Chief Cabinet

Four Japanese ministers tendered their resignations on Thursday as unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reels from a major corruption scandal in the ruling party.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to fire several top ministers who are reportedly under investigation for alleged fraud, local media said yesterday, in what would be the second reshuffle in three months.

Abe (67) was left unconscious after he was shot by an unidentified assailant, who was taken into custody by police at the scene, Kyodo reported.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said he did not know Abe's condition after the attack, and Kyodo news agency and NHK reported that Abe, 67, was unconscious and in cardiac arrest when he was taken to hospital.

Japan will send a warship and patrol planes to protect Japanese ships in the Middle East as the situation in the region, from which it sources nearly 90% of its crude oil imports, remains volatile, Japan's top government spokesman said on Dec. 27.

North Korea detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday, Japan and South Korea said, hours after Pyongyang said it had developed an advanced hydrogen bomb that possesses "great destructive power".

A North Korean missile fired over Japan Tuesday was denounced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a "most serious and grave" threat, reported CNN.

The death toll from torrential rains and flooding that swept through Japan's south has reached 25, the government said on July 11, as rescue teams battled through thick mud to rescue more than 100 still stranded.

At least two people have been killed and 18 others are missing in huge floods that are surging through southern Japan, with authorities warning hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

Unprecedented torrential rain has caused rivers to burst their banks, sweeping away roads and houses, and destroying schools.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a symbolic visit to Pearl Harbor with U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 27, commemorating the victims of Japan's World War Two attack and promising that his country would never wage war again. 

At least two people died and 19 houses collapsed after an earthquake struck southern Japan late Thursday, authorities said. An unknown number of people were still trapped under collapsed buildings Thursday night, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.