無事今日受講できた。マイケル先生の方が私より日本のニュース通であることに時々ビックリする。^^
1) Actor Yuta Takahata, 22, also famous for being the son of popular actress Atsuko Takahata, has been arrested for allegedly raping and assaulting a woman in her 40s in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture.
According to police, the incident occurred at around 2 a.m. on Tuesday at a business hotel, where Takahata was staying for the filming of his latest movie “Ao no Kaeri michi.”
Police said Takahata assaulted the victim, an employee at the hotel, after returning from a night out drinking with colleagues.
2) A man playing the smartphone game Pokemon Go while driving hit 2 people in western Japan, leaving one dead and the other seriously injured.
The accident took place in Tokushima City on Tuesday evening. The 39-year-old man driving a compact car hit 2 women crossing a street.
The 72-year-old woman died. The 60-year-old woman was seriously injured.
The police arrested the driver on the spot.
The police say the man told them that he was playing Pokemon Go
3) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told African leaders on Saturday that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent.
Resource-poor Japan has long been interested in tapping Africa’s vast natural resources, even more so since dependence on oil and natural gas imports jumped after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster shut almost all of Japan’s nuclear reactors.
4) Russia has invited Japan to join a humanitarian mission in civil war-hit Aleppo in northern Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.
Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov invited Japanese participation during a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Russia Toyohisa Kozuki on Thursday, the ministry said.
In the meeting, Antonov showed readiness to deepen military cooperation between Japan and Russia through joint exercises.
5) Three years of so-called Abenomics, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s bold stimulus program, has failed to dislodge a deflationary mindset among businesses and consumers.
As the world’s third-largest economy falters again – with a stronger yen gnawing at overseas profits and domestic consumption sapping companies’ confidence to invest or sufficiently raise wages – firms that increased their prices in the hope of a sustained recovery are rethinking their strategy.
Many consumers, with little extra to go around, are opting for cheaper products – welcome news for the discount retailers who flourished during two decades of economic stagnation.
6) While swimming at the wave-generating “Cobalt Beach,” one of the most popular pools at the Tokyo Summerland complex in Akiruno City on August 21, nine women between the ages of 18 to 24 were slashed on their buttocks or torsos by a person or persons unknown. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police have been poring over security camera recordings, but have yet to collar a suspect.
As a result, Yukan Fuji (Aug 26) reports that other swimming pools in the greater Tokyo area are taking extra security precautions over the upcoming weekend.
7) Burkinis banned on dozens of beaches, no veils in schools, no niqabs in the neighbourhood: in secular France, the law imposes restrictions on anything connected religious affiliation.
In 2010, France became the first country in Europe to ban the full-veil with a law banning “the covering of the face in public spaces” which was adopted in October 2010 and applied in April a year later.
8) Officials in several states are scrambling to deal with a series of heroin overdose outbreaks affecting dozens of people and involving at least six deaths.
The spikes in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia over the past few days have seen rescue workers rushing from scene to scene to provide overdose antidote drugs.
While it’s unclear if one dealer or batch is responsible for the multistate outbreak, the spikes reflect the potency of heroin flooding the Midwest.
In Cincinnati, police on Friday asked for the public’s help in identifying the source of the heroin behind an estimated 78 overdoses in two days.