News Headlines - 18 June 2020
▽Former top Abe aide and wife arrested in vote-buying scandal | The Japan Times
Public prosecutors on Thursday arrested former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his lawmaker wife, Anri Kawai, on charges of vote-buying during her successful Upper House election bid last summer, further pushing the duo into legal trouble and presenting perhaps the biggest political challenge yet this year to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The couple was ordered to report to authorities early Thursday. They are accused of distributing as much as ￥25 million in total to roughly 100 prefectural and city assembly members in Hiroshima - Anri Kawai’s precinct - ahead of the House of Councilors election in July of last year. It is believed that her husband was essentially running her campaign.
▽Mitsubishi Motors employee's suicide recognized as work-related death | The Japan Times
Labor authorities have recognized the 2019 suicide of a Mitsubishi Motors Corp. employee as a work-related death resulting from overtime of over 139 hours per month, an attorney said Wednesday.
A labor standards inspection office in Tokyo determined on May 28 that the 47-year-old male employee's death was due to a mental health problem he developed as a result of the overwork, lawyer Hiroshi Kawahito said at a news conference.
▽Tokyo has 0.1% positive rate for coronavirus antibodies: gov't
Antibody tests for the novel coronavirus suggest a 0.1 percent infection rate in Tokyo, health minister Katsunobu Kato said Tuesday, as the government seeks to better grasp the scale of the pandemic's spread in Japan.
The health ministry earlier this month began testing for coronavirus antibodies in Tokyo as well as in Osaka and Miyagi prefectures. The positive rates for Osaka and Miyagi in the country's west and northeast were 0.17 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively.
▽Marcus Rashford: Premier League rivals celebrate footballer's food voucher win | Sky News
As the Premier League is set to return, old foes put aside their rivalries to show support for Marcus Rashford's successful food voucher campaign.
The 22-year-old Manchester United forward's open letter to MPs resulted in a government U-turn on Tuesday which will see the free school meals scheme extended into the summer holidays.
The 11-year-old skateboarder Sky Brown posted a video of her life-threatening fall on social media to show her fans: “All your heroes are going to fall.”
Brown, the youngest professional skateboarder in the world, suffered the horrific crash after accidentally jumping off the side of a half-pipe. She was airlifted to hospital, where she was unresponsive on arrival.
Brown suffered skull fractures and broke both her left wrist and hand, but is expected to make a full recovery. After several days in hospital, she posted a clip of the incident on Instagram.
