Japan

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares rose Tuesday on optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus after hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year sent Wall Street into a rebound.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.9% in morning trading to 20,517.42. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 2.0% to 5,569.20. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.8% to 1,972.73. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.8% to 24,362.80, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.5% to 2,889.42.

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp said on Monday that Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma will resign from its board, in the latest departure by a high-profile ally of CEO Masayoshi Son.

The departure of Ma, who retired as Alibaba’s executive chairman in September, comes as he pulls back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.

SoftBank will propose three new appointments to the board, including group Chief Financial Officer Yoshimoto Goto, at its annual general meeting on June 25. The number of board members will expand to 13.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s economic growth plunged into recession in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic squelched production, exports and spending, and fears are growing that worse times may lie ahead.

The Cabinet Office reported Monday a 3.4% drop in the annual pace of seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product, or GDP, for the January-March period. The annual pace gives what the rate would be when continued for a year. For just the quarter, the drop was 0.9%.

TOKYO, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday the nation should be prepared for a long battle against the coronavirus pandemic, warning that the virus still remained a significant threat and preventative measures should be maintained.

The Japanese leader said that even though the state of emergency had been lifted for the majority of prefectures, the virus will remain a threat until a vaccine is developed and people should be prepared for further waves of the virus and the possibility of a long battle ahead.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is expected to lift a state of emergency across a large part of the country on Thursday but the capital Tokyo will likely remain under restrictions until there is a convincing containment of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to hold a news conference at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT) when he is expected to announce the lifting of the emergency in 39 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, but not in Tokyo.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday he will aim to pass a second supplementary budget at the current parliament session to fund steps for combating the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Kyodo news agency reported.

Abe made the remark at a meeting with ruling party lawmakers, according to Kyodo.

(AP) --- Asian shares declined Thursday on pessimism about life getting back to normal soon amid the coronavirus pandemic, even as Japan prepared to let businesses reopen in some regions.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped nearly 0.8% in morning trading to 20,112.00. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.9% to 5,370.80. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.1% to 1,919.48. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 1.4% to 23,831.06, while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.7% at 2,877.53.

(AP) --- Shares fell in Asia on Wednesday after Wall Street logged its biggest loss since the start of the month on worries about the downside of reopening the economy too soon.

Benchmarks slid in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong but rose in Taiwan.

The top U.S. infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress bluntly that if the country reopens too soon, it could not only cause “some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery.”

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan will do “whatever it can” to mitigate the growing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Tuesday, warning that a collapse in global activity has had severe consequences on the the economy.

The central bank has various tools at its disposal if it were to ramp up stimulus such as accelerating money printing, increasing market operation tools and cutting interest rates, Kuroda said in a semi-annual testimony to parliament.

TOKYO, May 11 (NNN-NHK) – An earthquake, with a magnitude of 5.5, on Monday (today), struck off Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The temblor occurred at 8:58 a.m. local time, with its epicentre at a latitude of 36.4 degrees north, and a longitude of 141.1 degrees east, and at a depth of 50 km.

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

So far no tsunami warning has been issued.