Japanese

June 5 (UPI) — Japan’s royal family wrapped up a two day visit to Okinawa Thursday, where they paid respects to the victims of a World War II-era Japanese evacuation ship that was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko prayed for the victims who were lost aboard the ship, according to the Japanese national daily news outlet the Mainichi. They called for peace during their visit.

The imperial family presented flowers and bowed deeply at a memorial site in Nama for the Tsushima battleship, on which at least 1,500 people, including hundreds of schoolchildren, were killed in the torpedo attack.

The family also visited a nearby memorial museum where they spoke to survivors and bereaved family members, and also witnessed several personal items that belonged to the schoolchildren who died.

One man, 85-year-old Masakatsu Takara, recounted the pain of losing nine of his family members, including his parents and siblings.

The Tsushima Maru was hit with a torpedo near southwestern Japan’s Tokara Islands while traveling from Okinawa to Nagasaki during an August, 1944 government ordered evacuation.

Former Yomiuri Giants player and manager Shigeo Nagashima, one of the biggest stars of Nippon Professional Baseball, died early Tuesday morning of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital, his former team said in a statement. He was 89.

Nagashima played third base for the Giants from 1958 to 1974. Along with fellow superstar first baseman Sadaharu Oh, Nagashima led the team to 11 Japan Series titles, including nine straight from 1965 to 1973. He retired with a .305 batting average, 2,471 hits, 1,522 RBIs and 444 home runs.

He was one of Japan’s biggest celebrities, so much so that his 1965 marriage to Akiko Nishimura was nationally televised and was reportedly the country’s most-watched program of the year.

In 1975, Nagashima became the Giants’ manager but was fired in 1980 after not leading the team to a Japan Series title. He returned as manager from 1993 to 2001, however, and led the Giants to championships in 1994 and 2000, with future MLB outfielder Hideki Matsui as his star player.

Current Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani took to Instagram on Tuesday to honor Nagashima. He posted three pictures of the two of them together, including two from the Dodgers’ trip to Tokyo in February for two games against the Chicago Cubs.

“May your soul rest in peace,” Ohtani wrote in Japanese.

Nagashima could have become the first Japanese MLB player, and he could have done so as a member of the Dodgers. In the spring of 1961, the Yomiuri Giants visited Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., to train and play exhibition games.

Shigeo Nagashima stands between San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds, left, and New York Mets manager Art Howe at an event in Tokyo on Nov. 7, 2002.

(David Guttenfelder / Associated Press)

Then-Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley is said to have been so impressed with Nagashima — who in the previous season had won the second of what would be six straight batting crowns in Nippon’s Central League — that he offered to buy Nagashima’s contract from Giants owner Matsutaro Shoriki.

Shoriki turned O’Malley down, and pitcher Masanori Murakami ended up becoming the first Japanese MLB player when he debuted with the San Francisco Giants in 1965. Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck also attempted to purchase Nagashima’s contract in 1968 but also was thwarted by Shoriki.

Nagashima maintained a close relationship with the Dodgers and the O’Malley family, particularly with Walter’s son Peter, according to Walter O’Malley’s website.

The Dodgers posted a tribute to Nagashima on X, featuring a photo of the 1988 Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductee with legendary Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda.

“The Dodgers mourn the passing of Shigeo Nagashima, Japan’s ‘Mr. Baseball,’ who died Tuesday in Tokyo at age 89,” the team wrote. “Nagashima became a legend for the Yomiuri Giants, who have enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the Dodgers from as far back as the 1960s. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and generations of fans.”

Nagashima’s wife, Akiko, died in 2007. They had four children, including oldest son Kazushige, a former professional baseball player who played for the Yomiuri Giants and Yakult Swallows in Japan, as well as 53 games for the Class A-Advanced Vero Beach Dodgers minor league affiliate in 1992.

Tokyo and Beijing are closing in on a deal to allow Japanese seafood exports to resume following 2023 ban.

China and Japan are closing in on a deal that would see the return of Japanese seafood imports to the Chinese market following a nearly two-year trade ban.

Tokyo said on Friday that the two sides are finalising details following a successful meeting in Beijing this week.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that officials had “reached an agreement on the technical requirements necessary to resume exports of fishery products to China”.

“Exports to China will resume as soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is completed,” Hayashi said, hailing the pending deal as a “milestone.”

China banned Japanese seafood imports in August 2023 after Japan released more than 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive wastewater from the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The power plant was destroyed during Japan’s infamous 2011 earthquake and tsunami, when three of its six nuclear reactors collapsed.

While the safety of the wastewater release was backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the move was controversial with neighbours like China.

China’s General Administration of Customs said on Friday that exports will resume once the “necessary procedures” are completed after “substantial progress” was made during negotiations.

The deal lays out several new procedures for Japan, whose fish processing facilities will be required to register with China.

Exporters will also need to include certificates of inspection guaranteeing that seafood has been checked for radioactive material, according to Japanese officials.

Chinese restrictions will remain on agricultural and marine exports from 10 Japanese prefectures due to concerns dating back to the 2011 accident.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa said Tokyo would continue to push China to lift any remaining restrictions.

May 21 (UPI) — Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, or Farms Taki Eto resigned Wednesday after his comments over the price of rice led to a national backlash.

Eto wrote on his website that he submitted his resignation to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who accepted.

“My remarks were extremely inappropriate at a time when the public is suffering greatly from the rising prices of rice, and for that I offer my sincere apologies,” Eto.

Eto made the comments Sunday a weekend fundraising event, where during a speech he said he had never bought rice, as he receives so much from his supporters.

“I have enough rice at home I could open up a store and sell it,” he said.

He later said the comment was made in jest, but retracted it and admitted that the joke was “too far.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service reported in March that rice “prices have continued to spike and are almost 80% higher in January 2025 than one year ago.”

The Farm Ministry responded to the price of rice with the release of 300,000 tons of reserved rice through July. The government had already released 321,000 tons of rice between March and April as rice prices have risen dramatically in 2025.

Ishiba reportedly chastised Eto on Monday, but on Tuesday the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan made an agreement with four other opposition parties to insist Eto resign, and to together submit a no-confidence motion against him.

Representative Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the CDP, said Wednesday that Eto’s comments “showed no consideration for the people’s lives, who are suffering as rice prices soar, and they rubbed the public the wrong way,” and that Eto in his opinion “shows no sense of crisis about the current situation,” and is “not fit to be a minister.”