Country becomes third in world to reach figure; alarming peak in French region of Brittany
India has become the third country to record more than 1m coronavirus infections, following the US and Brazil, as it reported 34,956 new cases in the past 24 hours, taking the national total to 1,003,832.
New peaks continue to appear around the world, including an alarming rise in the Brittany region of France.
Continue reading...Concerns about a turf war in Kobe prompts police to seek legislation to halt traditional handout
Police in Japan are planning to deprive children of their trick-or-treat goodies this Halloween – but only because the gifts come from members of the country’s biggest underworld organisation.
Yamaguchi-gumi gang members, based in the western port city of Kobe, have been distributing sweets to local children at Halloween most years since 2013.
Continue reading...Tensions over how to quell outbreak in Catalan capital as cases flare up around the world
Part of the northern Spanish region of Catalonia has gone back into lockdown, with Barcelona suggesting it might also follow suit with restrictions in some districts, as authorities sought to control a resurgence of coronavirus cases emerging just weeks after a nationwide lockdown was lifted.
As a judge overturned a previous court decision to approve the stay-at-home order for the Lleida area, west of Barcelona, friction was emerging over how to handle an increase in cases in a suburb of the Catalan capital.
Continue reading...Japan has avoided Covid-19 disaster and people here accept masks – making the debate in the UK even more bewildering
As a resident of a country where not wearing a mask is now akin to venturing out in one’s underwear, I’ve watched with growing exasperation the debate in the UK over whether wearing a face covering is a potentially effective defence against Covid-19.
Although the benefits of hand hygiene and social distancing – two habits promoted by the World Health Organization in the early days of the pandemic – are widely accepted, it will take time to establish which combinations of factors, both official and cultural, have spared some countries while leaving others battling high numbers of infections and deaths.
Continue reading...Near-4cm-long nematode roundworm is thought to have come from raw fish
An unpleasant sensation at the back of the throat can be a sign that a cold is on the way. But for one Tokyo woman, the cause of the pain was not a sniffle but a live worm that had lodged itself inside one of her tonsils.
Doctors at St Luke’s International hospital in the Japanese capital removed the long black worm with tweezers after the patient had complained of throat pain and irritation, according to a case study published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Continue reading...Japan reels from resurgence of virus while Australia restricts admissions to 4,000 a week
Tokyo hit another record daily high number of new cases, Australia is to halve the number of citizens it allows to return each week and Hong Kong’s schools have closed early for the summer as countries around the world struggled to contain fresh coronavirus outbreaks.
Amid growing signs of a resurgence of the virus in Japan, the capital reported 243 new infections on Friday, more than the previous day’s 224 and the first time that more than 200 cases have been confirmed for two consecutive days.
Continue reading...City authorities, which cannot legally force closures, offer incentives after Japan capital reports a record 224 new cases
Nightclubs and hostess bars in Tokyo are to be paid to close after the Japanese capital recorded 224 coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest daily tally since the pandemic began.
Authorities had previously refused to give nightlife businesses economic support during the pandemic, but have changed tack after 80% of Thursday’s infections were among people in their 20s and 30s. Many of them were identified after more than 3,000 tests were carried out in Tokyo entertainment districts, including Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.
Continue reading...Heavy rain that caused deadly floods in southern Japan has moved north-east, hammering large areas of the country’s main island, swelling rivers, triggering mudslides and destroying homes and roads. At least 58 people have died over several days of flooding
Continue reading...Torrential rain and floods in the southern island have left at least 50 people dead or missing. Rescue workers are still combing through the wreckage of houses hit by flooding and landslides in after extreme weather hit the region. The death toll on Kyushu is expected to climb further
Continue reading...At least 50 people have been killed after the river Kuma in Kyushu burst its banks, triggering floods and mudslides
Rescue workers were combing through the wreckage of houses hit by flooding and landslides in Japan after extreme weather left more than 50 people dead or missing on the southern island of Kyushu.
