Japan Moves to Tighten Citizenship Rules

Prime Minister Takaichi said the government will continue using subsidies to keep the nationwide average gasoline price at around 170 yen per liter, drawing on reserve funds set aside to respond to developments in the Middle East.

Japan's GX Promotion Organization has invested about 3 billion yen in two startups developing nuclear fusion and plastic recycling technologies, with combined public and private investment expected to reach around 20 billion yen as the government seeks to accelerate the commercialization of advanced decarbonization technologies.

Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has begun considering reductions in postal services, including fewer mailboxes and less frequent deliveries, as the country's postal business continues to suffer losses following a prolonged decline in letters and New Year's cards.

Russia has conducted missile exercises around the Northern Territories, including what appears to have been a launch from one of the disputed islands, prompting Japan's foreign minister to call Russia's growing military presence there unacceptable.

Japan's government is moving toward abolishing the Cool Japan Fund, a public-private investment vehicle created to support the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture and other industries, after its cumulative losses reached 54 billion yen.

Japan strongly protested and condemned North Korea after it launched a ballistic missile at around 5:04 p.m. on August 20, with the projectile believed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.

Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito said on August 19 that the prefecture's shift to a status requiring central government permission to issue bonds would not immediately halt public projects, while stressing that years of high public investment, funding shortfalls and what he described as improper land-acquisition bond practices under former Governor Toshizo Ido had contributed to the deterioration of the prefecture's finances.

A Takenaka Corp. construction manager who oversaw work on the Grand Ring and other facilities at the Osaka-Kansai Expo was arrested on August 19 on suspicion of causing more than 13 million yen in losses to the major contractor through inflated construction bills, with police investigating allegations that money from the scheme was used for renovations to his home and a cafe operated by relatives.