News Headlines - 16 July 2020

▽Japan's Go To Travel campaign to exclude Tokyo as coronavirus cases spike | The Japan Times

With coronavirus cases rising in Tokyo and Osaka, the government will exclude travel to and from Tokyo in its Go To Travel campaign slated to kick off next Wednesday, tourism minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office, Akaba, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, said the government will launch the campaign as planned under those conditions.

▽Tokyo reports record 286 new coronavirus cases - The Mainichi

Tokyo reported a single-day record of 286 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, a day after the capital raised its infection alert to the highest level, as Japan is struggling with a resurgence of the virus after lifting the state of emergency in May... Across the country, more than 500 new coronavirus cases were reported for the first time since April 18, bringing the total to around 23,500, excluding some 700 from the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was quarantined in Yokohama in February. Tokyo's total rose to 8,640.

▽Revision to ban yakuza from giving Halloween treats to children : The Asahi Shimbun

There will be no more Halloween trick-or-treating at the offices of Japan’s largest yakuza organization if Hyogo prefectural police get their way.
The department will submit a bill to the prefectural assembly in September to revise an ordinance to ban gangsters from giving money and goods to children under 18.
The revision is intended to crack down on the annual distribution of Halloween treats to children by the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate at the end of October.

▽Shogi prodigy Sota Fujii becomes youngest to win major title | The Japan Times

Japan's 17-year-old shogi sensation Sota Fujii on Thursday became the youngest player ever to win one of the board game's eight major titles after beating the holder in a best-of-five series... Fujii, who will turn 18 on Sunday, achieved the feat of taking a major title at 17 years and 11 months. The previous record was established by Nobuyuki Yashiki, 48, in 1990 at the age of 18 years and six months when he also won the Kisei title.

▽Over 600,000 in Hong Kong Vote in Pro-Democracy Primaries | Time

Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned up over the weekend to vote in an unofficial primary election held by the city’s pro-democracy camp as it gears up to field candidates for an upcoming legislative poll.
The primaries were held two weeks after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the semi-autonomous territory in a move widely seen as chipping away at the “one country, two systems” framework under which Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997.