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491 storiesJapan farm minister retracts budget-cut remarks, apologises, denies resignation
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yana retracted and apologised on Oct 5 for remarks that he had “greatly cut” road budgets of municipalities whose mayors did not support him in the February lower house election. He denied lobbyi…
Japan transport ministry finds no pressure from farm minister over road budget
Japan's transport ministry said on 6 October that it found no lobbying or pressure from Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yanagi Kazuo over road budget allocations, after he was reported to have said he had “substantially cut” th…
Ex-Lower House member Inatomi to run in Fukuoka mayoral election as independent
Former Lower House member Shuji Inatomi, 56, has decided to run in the Fukuoka mayoral election as an independent and will formally announce at a press conference soon. The race is set for Nov. 1 notification and Nov. 15 voting, with incumb…
Tokushima assembly LDP faction moves to censure Governor Gotōda over remarks
The Liberal Democratic Party faction in the Tokushima prefectural assembly, the chamber’s largest, has moved to submit a censure motion against Governor Naozumi Gotōda, saying his remarks and conduct are a problem, and plans to put it to th…
NASA delays Crew Dragon undocking from ISS to no earlier than 7 October
NASA and SpaceX have postponed the undocking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft of the Crew-12 mission from the International Space Station, TASS, iXBT and Interfax reported. The departure was originally expected on 5 October and is now set for …
MrMax says breach may have leaked data of up to 1,735,154 members
MrMax Holdings said on October 6 that unauthorized access to servers for its MrMax app and online store may have exposed personal information of up to 1,735,154 members. The company said member IDs, names, email addresses and telephone numb…
Daiwa Securities: vendor breach may have exposed data of 110,000 customers
Daiwa Securities said on Oct 5 that a server at outsourcing vendor Scalar Communications was subject to unauthorized access and that about 220,000 records may have leaked, including names, email addresses and securities account numbers for …
Acting chiefs of new crime agency, prosecution and police attend first cabinet meeting
Acting heads of South Korea’s new Serious Crime Investigation Agency, the Public Prosecution Office and the National Police Agency attended the first cabinet meeting held since the first two agencies launched, on Oct. 6 at Cheong Wa Dae, wi…
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Three Optogenetics Pioneers
Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said on Oct 5 local time that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Wü…
Yokohama mayoral election announced with seven candidates; vote set for Oct 18
Yokohama's mayoral election was announced on Oct 4, and seven candidates filed, including former mayor Takeharu Yamanaka, 54, who resigned after harassment of city staff was found. Outlets said the main issue is whether voters endorse the c…
Korea financial regulator orders full security review after bank data leaks
Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won chaired an emergency meeting of the entire financial sector in Seoul on Oct. 4 after customer data leaks spread from major banks to non-bank lenders, saying the possibility of AI-enabled ha…
Nobel physics prize goes to IceCube neutrino researcher Francis Halzen
Sweden's Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on 6 October that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery…
Nuri rocket erected on pad; Oct. 7 launch to carry 15 satellites, most yet
South Korea's Nuri rocket was moved to the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung on Oct. 6 and erected upright, with the space agency and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute saying the work was completed at 10:35 a.m. The launch…
Korea police open formal probe into AI-linked hacking of financial firms
South Korean police have converted their investigation into a series of AI-linked hacking attacks on financial institutions into a formal probe, assigning a 28-member, four-team dedicated unit. Data leaks have been confirmed at seven financ…
Trump suggests Iran could ‘take out’ LA and San Diego; California officials condemn
President Donald Trump said at a rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, calling the war with Iran “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.” California Govern…
Two large Seoul churches show signs of cyberattack; member data feared leaked
An analysis by cyber threat intelligence company Oasis Security found evidence that two large South Korean churches were hit by cyberattacks, with member records, donation and accounting data and internal documents found on an overseas atta…
Park Jin-young says he did not know of 2 mln won monthly committee payment
Park Jin-young, co-chair of the presidential Public Culture Exchange Committee and executive producer at JYP Entertainment, said he did not know he was receiving about 2 million won a month in duty expenses for the post, which had been desc…
South Korea chief justice refuses oath at audit, denies martial law role
Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae attended the Supreme Court’s parliamentary audit at the National Assembly on Oct. 6, delivered a greeting and refused to take the witness oath, saying demands for testimony about his recommendation of…
Police question lawmaker Kim Jae-seop on audit opening day over Cancún trip claims
Seoul police questioned Rep. Kim Jae-seop of the People Power Party as a suspect from 10 a.m. on Oct. 6, the first day of the National Assembly audit, over allegations about former Seoul mayoral candidate Chung Won-oh’s 2023 trip to Cancún,…
Japan's land minister to publish review of farm minister's road budget remark
Japan's land minister, Ihei Tatsunori, said on 6 October that the transport ministry will publish within the day the results of its review into a remark by agriculture minister Yanao Kazuo that he had cut road budgets, and repeated that no …