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Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--The number of people aged 100 or over in Japan stood at 107,677 as of Sept. 1, topping 100,000 for the first time since statistics began in 1963, the health ministry said Tuesday. The centenarian population hit a record high for the 56th consecutive year. According to data based on the basic resident register, this year's figure was up by 7,914 from the prev......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--Go Inc., operator of a taxi-hailing app, Waymo LLC and Nihon Kotsu Co. said Tuesday that they will jointly launch driverless taxi services in Tokyo in 2027, marking Japan's first such commercial service. The service would use Level 4 autonomous driving, under which a system handles all driving operations under specified conditions. The companies plan to expand t......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons has voiced his hopes that Tokyo would host another Summer Paralympics. In a recent interview with the Jiji Press in Tokyo, the 49-year-old praised again the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, held without spectators after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I have this very personal dream...that......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who also heads the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, announced Tuesday that she will reshuffle the party's leadership team Wednesday and the cabinet Thursday. The announcement was made at a meeting of LDP executives held at the party's headquarters in Tokyo. Party executives on Sept. 8 agreed to leave personnel-related dec......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--Personal data on 1,570 customers of Tokyo-based Prudential Life Insurance Co. has been leaked after a former sales employee improperly took records outside the company and later lost them. The former employee, who worked at the company's Tama branch in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, took documents containing customer information obtained through work off c......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi has condemned pro-Iran Houthi rebels in Yemen, which are stepping up its attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and other locations. In phone talks with Yemeni Foreign Minister Afrah Al-Zouba on Monday, Motegi said that the Houthis are posing a significant threat to free and safe navigation. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers has urged Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to express support for the International Criminal Court in her address during the general debate at the U.N. General Assembly session Sept. 22. The Nonpartisan Parliamentary Association for Reconsidering Human Rights Diplomacy handed a written recommendation concerning U.S. sancti......

Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, has called for corporate tax breaks for large firms that support partner small businesses' activities to develop human resources. The nation's biggest business lobby included the measure in its proposals to be submitted to the government for its fiscal 2027 tax system reform package. Keidanren announced the proposals......

Shizuoka, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, said Monday that it will charge off-season Mount Fuji climbers for rescues using its helicopters, aiming to implement this measure in September 2027. The measure has been requested by mayors of local municipalities and others, following a series of cases in which off-season climbers were stranded on the mountain, which is......

Beijing, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--A delegation of young Japanese lawmakers from a suprapartisan parliamentary group promoting friendship with China met with a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official in Beijing on Monday. After meeting with Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin, Masahiro Komura, who leads the delegation, told the press that it was "a big step that we met face to face" amid the c......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Chubu Electric Power Co. faces a difficult predicament as its earthquake-risk data fraud has left the power utility with no clear outlook for restarting its Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan. An investigative committee report released Monday highlighted the seriousness of the misconduct, in which Chubu Electric provided to the Nuclear Regulation Authority ......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese men's volleyball team has won the AVC Men's Volleyball Asian Championship 2026, earning a spot in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. On Sunday, Japan defeated Iran 3-0 in the Asian championship final at Kitakyushu City General Gymnasium. This marks Japan's first berth in a ball sport in the 2028 Olympics. At a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, Ja......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday called for stronger cooperation between Japan and the International Energy Agency amid disruptions to crude oil supplies caused by instability in the Middle East. "I hope to make the global supply-demand structure more resilient," Takaichi said during a meeting with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol at the prime......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government welcomed the first parliamentary election held in the Bangsamoro autonomous region on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday, following decades of Tokyo's support for the peace process there. The election was "a historic step," Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a press conference. Japan sent a group of about 15 ele......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Eisuke Mori, speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country's parliament, on Monday visited Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, the secretariat of the Lower House said the same day. During his stay through Tuesday, Mori plans to meet with Ukrainian government and parliamentary officials to express Japan's solidarity with Ukraine. It ......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Gold bar scam losses amounted to 8.13 billion yen in Japan in the first half of 2026, already topping the 6.02 billion yen lost in all of last year, police data have shown. The National Police Agency estimates that two-thirds of the latest losses, or roughly 5.3 billion yen, stemmed from scams in which fraudsters impersonated police officers. Scammers tell vict......

Rikuzentakata, Iwate Pref., Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Crown Prince Akishino and his son, Prince Hisahito, on Sunday and Monday visited areas in northeastern Japan that were hit hard by a massive earthquake and tsunami 15 years ago. It was Prince Hisahito's first trip to an area devastated by the 2011 disaster. On Sunday, they visited a facility in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, that......

Nagoya, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Chubu Electric Power Co. said Monday that President Kingo Hayashi and Chairman Satoru Katsuno will step down Sept. 30 to take responsibility for an earthquake risk data fraud involving its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in central Japan. Senior Managing Executive Officer Minoru Yasui is set to become the next president. Honorary adviser Akihisa Mizuno will also r......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--Policy officials from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party agreed Monday to strengthen cooperation to promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. In a policy dialogue held at the LDP's headquarters in Tokyo, the two sides mainly discussed diplomacy and security, including responses to Chinese military an......

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government reiterated on Monday that relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to the Henoko district of Nago in the southwestern Japan prefecture is "the only viable solution" to problems involving the military base. "We will do our best in reducing burdens from military bases on local residents," Chief ......