TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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M5.9 quake strikes eastern Japan including Tokyo, disrupting traffic
TOKYO - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 hit eastern Japan early Sunday, causing traffic disruption and injuries in the Tokyo region, the weather agency and local authorities said.
The 2:00 a.m. quake, which originated in the southern part of Ibaraki Prefecture at a depth of 68 kilometers, did not trigger a tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
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Figure skating: Olympic pairs champions Miura, Kihara get engaged
TOKYO - Japanese Olympic pairs figure skating champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara said Sunday that they are engaged.
The star duo known as "Riku-Ryu," who earned Japan's first pairs Winter Games medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics, announced their retirement from competition in April.
"We'll continue to support each other and move forward together, one step at a time, while always staying true to who we are," Miura, 24, and Kihara, 34, said in an Instagram post.
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Heavy rain warning issued for Tokyo, nearby regions
TOKYO - Heavy rain hit Tokyo on Saturday, prompting the weather agency to issue a Level 4 heavy rain warning, the second highest on Japan's disaster warning scale, for parts of the surrounding region.
Radar analysis suggested about 100 to more than 120 millimeters of rain fell in some areas near Tokyo.
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Only 1 of 2 required train horns confirmed in fatal Japan accident
UTSUNOMIYA, Japan, - Only one of two warning blasts the train driver was required to sound was confirmed to have gone off in the fatal accident north of Tokyo earlier this week, Tobu Railway Co. said Saturday.
An express train travelling at around 50 kilometers per hour struck and killed four workers in their 50s and 60s on the tracks at Shin-kanuma Station on the Tobu Nikko Line in Tochigi Prefecture on Thursday.
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2 workers die at chemical plant in western Japan, lack of oxygen suspected
SHIGA, Japan - Two workers at a chemical product factory in western Japan died Sunday after being found collapsed there the previous day, police said.
Police believe the two may have collapsed due to a lack of oxygen while polishing equipment used to manufacture plastic at the factory in Yasu, Shiga Prefecture, on Saturday evening.
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LDP policy chief open to any position as Japan PM mulls personnel revamp
TOKYO - Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Saturday he is open to any post if Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reshuffles the party leadership and her Cabinet next month.
Kobayashi, who lost to Takaichi in last year's party leadership race, said the direction in which the current administration is headed is "right."
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All 2,500 cars abandoned after heavy rain cleared from roads in Chiba city
CHIBA, Japan - Around 2,500 vehicles left abandoned after heavy rain in mid-August have now been removed from roads in Chiba city near Tokyo, the local government said Saturday.
Of the total, the municipal government moved 384 cars, suggesting the rest were taken care of by their owners.
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Japan PM calls official residence "workplace," sees cockroach but not ghosts
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Saturday she uses her official residence near her office as a workplace, in an apparent response to views that she tends to seclude herself in her house.
In a series of posts on X, Takaichi also said she has not seen ghosts inside the residence, which is often rumored to be haunted, but that she has encountered a cockroach despite doing the household work herself.
