Minnesota Twin’s Kenta Maeda, who had the honor last year.
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Mercury confab delegates agree to phase out fluorescent lamps by 2025
NUSA DUA, Indonesia – Delegates from 137 countries and regions agreed at an anti-mercury convention Saturday in Bali to phase out mercury-added compact fluorescent lamps by 2025.
The participants adopted the ban, proposed by the European Union, African nations, Canada and Switzerland, at the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian island.
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Russia starts military drill on disputed islands off Japan
TOKYO – The Russian military said Friday it has started a military exercise involving more than 3,000 troops on a chain of islands including those disputed with Japan, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
It is the first drill on the disputed islands off Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido since Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced earlier this week it will suspend territorial talks with Japan. Russia is withdrawing from the talks over Tokyo’s sanctions against Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
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Japan’s top business lobby aims to create boom in “unicorn” firms
TOKYO – Japan’s largest business lobby has crafted an ambitious proposal to increase the number of so-called “unicorn companies,” or unlisted startups valued at more than $1 billion, 10-fold over five years as it tries to spur innovation and in turn the country’s slow-growing economy.
The Japan Business Federation, also known as Keidanren, aims to increase the number of such firms from about 10 to around 100 while at the same time seeking to expand the number of start-ups by a factor of 10 to about 100,000.
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U.S. to supply EU with more LNG to help reduce reliance on Russia
BRUSSELS – The United States said Friday it plans to supply the European Union with additional liquefied natural gas as the 27-member bloc strives to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the White House, the United States will work with international partners and strive to ensure at least 15 billion cubic meters of additional LNG for the EU market in 2022, with expected increases going forward.
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PM Kishida proposes Biden visits Japan in late April
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has sounded out U.S. President Joe Biden about visiting Japan in late April, government sources said Friday.
The proposal was made when Kishida had a brief conversation with Biden in Brussels on Thursday where a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were held, the sources said.
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