News Headlines - 25 November 2020
▽Koike urges Tokyo shops to close early amid virus surge | The Japan Times
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Wednesday that restaurants and bars offering alcohol and karaoke parlors in the capital will be urged to close by 10 p.m. for three weeks beginning Saturday amid an ongoing nationwide surge of the novel coronavirus.
The request encompasses the capital’s central 23 wards and the Tama region in western Tokyo and runs until Dec. 17. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government allocated ￥20 billion yen in a supplementary budget proposed earlier this month to provide ￥400,000 in financial compensation to each business that complies with the voluntary request.
▽Abe team gave false responses about Moritomo on 139 occasions : The Asahi Shimbun
A study of Diet questioning about the Moritomo Gakuen scandal that dogged the previous Abe administration found government officials gave untruthful responses on 139 occasions.
The examination by the Lower House research bureau did not state if they were outright lies or whether the officials answered in the belief they were telling the truth.
What is clear, though, is that replies differed from the facts already known to some people at the time, or which later emerged, creating the impression the Abe administration was ever willing to be economical with the truth even in the legislative body.
▽Yukio Mishima: The strange tale of Japan’s infamous novelist - BBC Culture
Mishima’s death shocked the Japanese public. He was a literary celebrity, a macho and provocative but also rather ridiculous character, perhaps akin to Norman Mailer in the US, or Michel Houellebecq in today’s France. But what had seemed to be posturing had suddenly become very real. It was the morning of the opening of the 64th session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, and the Emperor himself was present. The prime minister’s speech on the government agenda for the coming year was somewhat overshadowed. No one had died by seppuku since the last days of World War Two.
Thai police have summoned leaders of anti-government protests to face charges of insulting the monarchy, a day before a planned demonstration to demand the King give up control of the royal fortune.
Fifteen protest leaders have been summoned over comments made at protests in September and October, when they spoke about the King's behaviour, lifestyle and spending, a police source said.
It will be the first time in more than two years that charges have been brought under so-called lese majeste laws relating to insults to the royal family.
Anyone found guilty faces up to 15 years in prison.
President-Elect Joe Biden Hits 80 Million Votes In Year Of Record Turnout : NPR
More votes were cast in the 2020 presidential election than in any other U.S. election in history, and the turnout rate was the highest in more than a century.
President-elect Joe Biden has now earned 80 million votes, and ballots are still being counted. That is by far the most votes cast for any presidential candidate in U.S. history. President Trump holds the distinction, however, of earning the second-most votes all time. About 74 million Americans voted for him.
Biden's total shatters the 2008 record of 69.5 million votes cast for Barack Obama. The former vice president was also on that ticket as Obama's running mate.
