TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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North Korea fires ballistic missile, no known damage in Japan
TOKYO - North Korea on Thursday fired at least one ballistic missile, with no projectile believed to have fallen within Japan's exclusive economic zone and no damage reported to any of its vessels or planes, the Japanese Defense Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the missile was launched at around 5:02 p.m. and is estimated to have come down off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula.
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Japan's household spending in June falls 3.3% on year
TOKYO - Japan's household spending in June fell a real 3.3 percent from a year earlier, government data showed Friday.
Households of two or more people spent an average of 290,886 yen ($1,840), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.
The data is a key indicator of private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the country's gross domestic product.
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Japan protests to S. Korea over military drill near disputed islets
TOKYO - Japan protested to South Korea on Thursday after the South Korean navy conducted a regular military drill near disputed islets in the Sea of Japan earlier in the day.
According to Japan's Foreign Ministry, Masaaki Kanai, director general of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, lodged a strong protest with the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo, reiterating Japan's claim to the islets.
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Takaichi avoids clear pledge on Japan maintaining nonnuclear principles
HIROSHIMA - Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday failed to explicitly pledge that Japan will maintain its nonnuclear principles, simply saying the government "is upholding" the long-held policy, as the country marked the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
At a press conference after a memorial ceremony in the western Japan city, Takaichi said Japan will promote "realistic and practical" efforts toward a world without nuclear weapons, repeating the wording she used in her speech at the ceremony, which she attended as prime minister for the first time.
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Akita unveils plan to host one of Japan's largest AI data centers
AKITA, Japan - The northeastern Japanese prefecture of Akita on Thursday outlined its plan to host one of the largest artificial intelligence data centers in the country, with construction costs estimated at around 2 trillion yen ($12.7 billion).
The project will be headed by Akita-based IT company S2 Co. and U.S. startup Bitgrit and be funded by investments from the United Arab Emirates, among others, with hopes of operations beginning in the early 2030s.
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SoftBank's April-June net profit falls, OpenAI investment yields no gains
TOKYO - SoftBank Group Corp. said Thursday its net profit in the three months through June fell 17.7 percent from a year earlier to 347.33 billion yen ($2.2 billion), partly due to higher costs related to its artificial intelligence computing business centered on its British chip-designing subsidiary Arm Holdings PLC.
The Japanese company, meanwhile, booked no gains from its investment in OpenAI, the U.S. developer of the AI chatbot ChatGPT, despite having invested $54.6 billion in the company as of the end of July, with the value of its stake unchanged from the end of March.
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Foreign visitors to Japan parliament hit record high in 2025
TOKYO - The number of foreign visitors to Japan's parliament building reached 13,697 in 2025, the highest since record-keeping began in 1993, according to data compiled by both houses of the Diet.
The number, nearly doubling from 7,261 in 2024, comes amid surging inbound tourism, with a record 42.7 million foreigners visiting Japan last year.
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Filipino intern gets life for 2022 murders of 2 roommates
CHIBA, Japan - A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced a Filipino technical intern to life in prison, as sought by prosecutors, for murdering two Cambodian technical interns with whom he shared an apartment near Tokyo in 2022.
Handing down the ruling at the Chiba District Court, Presiding Judge Satoshi Miyamoto said that although defendant Bulan Roel Bulan, 35, had been experiencing stress and low self-esteem due to failed employment plans and wage disparities between himself and the Cambodian interns, his actions were not justified.
