Japan's Shinzo Abe Shot During Campaign Speech; Former Prime Minister Rushed to Hospital While Unresponsive

There were 17,000 of them. Their toil over six years was the foundation of a magnificent feat of engineering. Now 135 years later the navvies who built the Manchester Ship Canal will be recognised.

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in outer Tokyo wrapped its 19th edition on Sunday with prizes going to “Softie, by French director Samuel Theis, and “Double Life,” by female Chinese director Enen Yo in the separate Japanese film competition.The festival, long a launch pad for emerging Japanese and world filmmakers, held in-person screenings July 16-24, 2022, at venues in Kawaguchi, and an online segment July 21-27.“Softie” received the Grand Prize in the international competition. “Magnetic Beats,” directed by Vincent Mael Cardona, won the best director, while “Utama,” directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, received Special Jury Prize in the same section.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix is launching its first location based entertainment experience in Japan, a pavilion at KidZania in Fukuoka. It will open to the public on Sunday (July 31, 2022).

Naman Ramachandran Marathi-language Indian romance film “Toh, Ti ani Fuji” (“Him, Her and Fuji”) will start principal photography across across India and Japan from September.The film, written by Irawati Karnik (“Anandi Gopal”) and to be directed by Mohit Takalkar (“Medium Spicy”), revolves around a passionate love affair that turns toxic due to a change in priorities, opposite personality traits and unfair demands. When the former couple unexpectedly meet in Japan seven years later, the relationship could be rekindled.

Japanese Breakfast has joined forces with SE SO NEON singer Hwang So-yoon – AKA So!YoON! – for a Korean language version of the former’s 2021 single ‘Be Sweet’.The track comes from last year’s critically acclaimed third Japanese Breakfast album ‘Jubilee’, with Michelle Zauner performing the single on Ellen and her Saturday Night Live debut. ‘Be Sweet’ also featured on The Sims 4 and inspired a Goose Island beer.“We thought it would be fun to put out a special Korean version of ‘Be Sweet’ preceding our upcoming performance in Seoul,” Zauner explained, referencing their forthcoming August 6 show at the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival.“I’m very grateful Yaeji helped me with the translation over a year ago.

Video game creator Nintendo will recognize people in same-sex relationships, just as they had recognized “traditional marriages” — even when the country of Japan doesn’t.Last week the $95 billion company released its corporate social responsibility initiatives (CSRI) with one thing standing out.In the “Introduction of a Partnership System” portion of the CSRI, reports Go Nintendo, Nintendo restated that as of March 2021, the company has had a policy where  “same-sex partners” will have the “same benefits as employees in an opposite-sex marriage.”This policy contrasts with the legal battle ongoing in Japan to get same-sex couples recognized by law. Attempts at national and municipal legal changes have been made, but nothing has come from it. In a recent case on June 20 in Osaka, it was found that “under the constitution, the definition of marriage did not extend to partnerships between people of the same gender.” This effectively bans same-sex marriage in the country.Nintendo’s statement reads simply that if you are in a “common law” marriage, you will be granted the same rights as “traditional” couples.“Although same-sex marriages are not currently recognized under Japanese law, this system ensures employees who are in a domestic partnership with a same-sex partner have the same benefits as employees in an opposite-sex marriage,” the policy reads.

The audience on “America’s Got Talent” gives a standing ovation to Amanda Mammana’s amazing audition.

ATEEZ have announced dates for their ‘The Fellowship: Break The Wall’ world tour, which will begin in October and take them to North America, Korea and Japan.On July 18, the eight-member act shared via their social media accounts that they would be embarking on a new world tour later this year. Titled ‘The Fellowship: Break The Wall’, the tour is set to hit nine cities from South Korea, the US, Canada and Japan from October to December.The tour will kick off in Seoul, South Korea with two shows on October 29 and 30, before heading to Anaheim, California the following week.

https://t.co/d1pGiCFhnA pic.twitter.com/3nAMMj0LHd— Showcase Cinemas UK (@ShowcaseCinemas) July 15, 2022With an unprecedented heatwave coming up, Nintendo has issued a warning to Nintendo Switch owners regarding the usage of the console in hot weather.A tweet posted on Nintendo’s Japanese customer support page warns that the console should only be used in temperatures between 5 and 35 degrees Celsius.“Playing a Nintendo Switch in a high-temperature area can cause the temperature of the console to rise. Additionally, blocking the air intake and exhaust vents can cause the console to heat up.

