Japan

[ad_1] Sony Group on Wednesday lifted its net profit forecast for the year ending March to ¥920 billion ($6.1 billion) from an earlier estimate of ¥880 billion thanks to its robust finance business and a weak yen, while announcing that a planned spinoff and the listing of its financial unit is scheduled for 2025.The sales projection for fiscal 2023, however, was lowered to ¥12.3 trillion from its November forecast of […]

[ad_1] Kagoshima – A volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture erupted Wednesday, with plumes rising to 5,000 meters above the summit crater for the first time since 2020, a local weather observatory said. There were no immediate reports of injuries and damage to buildings, the prefectural government said, while the Kagoshima Meteorological Office maintained the volcanic activity alert level at three, urging people not to approach the volcano. The Japan […]

[ad_1] Seoul – A South Korean court sentenced two former senior police officers Wednesday for destroying evidence linked to Seoul's deadly 2022 Halloween crush — the first police officials to be sentenced over the disaster.Tens of thousands of people — mostly in their 20s and 30s — had been out on Oct. 29, 2022, to enjoy the first post-pandemic holiday celebrations in the popular Itaewon nightlife district.But the night turned […]

[ad_1] Myanmar's ruling military plans to call up young people for mandatory service from April and also require retired security personnel to serve, media reports cited a junta spokesman as saying, as the army struggles to crush an anti-junta insurgency.The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the military seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup and plans by the junta to call up more people […]

[ad_1] LOS ANGELES – Japanese teenage slugger Rintaro Sasaki will enroll at Stanford University in April before joining its baseball team for the 2025 season, the school announced Tuesday. The 18-year-old, left-handed hitting first baseman will graduate in March from Iwate Prefecture's Hanamaki Higashi High School. Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani and Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi were coached there by Sasaki's father, Hiroshi. The 184-centimeter, 113-kilogram […]

[ad_1] Former ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mito Kakizawa on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges of illegal campaign financing in relation to a Tokyo ward election last April."I have decided not to contest any of the charges," the 53-year-old former senior vice justice minister said at the first day of his trial at the Tokyo District Court, acknowledging the "heavy" responsibility he bore.Kakizawa has been indicted for violating the election […]

[ad_1] A broad swath of Japan was forecast to see unseasonably warm temperatures over parts of the next week, with the mercury hitting 18 degrees Celsius in Tokyo on Wednesday.Temperatures in the Kyushu region ranged from 18 C to 24 C on Wednesday, offering a taste of early summer, according to the Meteorological Agency, while the Chugoku and Shikoku regions also experienced unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures in the 18 […]

[ad_1] GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador – Since Ecuador’s president declared war on gangs last month, soldiers with assault rifles have flooded the streets of Guayaquil, a sprawling Pacific coast city that has been an epicenter of the nation’s yearslong descent into violence.They pull men from buses and cars looking for drugs, weapons and gang tattoos, and patrol roads enforcing a nighttime curfew. The city is on edge, its men and teenage boys […]

[ad_1] Kawasaki Frontale will take a one-goal lead into the second leg of their Asian Champions League last 16 meeting with China's Shandong Taishan next week, with the Japanese side taking a five-goal thriller 3-2 in Jinan on Tuesday.Brazilian defender Jadson scored a crucial second for Shandong five minutes from time to leave the tie in the balance as action in the continental club championship returned just three days after […]