Japan

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly rose Friday, buoyed by a rally on Wall Street that came after U.S. President Joe Biden announced a bipartisan deal on infrastructure spending.

France’s CAC 40 shed 0.2% to 6,620.26 in early trading, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2% to 15,562.46. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.2% to 7,121.87. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.2% at 34,159. S&P 500 futures gained nearly 0.1% to 4,258.62.

TOKYO (AP) — A more than 40-year-old nuclear reactor in central Japan which suffered a deadly accident has resumed operation after being taken offline for a decade after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, as Japan pushes to meet its carbon emissions reduction goal.

Kansai Electric Power Co. said the Mihama No. 3 reactor in Fukui prefecture went back online Wednesday after workers removed control rods inside the reactor.

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics, already delayed by the pandemic, are not looking like much fun: Not for athletes. Not for fans. And not for the Japanese public. They are caught between concerns about the coronavirus at a time when few are vaccinated on one side and politicians who hope to save face by holding the games and the International Olympic Committee with billions of dollars on the line on the other.

Japan is famous for running on consensus. But the decision to proceed with the Olympics — and this week to permit some fans, if only locals — has shredded it.

TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics will allow some local fans to attend when the games open in just over a month, organizing committee officials and the IOC said on Monday.

Organizers set a limit of 50% of capacity up to a maximum of 10,000 fans for all Olympic venues.

The decision was announced after so-called Five Party talks online with local organizers, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Japanese government and the government of metropolitan Tokyo.

TOKYO (AP) — Thousands of Japanese companies began distributing COVID-19 vaccines to workers and their families Monday in an employer-led drive reaching more than 13 million people that aims to rev up the nation’s slow vaccine rollout.

Yuka Daimaru, among the Suntory workers getting the shot on a sprawling office floor, was visibly relieved after spending more than a year worrying about the coronavirus.

“I was nervous, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would,” she said. “Now I don’t have to worry as much on commuter trains or at meetings.”

TOKYO, June 20 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 struck Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture on Sunday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The temblor occurred at around 8:08 p.m. local time, with its epicenter at a latitude of 43.5 degrees north and a longitude of 142.7 degrees east, and at depth of 30 km.

The quake logged 3 in some parts of Hokkaido Prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7.

So far no tsunami warning has been issued.

TOKYO (AP) — A member of Myanmar’s national soccer team who played a 2022 World Cup qualifier in Japan has refused to return home and is seeking asylum, a request the government was considering taking into account unrest in his country following a coup.

Pyae Lyan Aung, a substitute goalkeeper, was scheduled to fly home from Kansai International Airport late Wednesday but failed to join the rest of the team. He expressed wish to seek refuge in Japan, and, through an interpreter, said that by returning to Myanmar, he would “risk his life,” according to Kyodo News agency.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is set to announce a decision Thursday to ease a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and six other areas this weekend, with new daily cases falling just as the country begins making final preparations for the Olympics starting in just over a month.

Japan has been struggling since late March to slow a wave of infections propelled by more contagious variants, with new daily cases soaring above 7,000 at one point and seriously ill patients straining hospitals in Tokyo, Osaka and other metropolitan areas.

TOKYO, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan's lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted down a no-confidence motion against Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet jointly filed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and three other opposition parties.

The motion was filed after the ruling coalition turned down the opposition camp's request for the end of the current parliamentary session, scheduled to end on Wednesday, to be pushed back by three months to allow for more debate on matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Tokyo Olympics.

TOKYO, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan Airlines Co. on Monday began providing on-site COVID-19 vaccinations for its employees, with the move coming a day after All Nippon Airways Co. started its own inoculation drive becoming the first business in Japan to begin workplace vaccinations.

Both airlines started to administer the inoculations at Tokyo's Haneda airport, with crew on international flights being given priority for the jabs.