JIJI English News-時事通信英語ニュース-

Five major Japanese banking groups' combined net profits increased 42.3pctfrom a year earlier to 1,956.4 billion yen in April-June, according to their latest earnings reports released by Monday.

Japan's two major air carriers saw their profits fall for April-June amid soaring aviation fuel prices due to tensions in the Middle East, although both posted record-high sales, according to their latest earnings reports.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday virtually approved Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's plan to lower the consumption tax rate on food from 8pctto 1pctfor two years from next April.

The Japanese government is considering concluding an economic partnership agreement with Ecuador, officials said Monday.

The proportion of people in South Korea who have a good impression of Japan rose 1.9 percentage points to 54.3pctin 2026 from the previous year, a survey by East Asia Institute, a think tank in South Korea, showed Monday.

"Furusato nozei" hometown donations to earthquake-hit municipalities in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kumamoto have exceeded 730 million yen, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Monday.

Authorities in Hikawa, a town in Kumamoto Prefecture, on Monday started accepting disaster waste, following a massive earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture on Tuesday.

Japan's education ministry is asking municipalities and education boards across the country to consider providing supplementary learning materials for elementary and junior high school students that are currently purchased by parents, to reduce household financial burdens.

Liberal Democratic Party members are concerned that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's plan to cut the consumption tax rate on food could negatively affect the ruling party's performance in the 2028 House of Councillors election.

A tour offering views of reconstruction in Hiroshima, a city in western Japan, following the U.S. atomic bombing 81 years ago aboard a streetcar that survived the blast started on Sunday.

BYD Co.'s entry is set to intensify competition into Japan's electric minivehicle market, still a niche in the country's passenger-vehicle segment.

A Vietnamese national in his 30s has made a statement suggesting he killed a 91-year-old woman of Iruma, Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, according to investigative sources.

Local chapter members of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan expressed opposition on Sunday to a proposed three-way merger with two other opposition parties, the Centrist Reform Alliance and Komeito.

Temperatures in Kumamoto Prefecture are forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius or higher for the first time on record Monday, adding to the plight of people in the southwestern Japan prefecture hit by a powerful earthquake last Tuesday.

Plant suspension at automakers caused by last week's major earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture is being prolonged, with the impact spreading beyond the Kyushu region, which includes the southwestern Japan prefecture.

Japanese golfer Shiho Kuwaki won the Women's British Open, the season's final major event for women, on Sunday.

The dollar plummeted to briefly fall below 156 yen for the first time in roughly three months in Tokyo trading Monday, after Japanese and U.S. authorities intervened in the market to buy the Japanese currency in concerted action Friday, U.S. Eastern time.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that U.S. authorities conducted a yen-buying intervention in the currency market at the request of Japan.

The Japanese Ministry of Finance said Monday that it conducted a yen-buying currency market intervention Friday, U.S. Eastern time, "in coordination with" the U.S. Treasury Department.

Japanese players appeared in a game for a new U.S. women's professional baseball league that kicked off Saturday.

The Japanese and U.S. governments are considering issuing a joint statement aimed at stemming the yen's depreciation against the dollar, informed sources said Sunday.

The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, will install security cameras in the Diet building starting in fiscal 2027.

One in four people in Japan believes that more advanced artificial intelligence will replace their friends and families in the future, a Jiji Press survey on communications has found.

The death toll from Tuesday's powerful earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, has risen to 38 as two more deaths have been confirmed, the prefectural disaster response headquarters said Sunday.

Since its introduction in 1989, Japan's consumption tax has been raised three times and now accounts for about 30pctof total national tax revenue, making it the nation's largest core tax category.

Japan's Princess Aiko arrived in Ise, Mie Prefecture, on Saturday to observe a traditional rite for the reconstruction of Ise Jingu, a major Shinto shrine complex in the central Japan city, which is held once every 20 years.

Visitors have formed a long line every day to enter a Tokyo shop promoting specialty products of Kumamoto Prefecture to support the southwestern Japan prefecture hit by Tuesday's huge earthquake.

Scorching heat waves and widespread water outages are adding to the hardships faced by more than 9,000 evacuees in areas devastated by Tuesday's powerful earthquake in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

The Japanese government has decided to revise its nuclear energy policy guidelines to include a target of rebuilding two to five nuclear power reactors by the 2040s.

The dollar plunged below 157.50 yen for the first time in about two and a half months in New York trading on Friday as the Japanese and U.S. authorities reportedly intervened in the foreign exchange market in coordination to stem the yen's depreciation.

Two people have been sent to hospital after an explosion occurred at a three-story apartment building in Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, on Saturday.

The U.S. Treasury Department has informed a number of banks that it may intervene in the Japanese yen market, a Treasury source told Jiji Press on Friday.

Japanese retail giant Seven & i Holdings Co. said Friday it will receive a total of 300 billion yen in capital from SoftBank Corp., mobile payment operator PayPay Corp. and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. to bolster its artificial intelligence capabilities.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said Friday the powerful earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan earlier this week has caused no major disruption to the financial system.

Terumi Tanaka, co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, talked with young artists at a live music club in Tokyo on Friday, discussing peace across generations.

The mayors of Hiroshima in western Japan and Nagasaki in southwestern Japan plan to underline the importance of trust-building and action toward peace while urging the abolition of nuclear weapons in their annual peace declarations amid deepening global divisions, outlines released Friday showed.

Kioxia Holdings Corp. said Friday that its consolidated net profit in the six months to September is expected to jump about 36-fold from a year before to 2,112.1 billion yen on strong artificial intelligence-driven demand for memory chips for data centers.

Tokyo District Court on Friday gave a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, to Shunichiro Sato, a former member of the Japanese men's national volleyball team, for possessing cannabis.

A third-party committee on a boat accident in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, in March that killed a high school girl and another person found on Friday the school responsible for the death of the student.

The total amount of "furusato nozei" donations to local governments across Japan hit a record high for the sixth consecutive year in fiscal 2025, which ended in March, the internal affairs ministry said Friday.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is divided over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's proposal to cut the consumption tax rate for food from 8pctto 1pctfor two years starting in April 2027 as a measure against inflation.

Japan on Friday launched its National Intelligence Bureau, to spearhead the government's intelligence activities.

The Osaka prefectural police have arrested two Vietnamese men for allegedly converting electric-assist bicycles into throttle-equipped electric mopeds that require a driver's license, in violation of the road traffic law.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit earthquake-stricken Kumamoto Prefecture on Monday, government and ruling party officials said Friday.

Japan's education ministry Friday formally certified Kyoto University as the third eligible for receiving aid from a government-financed 10-trillion-yen fund aimed at supporting universities with the potential to produce world-class research results.

The Japanese government and the Bank of Japan carried out a yen-buying, dollar-selling market intervention for the first time in about three months on Thursday night, during New York trading hours, informed sources said Friday.

The Japanese government on Friday unveiled a plan to form industrial clusters to attract large-scale corporate investment to rural regions.

The Japanese government on Friday adopted a basic policy on measures to support public-sector organizations and critical infrastructure operators for the early detection of threats of cyberattacks.

Business sentiment among Japanese companies in China worsened in the first half of the year due mainly to strained relations between the two countries, a survey by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China showed Friday.

Surplus in the Japanese government's foreign exchange special account totaled 5,056.5 billion yen at the end of fiscal 2025, a Finance Ministry report showed Friday.

Sony Group Corp. on Friday raised its consolidated sales and profit forecasts for the year ending in March 2027, citing its bullish gaming business.