KARA singer Nicole Jung is set to make her return to music as a soloist later this month.Nicole’s label, JWK Entertainment, issued a statement via Korea JoongAng Daily on July 14 announcing that the singer is set to drop a new digital single on July 27. “She has finished filming her new song’s music video and is preparing to actively promote her activities through music shows,” the brief statement read.

Mark Schilling Japan CorrespondentMainstream Japanese media has gone into full all-hands-on-deck mode following the shooting of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Most of the major networks, including public broadcast giant NHK, and the private sector NTV, TBS and Fuji and TV Asahi channels, have ditched their schedules to cover the shooting.

NBC, The Washington Post and other media outlets reported today that Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was shot while giving a speech in western Japan near Kyoto. Both outlets cited the nation’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who said the former PM was shot around 11:30 a.m. local time.

Ellise Shafer Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister of Japan, was apparently shot during a campaign speech on Friday in Nara, according to the Associated Press and NHK public television.NHK camera footage showed him collapsed on the street, holding his chest, with the broadcasting corporation reporting that he is experiencing heart failure. Abe was rushed to the hospital following the incident and a male suspect has been arrested at the scene on the suspicion of attempted murder, according to NHK.

Japanese Breakfast has told fans that she contributed vocals to her “fave band” The 1975‘s new song ‘Part Of The Band‘.The singer-songwriter, real name Michelle Zauner, wrote online that she “got to sing a little on this for my fave band” when linking to the video premiere of the band’s comeback single, which was released today (July 7).‘Part Of The Band’ is the first taste of The 1975’s fifth album, ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language‘, which was announced at the end of last month along with the tracklist.Other known collaborators on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ include in-demand producer Jack Antonoff, who co-produced ‘Part Of The Band’.The 1975’s new album has been the subject of speculation for some time, with Healy poking fun at the prospect of “making another ‘classic record’” back in August 2021.The band will make their live return in August, playing two gigs as part of Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival. The gigs will mark the band’s first live shows since they performed in Dublin in March 2020.No release date has yet been given for ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’.

EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Goldwyn Films has closed a deal with Italian outfit Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment to acquire U.S. distribution rights to star-studded female-powered feature Tell It Like a Woman, whose filmmakers and actors include Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Hudson, Pauletta Washington, Cara Delevingne, Catherine Hardwicke, Margherita Buy, Marcia Gay Harden, Eva Longoria, Leonor Varela, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anne Watanabe and Mipo O.

Jessica Kiang “Okinawan kindness leaves no one behind!” goes the chirpy sign-off on a political radio commercial halfway through Japanese director Masaaki Kudo’s artful and affecting Karlovy Vary competition title, “A Far Shore.” Already it plays like the bitterest irony. Aoi, a 17-year-old mother working illegally as a nightclub hostess in Okinawa, the poorest prefecture in Japan, listens with a dissociated look in her eyes: She has been left behind by practically everyone, and while Kudo’s film is deeply compassionate toward the struggling, stubborn, subjugated teen, this is an Okinawa of precious little kindness.We first meet Aoi — rivetingly played by Kotone Hanase — at work with her lissome best friend Mio (Yumemi Ishida), also a minor, as the girls giggle, drink and flirt with a couple of guys in town for a good time.

The 1975 have teased the lyrics to their comeback single ‘Part Of The Band’, which is set to arrive next month – see them below.Last month, mysterious posters appeared in London featuring a black-and-white photo from a distance featuring frontman Matty Healy, and a date of July 7. That date was then confirmed as one of significance for the band ahead of the release of their as-yet-untitled fifth studio album.The title ‘Part Of The Band’ was then confirmed by the band’s official social media accounts with the release date of July 7 once again shared.Now, more new billboards have popped up featuring the lyrics to the comeback single.