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537 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…
Nikkei average recovers 70,000 level for first time in about three months
Tokyo's Nikkei average rose above 70,000 during trading on 5 October, the first time in about three months, as buying concentrated on semiconductor and AI-related shares. Nikkei reported the morning close at 70,037.61, up 1,728.15 points or…
Korean court suspends market-cap delisting decisions; exchange halts two more exits
Seoul Southern District Court Civil Division 51 granted injunctions on Oct 2 suspending the Korea Exchange's delisting decisions against KOSPI-listed Joo Yeon Tech and KOSDAQ-listed KM Pharma until a main ruling. The court questioned the 45…
Ruling party presses chief justice to testify at audit; opposition protests
South Korea's Legislation and Judiciary Committee held its Supreme Court audit on Oct. 6, where ruling and opposition lawmakers clashed over whether Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae should take the witness stand. Cho submitted an opinion letter on…
Hong Kong stocks open marginally lower; Hang Seng slips 0.04%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index opened 0.04% lower on 5 October 2026, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 0.47%. Yicai and Jiemian both reported that Meituan dropped more than 1% at the open, and 36Kr said home-appliance and software-services s…
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…
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 …
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 …
Nasdaq closes at record high as AI stocks rally despite rising Treasury yields
US stocks rose on October 5 local time, with the Nasdaq Composite closing at a record high as technology and AI-related shares gained despite rising Treasury yields. Yonhap reported the Dow rose 0.18% to 51,267.90 and the S&P 500 gained 0.6…
Han Dong-hoon presses Roh Moo-hyun claims for fifth day as ruling party hits back
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has for a fifth consecutive day pressed claims that former President Roh Moo-hyun or his family received two Piaget watches worth 300 million won and billions of won from former Taekwang Industrial chairma…
Yen weakens in Tokyo to 158-yen range as US long-term yields rise
The yen traded weaker against the dollar in Tokyo on Oct. 5, quoted at 158.09–11 around 1 p.m., 52 sen weaker than the previous week's close, Sankei Shimbun reported. Sankei attributed the dollar buying to higher US long-term yields and cit…
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…
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,…
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…