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Tag: Japan

  • 2020 Olympics: Tokyo marks one year to go ….. again

    2020 Olympics: Tokyo marks one year to go ….. again

    Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee, who is battling back from leukaemia, provided a glimmer of hope for embattled Tokyo Olympics organisers during a sombre yet poignant ceremony on Thursday.

    The ceremony was used to mark one year to go until the rearranged 2020 Olympic Games.

    The Olympics were due to begin on Friday with an extravagant opening ceremony in the National Stadium.

    But the Games have instead been delayed until July 23, 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

    A subdued 15-minute ceremony took place in an empty and dark National Stadium, where footage was shown to highlight next year’s Games.

    Ikee, who won six titles at the 2018 Asian Games and was considered a strong medal contender for the Olympics before her illness, stood under a spotlight dressed in all white.

    It can be said she represented a figure of hope for Tokyo.

    “Imagine the world a year from now,” she said while holding the Olympic flame in a lantern.

    “How wonderful it will be to see the curtain raising on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are currently living in a world of ups and downs.

    “I sincerely hope that the peace and calm of daily life returns as soon as possible.”

    Various venues that will host Olympics events next year, including the newly-built Ariake Arena, were lit up in the Olympic colours to mark the occasion.

    Last year, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach presided over a glitzy ceremony to mark the occasion in the Japanese capital.

    He declared Tokyo then as the best prepared host city he had ever seen.

    This time around the atmosphere was much more subdued and Thursday’s small ceremony is a sign of things to come in the lead-up to the Games next year.

    The head of IOC’s Coordination Commission, John Coates, has said rearranging the Games meant focusing on the “must-haves” in a simplified event.

    In response, Tokyo 2020 Chief Executive Toshiro Muto said over 200 simplification measures were under consideration.

    Thursday’s landmark comes as the Japanese capital reported 366 new coronavirus cases, a new daily record, fuelling fears of a second round of infections.

  • Buhari praises Nigerian who returned missing wallet in Japan

    Buhari praises Nigerian who returned missing wallet in Japan

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday applauded a Nigerian doctorate student in the University of Tsukuba, Japan, Mr Ikenna Nweke, who returned a missing wallet with huge sums of money to the police, and also turned down offer of a percentage by the authorities.

     

    The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, revealed this in a statement titled “Thank you for projecting values of honesty and decorum, President Buhari tells Ikenna Nweke who made the country proud in Japan.”

     

    Adesina said the President saluted Nweke for projecting the values of honesty, integrity and contentment that should be the hallmark of a people.

     

    He quoted Buhari as further noting that good virtues and decency are the hallmark of every culture in Nigeria, while crimes and criminalities are exceptions.

     

    The statement read, “The President believes Nweke’s behaviour, coming at a period that the country needs a positive spotlight and close-up on its real values, clearly signposts what should hold the nation together, inspired by solid foundations laid by most families, religious bodies and communities for success in life.

     

     

     

    “President Buhari wishes Nweke all the best in his studies and work as a teaching assistant in same university, urging all Nigerians, home and abroad, to keep celebrating the age-old, irreplaceable attributes of honesty and decorum, and shun the microwaved, get-rich-quick tendencies that bring individual and collective shame.”

     

  • Japan pulls out of hosting bid for Women’s World Cup in 2023

    Japan pulls out of hosting bid for Women’s World Cup in 2023

    Japan on Monday withdrew its bid to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup just three days before FIFA’s decision on the venue.

    FIFA had confirmed that Japanese Football Federation had pulled out of the running due to the Tokyo 2020 Games being delayed a year to commence on 2021 and the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

    The FIFA Executive Committee would therefore, choose on Thursday between a combined Australia/New Zealand bid, widely seen as favourite, and Colombia for the newly expanded 32-nation event.

    FIFA, while previously evaluating the bids, said Australia/New Zealand offered good options in sporting and general infrastructure, and would also appear to present the most favourable commercial proposition.”

    Colombia’s bid met minimum requirements but FIFA expressed doubt as to whether the necessary support and investment from local stakeholders would be forthcoming.

