Kyodo News Digest: Aug. 21, 2022

Candles are lit at a park in the western Japan city of Hiroshima near the site of 2014 mudslides that claimed 77 lives, on Aug. 20, 2022, the eighth anniversary of the tragedy. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Tokyo Olympic sponsor in bribery case made multiple demands to exec.

TOKYO – The former chairman of clothing retailer Aoki Holdings Inc., who has been arrested in a bribery case related to a sponsorship deal for last year’s Tokyo Olympics, began making multiple demands to a Summer Games’ organizing committee executive from around January 2017, people familiar with the matter said Saturday.

The former chairman, Hironori Aoki, and then organizing committee executive Haruyuki Takahashi agreed in January 2017 that the business suit company would pay 750 million yen ($5 million) to be selected as a sponsor for the global sporting event originally planned for 2020, the sources said.

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Japan reports over 250,000 new COVID-19 cases for 3rd straight day

TOKYO – Japan reported 253,265 additional coronavirus cases Saturday, marking the third straight day of over 250,000 with no end in sight for the ongoing seventh wave of infections.

Tokyo reported 25,277 new cases, up 1,504 from the same day a week earlier, while in Osaka Prefecture, 23,098 new cases were reported. Record numbers of cases were confirmed in Miyagi, Yamagata, Tottori, Okayama and Tokushima prefectures, with 254 additional deaths nationally.

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Girl arrested after mother, daughter stabbed in Tokyo’s Shibuya

TOKYO – A girl was arrested Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder after apparently stabbing a mother in her 50s and her young daughter on a street in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward.

The injuries included a stab wound in the back of one of the victims, police said, adding the pair did not recognize the suspect. The police said the suspect claims to be under 20 and the younger victim is between 10 and 19.

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Japan grounds Ospreys after U.S. Air Force safety concerns

SAGA, Japan – The Ground Self-Defense Force has temporarily grounded its V-22 Osprey fleet based at a camp east of Tokyo after the U.S. Air Force halted flights of its fleet over safety concerns, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.

The suspension of flights for the tilt-rotor aircraft stationed at Camp Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture came after the Air Force directed a “safety standdown” of its CV-22 fleet on Tuesday due to a clutch malfunction inside the plane’s gearboxes.

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Japan gov’t investigating mistreatment of pregnant foreign trainees

TOKYO – The Japanese government is conducting a survey to determine whether foreign technical trainees have been forced by employers or intermediary groups to leave the country because they fell pregnant or gave birth.

The Immigration Services Agency of Japan and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare are working together on what appears to be the first survey of its kind, amid increased attention over a growing number of cases of harassment and abuse of trainees.

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Baseball: Shohei Ohtani gets nod from Angels to take part in his 1st WBC

DETROIT – Two-way star Shohei Ohtani was given approval Friday to take part in his first World Baseball Classic next March by Los Angeles Angels General Manager Perry Minasian.

Ohtani, the reigning American League MVP, in July spoke of his desire to play in the tournament after missing the last edition in 2017 due to a right ankle injury while he was still a member of the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.