Japan

TOKYO (AP) — About 80% of the facilities needed for next year’s postponed Tokyo Olympics have been lined up, the president of the organizing committee said Friday.

Two of the largest venues have not yet been secured, however.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose support has surged with her efforts against the coronavirus, said on Friday she would run for a second term as governor of the Japanese capital, raising the prospect of sustaining old rivalry with the prime minister.

Koike, 67, was Japan’s first female defence minister and also held the environment portfolio. Though she failed in a bid to become prime minister, analysts say her recent popularity support could rekindle her ambition to try again.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares tumbled Thursday as reports of rising numbers of coronavirus infections in many countries raised fears over risks from reopenings from pandemic shutdowns.

Asian markets had been expected to track Wall Street’s retreat after the Federal Reserve signaled a long path to recovery from the devastation of the coronavirus pandemic.

10 June 2020; AFP: Japan's powerful lower house of parliament approved an emergency budget worth nearly $300 billion Wednesday, doubling the scale of measures to pep up the world's third-biggest economy after the coronavirus tipped it into recession.

Consumer spending has slowed to a crawl despite Japan's relatively low infection numbers and death toll from the pandemic, prompting the first economic downturn since 2015.

TOKYO (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Tuesday after the Nasdaq composite touched a fresh record as enthusiasm about reopening the economy pushed Wall Street still higher.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.5% to 23,064.75 and South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.3% to 2,178.58. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.3% to 25,105.75, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 2,946.10.

8 June 2020; AFP: Japanese growth figures were better than initially feared in the first quarter, according to official data published on Monday, but the world's third-top economy was still mired deep in recession.

Gross domestic product contracted by 0.6 percent in the January-March period compared to the previous quarter. Authorities had initially reported a 0.9-percent contraction.

Economists had expected the revision, with the market forecasting a 0.5-percent contraction.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has decided not join the United States, Britain and others in issuing a statement scolding China for imposing a new security law, Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, citing officials from countries involved.

The United Kingdom, the U.S., Australia and Canada condemned China on May 28 for imposing a law that they said would threaten freedom and breach a 1984 Sino-British agreement on the autonomy of the former colony.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has kept its deaths from the new coronavirus low despite a series of missteps that beg the question of whether it can prevent future waves of infections.

Authorities were criticized for bungling a cruise ship quarantine and were slow to close Japan’s borders. They have conducted only a fraction of the tests needed to find and isolate patients and let businesses operate almost as usual, even under a pandemic state of emergency.

4 June 2020; AFP: Tokyo 2020 officials are looking at ways to scale back next year's postponed Olympics, the city's governor said Thursday, amid reports the opening ceremony could be streamlined and spectator numbers cut.

Yuriko Koike told reporters that organisers were weighing up what could be "rationalised and simplified" as costs spiral for holding the first postponed Games in history.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has not yet established its position on a U.S. proposal for adding countries to the Group of Seven summit to be held later this year, Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Wednesday.

Aso told reporters after a conference call with his G7 counterparts that he could not comment on what other countries said at the meeting when asked whether G7 ministers took up the issue during the call.