TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Rainy season over in Tokyo, mercury hits 35 C as "extremely hot" day logged
TOKYO - The rainy season has likely ended in regions including Tokyo and Nagoya, the weather agency said Monday, with the Japanese capital marking the first "extremely hot" day of the year as the mercury hit 35 C.
Most of Japan was placed on alert for heatstroke on the final day of a three-day weekend. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, temperatures reached 30 C or higher at more than 600 of its 914 observation points on Monday morning.
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Number of swimming beaches in Japan down 30% over 30 years
TOKYO - The number of approved swimming beaches open during the summer in Japan has fallen by around 30 percent over the past three decades, a study by a travel association shows, as municipalities are increasingly choosing not to operate them due to fewer visitors amid the scorching heat and shoreline retreat.
According to the Japan Travel and Tourism Association, the number of such beaches totaled 1,379 in 1993 and remained steady in the 1,300s until the early 2000s before declining. The number fell below 1,000 for the first time in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and stood at 969 in 2024.
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Japan begins 1st war dead remains search in Taiwan in 50 years
HENGCHUN, Taiwan - An excavation to recover the remains of Japanese soldiers who died in Taiwan during World War II began Monday in Hengchun in the southern county of Pingtung, marking the first such operation on the island in about 50 years.
The preliminary excavation, scheduled to continue through July 31, is being conducted at a beach facing the Bashi Channel by a Japanese association dedicated to repatriating the remains of Japanese war dead from overseas.
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China's top diplomat Wang to attend ASEAN-related meeting in Manila
BEIJING - China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, will attend a meeting with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations later this week in Manila, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday.
After attending China-ASEAN talks Wednesday in the Philippine capital, Wang will make a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan to attend a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministers, the ministry's spokesman Lin Jian said.
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Honda, Guangzhou Automobile to extend term of joint venture through 2038
TOKYO - Honda Motor Co. said Monday it has agreed with Chinese state-owned automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. to extend their joint venture business through 2038 from the previous deadline of 2028 amid intensifying competition in China's auto market, the world's largest.
"By fully leveraging the respective technologies and resources of Honda and GAC Group, and continuing to offer products that meet the diverse needs of customers, Honda will further strengthen its automobile business in China," the Japanese automaker said as it announced the signing of the agreement.
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2 die in highway collision in western Japan, wrong-way driving suspected
NARA, Japan - Two people died after a car and a minivan collided head-on on an expressway in the western Japan prefecture of Nara early Monday, police said.
The police suspect one of the vehicles was being driven in the wrong direction before the accident at around 1:10 a.m. in a three-lane section of the Nishi-Meihan Expressway near the Kashiba service station.
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Curator in Hokkaido succeeds in creating 3D whale skeleton from photos
OSAKA - A museum curator in Hokkaido has succeeded in reconstructing a complete whale skeleton as a three-dimensional image by integrating photographs taken during dissection, hoping the technique will reveal the correct positioning of the bones that has long been difficult to determine.
Tatsuya Shinmura of the Ashoro Museum of Paleontology published an article in the journal Marine Mammal Science in June describing his study using 3D photographic documentation to reconstruct the skeletal configuration of a beaked whale. The female whale was found stranded in Shinhidaka, also on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island, in December.
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Football: Spain beat holders Argentina in extra time to lift 2nd World Cup
NEW YORK - Spain lifted the World Cup for the second time Sunday after beating 10-man defending champions Argentina 1-0 in extra time.
Substitute Ferran Torres scored the 106th-minute winner for a dominant Spain at New York/New Jersey Stadium, where Argentina managed two shots, neither on target, and had Enzo Fernandez sent off for a second yellow deep in the second half.
