TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Japan gov't eyes wording change on BOJ role in economic policy guidelines
TOKYO - The Japanese government is arranging to change the wording in its economic policy guidelines after it was interpreted by markets as pressuring the Bank of Japan not to hike its rates, sending yields higher, a source close to the matter said Wednesday.
In the first economic policy blueprint under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the government is thinking of adding "contributes to achieving stable inflation" to a sentence in the original draft about the appropriate management of monetary policy, which the government says is extremely important in realizing strong economic growth, the source said.
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Japanese chipmaker Rapidus aims for chips as cost-competitive as TSMC's
TOKYO - The top executive of Japanese chipmaker Rapidus Corp. said Wednesday that his company aims to make cutting-edge semiconductors as cost-competitive as those of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., once it begins mass production.
Rapidus President and CEO Atsuyoshi Koike said in a speech at a business seminar in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, that Rapidus "could not afford to lose on price" as a latecomer against TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker.
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Beverage firm Asahi's net profit falls 36.7% in 2025 after cyberattack
TOKYO - Japanese beverage firm Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. said Wednesday its net profit for 2025 fell 36.7 percent from a year earlier to 121.57 billion yen ($749 million), hit by shipment disruptions caused by a cyberattack on its systems in September.
Losses and costs related to the cyberattack pushed the group's operating profit down by 17.0 billion yen, Asahi said.
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Japan's ruling LDP to forgo Diet seat-cut bill this session
TOKYO - Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party will give up enacting a bill to reduce the number of House of Representatives seats during the ongoing parliamentary session scheduled to end next week, a senior opposition lawmaker who met his LDP counterpart said Wednesday.
Kazuhiko Shigetoku, Diet affairs committee head of the Centrist Reform Alliance, told reporters that Hiroshi Kajiyama of the LDP conveyed the party's intention regarding the bill, which was submitted by the LDP and its junior coalition partner the Japan Innovation Party and has triggered backlash from opposition forces.
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Japanese picture book author Akiko Hayashi dies at 81
TOKYO - Akiko Hayashi, picture book author and illustrator of long-selling children's books including "Miki's First Errand" and "Good Evening Mr. Moon," has died, the publisher of many of her books said Wednesday. She was 81.
Hayashi, who made her debut as a picture book illustrator in 1973 with the book "Kamihikoki" (paper plane) died of pneumonia on July 1 at a hospital in central Japan's Nagano Prefecture.
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Woman arrested near Tokyo for sewing roommate's lips together
MITO, Japan - A 49-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly sewing together the lips of a woman she was living with, according to local police.
Masae Sakurai, a part-time worker living in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of injuring the 42-year-old woman by sewing her lips together with a needle and thread at Sakurai's house on June 29.
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Japan bankruptcies in Jan.-June top 5,000 for 1st time in 12 years
TOKYO - The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan in the first half of 2026 involving debts of at least 10 million yen ($62,000) rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to 5,346, topping 5,000 for the first time in 12 years, a credit research company survey showed Wednesday.
The figure comes as a weaker yen has accelerated inflation, putting pressure on the finances of businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, Tokyo Shoko Research said.
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Olympics: IOC drops Nordic combined from 2030 Winter Games
GENEVA - The International Olympic Committee decided Tuesday to exclude Nordic combined skiing from the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps, drawing immediate criticism from skiing's global ruling body.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said the decision, made at an online meeting of the IOC Executive Board, removed a "cornerstone" event that has been part of every Winter Olympics since the inaugural games in Chamonix, France, in 1924.
