Japan

Fumio Kishida's remarks were made during his policy speech on the first day of a 150-day regular parliamentary session, reports Xinhua news agency. The Japanese leader highlighted that births last year are estimated to have fallen below the 800,000 mark for the first time since the government data available.

About 5,000 medical institutions in all of Japan's 47 prefectures reported 36,388 cases of seasonal flu during the seven-day period, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said. The nationwide per-institution figure was more than 1.5 times that of the previous week, while the tally of influenza patients across the country is estimated to stand at about 257,000, reports Xinhua news agency.

The package is worth around 4.3 billion Swedish kronor ($415 million) and also includes around 50 CV-90 armoured vehicles with ammunition, NLAW anti-tank missiles, disposable anti-tank weapons, and mine clearing equipment, the government said at a press conference here on Thursday. Ukraine has repeatedly requested that Sweden provides them with Archer, a vehicle-mounted howitzer with a range of up to 50 km, Xinhua news agency reported.

The latest public opinion survey found that the Kishida cabinet's approval rating dropped 2.7 percentage points from the previous month to 26.5 per cent, below 30 per cent for the fourth consecutive month, and that the disapproval rating grew 1.1 points to a record high of 43.6 per cent.

While speaking at a livestreamed seminar here on Wednesday, PIF Secretary General Henry Puna is backing the call from independent global experts who say they are not satisfied that the evidence provided so far is independent and verifiable, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Relations between South Korea and Japan went through the most difficult and deepest ordeal for the past few years, but they are showing a clear trend of improvement recently," Yoon said in the message, read by First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong, at a joint Seoul conference of the two countries' private panels

Japan reported 185,472 new coronavirus cases, down 13,401 from Wednesday. Tokyo reported 13,427 new cases, down 3,345 from Wednesday. "The number of coronavirus-related deaths reported nationwide was a record high 489," reports Japan Today. The number of infected people hospitalised with severe symptoms in Tokyo was 49, down five from Wednesday.

After taking over from Ruchira Kamboj, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Japan's Permanent Representative to the UN Kimihiro Ishikane appreciated India's contribution at the UNSC. At his inaugural media engagement in New York

The country reported 238,654 new coronavirus cases, down 6,888 from Friday, reports Japan Today. Tokyo reported 19,630 new cases, down 1,090 from Friday. The number of infected people hospitalised with severe symptoms in Tokyo was 55, up two from Friday. Nationwide, the figure was 668, up nine.

Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and his US and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi respectively, held three-way phone talks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for increasing its nuclear arsenal and developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile during a key ruling party meeting, Yonhap news agency reported.