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Jockey Christophe Lemaire and Urban Chic are pictured after winning the Kikka-sho Grade 1 horse race at Kyoto Racecourse in the western Japan city of Kyoto on Oct. 20, 2024. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
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Support for opposition parties grows ahead of upcoming election: poll
TOKYO – Support for the main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and other parties out of power is growing steadily against that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ahead of the general election on Oct. 27, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
Although 22.6 percent of respondents said they plan to vote for the LDP in the proportional representation segment of the election, 14.1 percent supported the CDPJ, narrowing the gap between it and the LDP to 8.5 percentage points from 14.0 points in the last survey, results of a nationwide telephone poll conducted Saturday to Sunday showed.
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Baseball: Ohtani, Dodgers advance to World Series against Yankees
LOS ANGELES – Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers punched their ticket to Major League Baseball’s World Series with an emphatic 10-5 win against the New York Mets on Sunday.
The Dodgers clinched the National League Championship Series four games to two and will contest their first World Series since 2020 against the American League champion New York Yankees from Friday.
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Japan local police chief apologizes to man acquitted in 1966 murders
SHIZUOKA, Japan – A local police chief in Japan on Monday apologized in person to an 88-year-old man who spent nearly half a century on death row before being acquitted in a retrial over a 1966 quadruple murder case.
“I am sorry for the unspeakable burden and trouble we have caused you over the long 58 years from the time of your arrest to your acquittal being finalized,” Takayoshi Tsuda, chief of the Shizuoka Prefectural Police, said during a visit to Iwao Hakamata’s home in Hamamatsu.
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U.S. F-35B makes 1st landing on Japan SDF carrier Kaga off San Diego
TOKYO – U.S. military’s F-35B stealth fighter jet has made the first landing on the Japanese destroyer Kaga in waters off San Diego, the Maritime Self-Defense Force said Monday.
The vertical test landing, executed at around 3 p.m. Sunday local time, is part of efforts to turn the Kaga, an Izumo-class destroyer, into a full-fledged aircraft carrier. The exercise is slated to continue through Nov. 18, the MSDF said.
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Baseball: BayStars beat Giants, advance to Japan Series
TOKYO – Captain Shugo Maki hit a tiebreaking single in the top of the ninth inning as the DeNA BayStars edged the Yomiuri Giants 3-2 on Monday to clinch a Japan Series berth for the first time since 2017.
The BayStars, who finished third in the regular season, won the Central League Climax Series final stage four games to three against the CL champion Giants at Tokyo Dome.
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Taiwan rejects South Africa’s request to move office from capital
TAIPEI – Taiwan’s foreign minister said Monday the self-ruled island had rejected South Africa’s request that it must relocate its liaison office out of its administrative capital Pretoria.
According to Taiwan media reports, South Africa told Taipei earlier this month the Taiwan office must move before the end of October, or it would be forced to close, allegedly due to pressure from China.
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Boxing: “Monster” Inoue interested in fighting Nakatani
TOKYO – Japanese boxer Naoya “Monster” Inoue, the undisputed super bantamweight world champion, expressed interest Monday in fighting WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani in the future.
“A young man wants to be at the top of the pound-for-pound rankings, so I have to wait for his move up in weight,” Inoue said in Tokyo, referring to the U.S.-trained Nakatani.
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FOCUS: Opposition’s Ex-PM Noda may give ruling LDP good fight in election
TOKYO – Expectations are growing that Yoshihiko Noda, the new leader of the main opposition party, could mount a strong challenge in the Oct. 27 general election, as he seeks to win over supporters of the conservative-leaning ruling bloc.
Noda, who served as prime minister for around a year until December 2012 when the predecessor of his Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan was in power, has pledged to shift the left-leaning CDPJ toward the center to improve its chances against the Liberal Democratic Party.
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