TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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JR Central, Shizuoka sign agreement to begin maglev construction
SHIZUOKA, Japan - Central Japan Railway Co. on Saturday signed an agreement with Shizuoka Prefecture under a prefectural ordinance, clearing a key hurdle for construction to begin on the only section of the new high-speed maglev line between Tokyo and Nagoya where work has yet to start.
Construction on the roughly 8.9-kilometer Shizuoka section, part of the Southern Alps Tunnel that straddles Yamanashi, Shizuoka and Nagano prefectures, could begin within the year after years of opposition by the previous governor over environmental impact concerns.
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Kyoto Animation holds memorial service for victims of 2019 arson attack
KYOTO - Kyoto Animation Co. held a memorial service Saturday to honor the 36 victims of the 2019 arson attack in Fushimi in the southeastern part of Kyoto where the burned down No. 1 Studio once stood.
Around 140 people including relatives of the victims and company employees attended the private ceremony at the site, laying flowers at an alter and observing a moment of silence.
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Japan's defense minister to visit Europe for joint fighter jet talks
TOKYO - Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi will visit Britain, France and Belgium next week for a series of meetings to advance the trilateral Global Combat Air Program, his ministry said.
In Britain, Koizumi will visit the Farnborough International Airshow on Monday before meeting his British and Italian counterparts, Dan Jarvis and Guido Crosetto, respectively, the following day to discuss GCAP, under which the three countries are jointly developing a next-generation fighter jet, the ministry said Friday.
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N. Korea foreign minister Choe to hold talks with Lavrov in Russia
MOSCOW - North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui is set to hold talks in Russia with her counterpart Sergey Lavrov during an official visit from Saturday, Moscow's ministry said, in what appears to be her first trip to the country since October 2025.
Choe, who has risen through the ranks since Kim Jong Un became North Korean leader in the early 2010s, received an invitation from Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Ministry said, as the two countries have been trying to bolster their defense cooperation.
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70,000 customers' info leaked by Japan's Sagawa Express setup error
TOKYO - Sagawa Express Co., a major Japanese parcel delivery company, said Saturday that personal information belonging to around 70,000 users of its membership service was leaked due to an error made while fixing a system glitch.
The company said the names, email addresses and parcel inquiry numbers of users of its Smart Club service were disclosed around Wednesday evening after information belonging to other users was mistakenly displayed in delivery notification emails during work tresolve the glitch.
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Japan ranks lowest among 6 nations in survey on expectations of AI use
TOKYO - Japan ranked the lowest among six countries in a private-sector survey of companies about their use of generative intelligence, with only 9 percent saying they found the technology to have exceeded their expectations.
The survey released by PwC Japan Group, which has consulting firms under its wing, showed that Japan had the lowest rate compared with Britain, China, Germany, South Korea and the United States.
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Monorail opens in disaster-hit area in northeastern Japan to boost tourism
SENDAI - A ceremony was held Saturday to mark the opening of a monorail in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, hit hard by the devastating 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that triggered the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The monorail on Kesennuma Oshima, the biggest inhabited island in Japan's northeastern Tohoku region, connects the middle of 235-meter-high Mt. Kameyama with its summit, where an observation terrace, walking paths and a cafe have been developed.
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Sumo: Promotion-chasing ozeki Kirishima wins, in 7-way tie for Nagoya lead
NAGOYA - Yokozuna promotion-chasing ozeki Kirishima joined six other wrestlers at the top of the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament leaderboard on Saturday after rank-and-filer Shishi suffered his first defeat after seven days of action.
Kirishima (6-1) had to fight his way back from a patchy start against last year's Nagoya meet winner, sekiwake Kotoshoho (3-4), with the ozeki finding himself on the back foot before coming to a standstill in the middle of the raised ring at Nagoya's IG Arena.
