Photo shows bobbleheads of the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani holding his dog Decoy, also known as Dekopin in Japanese, given away at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for spectators of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 28, 2024. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
 

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Typhoon weakens but train, flight disruption continues in Japan

TOKYO - Disruption to train services and flights continued across a wide area of Japan on Friday due to a typhoon that has been weakening but moving slowly eastward from the southwestern main island of Kyushu.

JR Central temporarily canceled all Tokaido Shinkansen trains from the first one on Friday due to the typhoon. While services between Nagoya and Shin-Osaka resumed after 10 a.m., all other sections were suspended for the day.

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Japan FY 2025 budget requests hit 117 trillion yen, new record high

TOKYO - Japan's fiscal 2025 initial budget requests likely hit a record of over 117 trillion yen ($808 billion), a record high for the second straight year, a Kyodo News tally showed Friday, with social security and defense spending swelling.

Requests from the Defense Ministry and the health ministry, which is in charge of medical and pension policies, increased to their largest levels, while rising interest rates raised the cost of servicing debt used to cover shortfalls in tax revenue.

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Pair of giant pandas in Japan to be returned to China for treatment

TOKYO - A giant panda couple on loan to Japan, Ri Ri and his female mate Shin Shin, will be returned to China on Sept. 29 due to health concerns, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Friday.

Ri Ri and Shin Shin, who have been staying at Tokyo's Ueno Zoological Gardens since 2011, are both aged 19 and considered to be reaching old age for pandas.

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Defense Ministry requests record 8.5 trillion yen for FY 2025 budget

TOKYO - Japan's Defense Ministry requested a record budget of 8.5 trillion yen ($59 billion) for fiscal 2025 on Friday, aiming to enhance remote island security by deploying unmanned vehicles amid China's growing military assertiveness.

The request surpasses the record 7.9 trillion yen initial budget for fiscal 2024 ending next March, and aligns with the country's five-year, 43 trillion yen defense buildup plan through fiscal 2027 crafted in response to the rapidly changing security environment.

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Japan's births fall to record low of 350,000 in Jan.-June

TOKYO - The number of babies born in Japan, as well as to Japanese citizens residing overseas, fell 5.7 percent in the January to June period from a year earlier to a record low of 350,074, government data showed Friday, as the number of marriages continues to decline amid shifting values.

The pace of decrease in births for the first half of 2024 accelerated from 3.6 percent in the same period last year, preliminary data by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare showed. The total of 350,000 marked the lowest level for the January-June period since comparable data became available in 1969.

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July foreigner hotel stays in Japan soar 35.2% to record 14.94 mil.

TOKYO - The number of overnight stays by foreigners at accommodation facilities in Japan soared 35.2 percent from a year earlier to 14.94 million in July, a record high for a single month, boosted by a surge in inbound tourism on the back of a weaker yen, government data showed Friday.

The latest figure represents a 38.3 percent rise from July 2019 before the coronavirus outbreak, according to the preliminary data from the Japan Tourism Agency.

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Japan, Australia to hold ministerial security talks on Thurs.

TOKYO - Japan's and Australia's foreign and defense ministers will meet next week, the Japanese government said Friday, amid China's expanding military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

At the "two-plus-two" talks in Australia next Thursday, the ministers will discuss ways to make "further progress" in bilateral security and defense cooperation, and share views on regional affairs, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference.

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Ex-Japan ruling lawmaker indicted without arrest for salary fraud

TOKYO - Former Japanese ruling party lawmaker Megumi Hirose was indicted without arrest Friday for defrauding the state of around 3.5 million yen ($24,000) by claiming salary expenses for a secretary who performed no duties.

Hirose, the 58-year-old former lawyer who resigned as a member of the House of Councillors on Aug. 15, offered a fresh apology in a statement later in the day, saying that she has returned the full amount to the state with interest.


Video: International Tokyo Toy Show held through Sept. 1