The Kyodo news agency said 40 people had died in the floods and at least 11 were missing. Among the dead were 14 residents of an elderly care home in Kuma village, Kumamoto, where the nearby Kuma river flooded. More torrential rain is forecast for coming days.
Continue reading...Record rainfall triggers landslides in western Kumamoto region, stranding hundreds
Deep floodwaters and the risk of further mudslides have hampered search and rescue operations after heavy rain in southern Japan, including at elderly home facilities where more than a dozen residents died and scores were left stranded.
Helicopters and boats rescued more people from their homes in the Kumamoto region. More than 40,000 troops, the coastguard and fire brigades took part in the operation.
Continue reading...Record heavy rain in western Japan has caused widespread flooding and landslides, forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for more than 76,000 residents. Television footage shows homes and vehicles in Kumamoto prefecture partly submerged, and several bridges have been washed away
Ageing population in the spotlight as of the more than 17,000 people with the illness who went missing last year, the whereabouts of 245 remains unknown
Hundreds of people with dementia who went missing in Japan last year are yet to be found, the National Police Agency has announced, highlighting the growing problems associated with the country’s rapidly ageing population.
A record 17,479 people with dementia went missing in 2019, with 245 still unaccounted for.
Continue reading...Absence of tourists during coronavirus pandemic has led Nara’s revered deer back to traditional diets and better health
While the absence of tourists during the coronavirus pandemic may have deprived Nara’s famous deer of their favourite snack, it has worked wonders for their digestive health.
Before the outbreak, millions of tourists descended on the western Japanese city – once the country’s capital – to view its shrines and temples, and feed the estimated 1,300 free-roaming deer in the its main park
Continue reading...South Korean survivor claims support group failed to spend donations on welfare
It began with a call by a South Korean former “comfort woman” to end protests outside Japan’s embassy in Seoul – a rare attempt at reconciliation that has quickly spiralled into the biggest crisis the campaign for justice for survivors of wartime sexual slavery has faced in its three-decade history.
Lee Yong-soo, a 92-year-old veteran campaigner, told reporters last month that she would no longer attend weekly rallies outside the embassy, claiming that they had only engendered hatred between young South Koreans and their Japanese counterparts.
Continue reading...From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean
World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.
Continue reading...Dozens of new infections reported in Kabukicho, a district of more than 4,000 bars, restaurants and commercial sex establishments
Health authorities in Tokyo are to ask employees of host clubs and similar establishments to be regularly tested for Covid-19 after evidence that the virus is spreading among people who work in the capital’s night-time economy.
The city reported 14 new infections on Sunday, six of which involved people working in clubs where employees pour drinks and talk to customers in close proximity.
Continue reading...Thirty-six people died in atrocity that is Japan’s deadliest blaze since 2001
Police in Japan have arrested the man suspected of carrying out an arson attack last year that killed 36 people, after officers waited 10 months for him to be treated for serious burns.
Shinji Aoba was arrested on murder and arson charges over the attack on the Kyoto Animation studio in western Japan, which sparked an outpouring of grief from anime fans around the world.
Continue reading...India extends Covid-19 lockdown but eases many restrictions; South Africa reports highest daily new cases; World Health Assembly to begin
Unemployment in the United States could peak at 25% as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the chair of the Federal Reserve, amid warnings the June quarter economic figures will be “very, very bad”. The bleak prediction came as Japan slid into its first recession in five years, with forecasts that worse was to come.
In a sober assessment of the economic impact of coronavirus in the US, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, estimated GDP contraction in the June quarter could be “easily be in the twenties or thirties”, as fallout from the global outbreak worsened.
Continue reading...French drugmaker criticised for giving US priority; Gordon Brown says Covid-19 solution is global
More than 140 world leaders and experts have called for future Covid-19 vaccines to be made available to everyone free of charge, amid growing tensions between drug companies and governments and a boycott of vaccine summits by the US.
Vaccines and treatments for the virus should not be patented, say the signatories to an open letter published in the run-up to next week’s meeting of the World Health Assembly, the policy-setting body of the UN’s World Health Organization. Instead, scientific breakthroughs must be shared across borders, they urge.
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