    The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), President Shaikh Salman Al-Khalifa announced his region’s backing for Australia/New Zealand after Japan’s withdrawal.

    “On behalf of the AFC, and AFC family, I will be supporting the Australia/New Zealand bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.

    “I’m sure that I will be supported by all the AFC’s FIFA council members.

    “Not only is this a historic first cross-Confederation bid, with our close friends and neighbours from Oceania.

    “But most importantly, this is the most technically impressive of the bids that the Council must choose from on June 25 and we must be guided by the experts,” he said.

    Brazil also withdrew a bid just before the deadline for final submissions.

    The U.S. won the 2019 edition, out of the 24 teams, held in France.

  • Formula One cancels Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan races

    Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan joined the list of Formula One (F1) grands prix cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday.

    But F1 organisers said they were still aiming for a reduced season of 15 to 18 races.

    The sport had already cancelled four races, including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix in May.

    A revised and shortened provisional European schedule is now set to start in Austria without spectators on July 5.

    “As a result of the ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19, we and our promoters in Azerbaijan, Singapore and Japan have taken the decision to cancel their races for the 2020 season,” Formula One said in a statement.

    The announcement, widely expected, blew a hole in the long-haul part of the season, with questions about the schedule after Italy’s Monza on Sept. 6.

    Races in Canada, Mexico, Texas and Brazil are uncertain due to the pandemic while Vietnam, also a street circuit, and China remain possibilities and Russia could host two races at Sochi.

    The championship is due to end in Abu Dhabi in December after visiting Bahrain, which could host two races around different layouts.

    Singapore and Azerbaijan GP organisers said the long lead times needed to build street circuits had made hosting impossible.

    “While there are still more than three months to go before the scheduled race on Sept. 20 …, we will be unable to proceed with the race due to the prohibitions imposed on access and construction of the event venue,” a Singapore GP statement said.

    “Apart from the closure of the event venue, other challenges include ongoing mass gathering and worldwide travel restrictions,” it added of the night race.

    Singapore has nearly 39,000 COVID-19 cases, one of the highest tallies in Asia due to mass outbreaks in cramped migrant worker dormitories in the city-state.

    The race in Baku had already been postponed from June and organisers said they had “explored every possibility” but run out of time.

    Travel restrictions in Japan led to the cancellation of the race at Suzuka on Oct. 11.

    The sport indicated some circuits not on the current calendar could now feature instead.

    “We have made significant progress with existing and new promoters on the revised calendar and have been particularly encouraged by the interest that has been shown by new venues,” the F1 statement said.

    A second race in Italy has been mooted for Mugello or Imola, once home of the San Marino Grand Prix, while Germany’s Hockenheim and Portugal’s Algarve circuit are other possibilities.

    Formula One said it expected to publish a final calendar before travelling to Austria.

  • Naomi Osaka using lockdown to conquer inner demons

    Naomi Osaka using lockdown to conquer inner demons

    Two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka is using the novel coronavirus shutdown as one of self-reflection to try and overcome her crippling shyness.

    The tennis season was suspended in early March, due to COVID-19 outbreak and the hiatus will continue until at least mid-July with many countries in lockdown to contain the virus.

    Japan’s Osaka, who trains in the U.S., the country worst affected by the flu-like virus with over 1.4 million infections and more than 83,000 deaths, is taking advantage of the extended break to do some soul searching.

    “I think people know me as being really shy… I want to take the quarantine time to just think about everything and for me, I have a lot of regrets before I go to sleep,” Osaka told CNN Sport.

    Petra Kvitova said last year Osaka would have to get used to having a target on her back after the Japanese said she struggled to deal with increased scrutiny in the wake of her rise to the top of the world rankings.

    “Most of the regrets are because I don’t speak out about what I’m thinking. I feel like if I asserted myself, I would have gotten the opportunity to see what would have happened,” Osaka said.

    Osaka, who became the first Japanese player to attain the world number one ranking following her 2019 Australian Open victory, believes tennis is not a top priority at the moment.

    “I want to take this time to learn something new because I’m pretty sure I won’t have this much free time ever again. It’s not like I’ll forget how to play tennis,” the world number 10 added.

