Reigning world figure skating champion Kaori Sakamoto clinched her fourth consecutive and fifth national title overall Sunday, holding off a challenge from 16-year-old Mao Shimada with a near-perfect free skate.

The 24-year-old Sakamoto scored 149.76 points in the free program to win with a total of 228.68, qualifying for the world championships in March in Boston, where she will try to win for the fourth straight year.

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

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Akie Abe, widow of slain former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, expressed hope Sunday that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will contribute to peace in the world during his second term in the White House.

Recalling an episode when the then president visited Japan as a state guest in May 2019, she said in a speech in Tokyo, "At that time, I realized Mr. Trump was a person who does not want war. I want him to lead the world to peace" after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Kubota Spears flyhalf Bernard Foley overcame a nightmare afternoon from the kicking tee Sunday as he nailed a drop goal after the hooter to give his team a 30-27 comeback win over Toyota Verblitz in their Japan Rugby League One opening-round clash.

Dealing with windy conditions and the newly introduced 60-second shot clock, the former Wallabies playmaker missed his first four conversion attempts but found the target when it mattered late in the contest at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

Japan's competition watchdog plans to order U.S. IT giant Google to halt violations of the country's antitrust law, sources familiar with the matter said Sunday.

The watchdog suspects that Google has unfairly pressured smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its search app, the sources added.

BREAKING NEWS: Japan asks Google to stop violating antitrust law: sources <FULL STORY>

==Kyodo

Japanese forward Shuto Machino hit a brace and set up two more as Holstein Kiel came from behind in a 5-1 mauling of Augsburg at home in the German Bundesliga on Saturday, taking his season goal tally to six.

The 25-year-old, who began the season with four goals in the promoted side's first five games through September, was back on the scoresheet after bending in a 39th-minute free-kick from 25 meters out to give his side a 4-1 lead.

A Japanese university and construction company have partnered on research to develop a lunar habitat capable of generating artificial gravity, enabling people to live on the Moon under conditions similar to those on Earth.

Kyoto University and Kajima Corp. aim to construct a ground-based prototype of the "Neo Lunar Glass," a paraboloid structure that generates gravity through rotation, by the 2030s.

Japan's Tsubaki Miki won the women's parallel slalom at a snowboarding World Cup event on Saturday for her second win of the season.

The 21-year-old came second in the qualification round to reach the last 16 and won four heats to secure the title in Davos, Switzerland, edging Michelle Dekker of the Netherlands in the final. Swiss Flurina Neva Baetschi claimed third in the non-Olympic discipline.

Toho Co., the creator and film producer behind the hit "Godzilla" series, has started using hydrogen-fired electricity for its main studio in Tokyo, becoming the first company in Japan to commercially use such power.

Jera Co., a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co., is the green power supplier to Toho Studios, one of the largest film studios in the country.

The Japanese government plans to revise the law to allow municipalities to authorize "emergency shootings" by hunters when animals enter populated areas, a source close to the matter said Saturday, amid a rise in bear attacks.

The planned revision to the law on wildlife protection and management is designed to enable quicker and more effective prevention compared with current measures, which allow police to only permit emergency shootings once people are in danger.

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

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Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. will consider launching a manufacturing partnership in which they will build vehicles at each other's plants, sources close to the matter said Saturday.

Japan's second- and third-largest car manufacturers are expected to announce Monday that they are beginning talks on a merger that would create the world's third-biggest automaker group by volume, the sources said.

BREAKING NEWS: M'bishi mulls joining merger talks with Honda, Nissan in early 2025 <FULL STORY>

==Kyodo

Yuma Kagiyama qualified for the world figure skating championships by winning his first national title Saturday.

The 2022 Beijing Olympics silver medalist scored 205.68 points in the free skate to total 297.73 points at Towa Pharmaceutical RACTAB Dome in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture.

Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force will gradually resume operations of its 17 U.S.-made V-22 Ospreys, the Defense Ministry said Saturday, after they were suspended earlier this month due to safety concerns.

The suspension of flights came after U.S. forces grounded their Ospreys -- a tilt-rotor military transport and cargo aircraft -- following a recent precautionary landing. This followed a fatal crash in late 2023 in Japan that killed all eight U.S. personnel aboard.

The Saitama Wild Knights kicked off their Japan Rugby League One season in convincing fashion Saturday, beating Tokyo Sungoliath 33-12 following a brace of tries from Tomoki Osada.

Starting on the left wing, the Japan back ran in both first-half tries for head coach Robbie Deans' side as they took a 13-0 lead into the break in front of 20,263 at Ajinomoto Stadium.

Japan has unveiled a new passport design, set to become available next spring, featuring a plastic photo page with an embedded chip to enhance forgery prevention.

The new passports will be issued to applicants from March 24. The plastic page displays a sakura cherry blossom pattern that becomes visible when tilted and includes a crane watermark, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

BREAKING NEWS: Honda, Nissan to consider building vehicles at each other's plants <FULL STORY>

==Kyodo

Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano claimed men's halfpipe gold and his 15-year-old compatriot Sara Shimizu won the women's title Friday as Japanese snowboarders took five of the six podium spots at the World Cup round in Colorado's Copper Mountain.

Hirano, the 2022 Beijing Olympic gold medalist, saved his best for last, scoring 97.00 points on his third and final run to clinch his seventh World Cup crown ahead of Yuto Totsuka on 94.75 and Ruka Hirano on 92.75 in a men's podium sweep for Japan.

Hiroaki Asakura, a farmer in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, learned how to be a green thumb from his father. This meant knowing the seasons for planting crops and what pesticides to apply and when. But climate change has made reliance on instinct a dangerous game.

To deal with today's reality, Japanese firms have begun supplying AI-based agricultural pest diagnosis solutions to farmers like Asakura via smartphone apps, in a bid to boost crop yields and reduce the amounts of pesticides used in cultivation.

A Japanese sake brewery will attempt to make the world's first outer space sake, creating just one bottle and donating the 100 million yen ($640,000) proceeds from its sale to domestic space development companies.

Asahi Shuzo Co. in Yamaguchi Prefecture recently said it plans to ferment rice and other raw materials used in sake making on the International Space Station. It aims to send the ingredients into orbit in late 2025.

About a quarter of Japanese firms are positive about reskilling their workers -- seen as essential for improving labor productivity -- but only a small percentage are actively taking steps toward that goal, a research institute survey found.

The government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba views increased investment in human resource development as critical for Japan, expecting that as more people acquire new skills, their wages will rise.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda's unexpectedly dovish position on interest rate hikes expressed at a recent press conference puzzled many market players, calling further into question the central bank's communication style that it has previously admitted needs to be improved.

Explaining the bank's latest decision to forego a rate hike, Ueda cited the "extremely slow" underlying pace of inflation and noted that the rise in import costs from a weaker yen is "calming down." He suggested the bank is in no hurry for another hike.

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

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