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PGA golf tournament restarts in Japan

Oct 22 (NHK) - A men's PGA golf tournament restarts in Japan, after a year's absence, featuring some of the world's best players, such as Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele of the United States and this year's Masters winner Matsuyama Hideki.

ZOZO Championship 2021 started on Thursday in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, for a four-day tournament.

The Championship was inaugurated in 2019 as the first PGA tournament ever to be held in Japan. Last year, it had to be held in the United States because of travel restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan's Matsuyama has got off to a good start, finishing Day One in second place, at six under par.

Iwata Hiroshi, who has qualified from a Japanese tour, came on top, at seven under par.

After Day One, the Olympic gold medalist Schauffele was in 29th place. Collin Morikawa, a 24-year-old American rising star, was in 42nd place.

The tournament is allowing a maximum of 5,000 people each day on the gallery.

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JR East has launched a preview version of its new online Shinkansen booking platform, JRE GO, promising reservations in as little as one minute and easier handling of sudden schedule changes.

A 37-year-old father arrested over the alleged abandonment of his son's body in a forest in Kyoto Prefecture may have contacted associates to say the child had gone missing before the boy's school informed the family, investigators said.

A bear that had remained in a residential area in central Sendai since early Sunday morning was euthanized last night in an emergency cull. No injuries were reported.

Police investigating the death of an 11-year-old boy whose body was found in a forest in Kyoto Prefecture believe his father moved the remains between several locations over a number of days in an apparent attempt to conceal the crime.

A large and powerful Typhoon No. 4, internationally named Sinlaku, was located near the Mariana Islands and moving north-northeast as of the latest update. The storm is expected to gradually shift its course eastward and pass southeast of the Ogasawara Islands around April 18, before making its closest approach around April 19.

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