    With no access to gyms and tennis courts, the 22-year-old found a training partner in former world number one Venus Williams, with the two sharing a workout session on social media.

    “I don’t want to train five hours a day right now because I think that’s how you get burned out and you never know when tournaments will start again,” Osaka said.

    “I did an Instagram live with Venus just now. It was kind of more intense than I thought it was going to be.

    “For some reason I thought we were going to be stretching, but yeah, we were doing a bit of movement drills and then lunges and stuff.”

  • Japan records 53 new COVID-19 cases, 7,744 in total

    Japan records 53 new COVID-19 cases, 7,744 in total

    Japan’s Health Ministry and local governments said on Tuesday that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose by 53 to 7,744.

    The latest figure is coming one week after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency over the crisis for Tokyo and six other prefectures.

    The death toll from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at a total of 158, including those from a cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo.

    Last Tuesday, Japan declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus in a bid to better empower prefectures to take measures to curb its spread.

    The prefectures under the declaration are Tokyo, Osaka, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures.

    But other prefectures’ governors have asked to be added to the list.

    Other prefectures, meanwhile, have issued their own state of emergency independent of the central government, asking their residents to take various measures in a bid to prevent the virus’ spread.

    In Tokyo, the epicentre of Japan’s outbreak, Japanese “izakaya” pubs have been requested to close their doors at 8.00 p.m. (local time) and restaurants asked to stop serving alcohol by 7.00 p.m. to dissuade people from gathering in groups in confined spaces.

    Places in the capital where people typically gather in large groups have been asked to suspend their business activities.

    These include live music venues, night clubs, internet cafes, pachinko parlours, sports clubs, game centres and cinemas.

    Essential services like medical institutions, supermarkets, convenience stores, hotels, public transport providers and financial services among others are operating as usual, with the proviso that they take measures to curb the spread of the virus.

    While Tokyo has confirmed well over one-third of all COVID-19 cases across the nation with a total of 2,158 cases, Osaka Prefecture, as of Tuesday, had recorded 835 cases, followed by Kanagawa Prefecture with 561.

    Chiba Prefecture has 486 COVID-19 cases, while Saitama Prefecture has recorded 430 cases of the virus, the latest figures showed.

    Hyogo Prefecture, meanwhile, has 397 cases and Fukuoka Prefecture has recorded 374 cases.

    The Health Ministry also said there are currently a total of 141 patients considered severely ill and are on ventilators to receive respiratory assistance or have been admitted to intensive care units for medical treatment.

    The ministry added that in total, 1,443 people have been discharged from hospitals after their symptoms improved, according to the latest figures.

  • Japan suffers worst economic slump in five years

    Japan suffers worst economic slump in five years

    Japan has suffered its worst quarterly GDP contraction in more than five years, with a tax hike and a deadly typhoon taking a toll on the world’s third-largest economy.

    The nation’s gross domestic product in the three months to December shrank 1.6 percent from the previous quarter, even before the novel coronavirus outbreak in China hit Japan, according to official data published on Monday.

    The quarter was marked by a rise in consumption tax from eight percent to 10 percent, as well as Typhoon Hagibis, which killed more than 100 people and caused widespread flooding.

    Economists were braced for a contraction of around one percent but had not expected such a poor figure, with Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute, saying it was “quite an undershooting”.

    “There was a hit from natural disasters but consumer sentiment was particularly weak after the tax hike despite government measures to ease the impact,” he told AFP.

    Monday’s data snapped four quarters of growth and was the biggest contraction since the second quarter of 2014 when the economy shrank 1.9 percent.

    That quarter followed a hike in the sales tax from five percent to eight percent and the latest slump also appears to have been affected by a rise in consumption tax to 10 percent that came into effect on October 1.

    Private consumption was hard hit, dropping by 2.9 percent — the first fall in five quarters.

    Expenditure on factories and equipment decreased 3.7 percent despite investment getting a boost from cashless-payment systems that allow consumers to alleviate the consumption tax hike.

  • 60 more people confirmed with coronavirus on cruise ship in Japan

    60 more people confirmed with coronavirus on cruise ship in Japan

    Testing aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan has revealed 60 more confirmed cases of coronavirus, media said on Monday.

    The media also added that quarantined passengers took to social media to warn of depression setting in over their confinement.

    “Monday’s figure takes to 130 the number of infections on the ship docked in Yokohama,’’ domestic broadcasters TBS and NHK said, citing Japanese health ministry sources.

    The health ministry’s communication office had no information on the report when contacted by Reuters.

    The Diamond Princess was placed in quarantine for two weeks upon arriving in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, on Feb. 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong was diagnosed with the virus.

    About 3,700 people are aboard the ship, which usually has a crew of 1,100 and a passenger capacity of 2,670.

    Passengers have been allowed on decks in shifts to get fresh air and encouraged to regularly take their temperature.

    “Lots of the passengers now are getting a bit of cabin fever, depression is starting to set in,’’ British passenger David Able said in a video posted on Facebook.

    Another said he hoped assurances about the effectiveness of quarantine and ventilation on board would prove true.

    “I will get nervous if we pass 200,” said the 43-year-old Hong Kong resident quarantined on the boat with his wife, child and several others of his family.

    “Hoping best for those taken to hospital. No fewer than two reports back to us on Facebook that they are symptom free,” said the man, who declined to be identified.

    A passenger with the Twitter handle daxa_tw posted an audio clip of the captain announcing the discovery of 66 new cases.

    Japan’s health ministry is separating infection counts on the ship and evacuee flights from China from Japan’s official tally.

    Domestic cases stand at 21.

    The disease has killed 908 people, chiefly in mainland China, and infected over 40,000.

  • Coronavirus: Japan to repatriate 200 citizens from China’s troubled city

    Coronavirus: Japan to repatriate 200 citizens from China’s troubled city

    Japan will send a chartered flight to the central Chinese city of Wuhan later in the day to repatriate about 200 of its citizens, the government says.

    The government will also send doctors, nurses and quarantine officers so that those Japanese citizens can undergo checkups on a plane, according to the health ministry.

    The aircraft is scheduled to come back to Japan on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi says.

    Since a total of 650 Japanese in Wuhan wish to return, the government will send more flights to take them home, Motegi says.

    China and countries around the world are scrambling to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has killed at least 106 people and infected more than 4,500.

    Germany has reported its first case of the virus, as the U.S., and Canada upgraded travel warnings to advise their citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to China.

    More than 56 million people in almost 20 Chinese cities – including Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province and the epicentre of the virus – have been prevented from travelling in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus during the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, traditionally China’s busiest travel season.

    The director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is currently in China.

    The agency has acknowledged that the respiratory illness is an emergency in China but said last week that it was too early to declare the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

    It has described the global risk from the virus as high.

  • How Beyonce changed my life – Naomi Osaka

    How Beyonce changed my life – Naomi Osaka

    Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka has revealed her excitement at meeting her idol Beyonce, saying the US singer “smelled expensive” and gave her a morale-boosting pep talk at a low point last year.

    The two-time Grand Slam champion, who will be defending her Australian Open title this month, bumped into Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z while still “depressed” after losing in the fourth round at the US Open.

    “I met Beyonce and Jay-Z during the off-season. She just smelled expensive and beautiful and she was soft and she hugged me,” Osaka told the WTA website. “I was like, this is what heaven is.”

    The meeting came in the aftermath of Osaka’s defeat at Flushing Meadow to Belinda Bencic, which ended her first Grand Slam title defence.

    “She was talking to me and she said she was proud of me. I thought, wow, that actually was a really important moment,” said the 22-year-old, who stunned Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final.

    “I felt really depressed after I lost my match, but I’m thinking about the impact that tennis players — I don’t think we know, I don’t think we’re aware of all the good that we can do.

    “That was kind of an eye-opening thing. Even though it was one of my worst points, to lose — I wanted to be a defending champion and I lost early — there’s still something really good that came out of that.

    “There are some things that I have to remember are out of my control, especially past events. So I just have to put myself in a position to not regret anything.”

    Osaka hired a new coach in the off-season, Wim Fissette, having split with Jermaine Jenkins following the US Open, and said she was raring to go after her 2019 season was abruptly cut short by injury at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen.