Transcript

Hello and welcome to Japan Daily News. Let’s take a look at today’s top stories.

First up, the newly established Child and Family Agency aims to tackle issues related to child rearing, child safety and poverty. As the command center for child policy, the agency will work to break down bureaucratic silos and secure necessary funding to lead effective initiatives. We have a Q&A that summarizes the features and challenges of the agency.

Next, NTT East and West have announced that the internet and phone communication outage that occurred on the morning of the 3rd was due to a malfunction in 116 communication devices manufactured by the same overseas company. Both companies are currently investigating the root cause of the issue. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has requested a detailed report from the companies on the incident, as it may be considered a serious accident under the Telecommunications Business Act.

Moving on, All Nippon Airways experienced a system failure on their domestic flights, resulting in a one hour interruption of reservations and boarding procedures. This has caused significant delays in flight operations and more than 50 flights have been canceled.

In other news, a former vice president ofthe Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has resigned as vice president of an airport facility management company due to personal reasons. The former official had requested that the company appoint a former ministry official as the next president.

March saw the highest average temperature for the month in Japan since records began in 1946. The meteorological agency attributes this to the fact that warm air from the south was able to flow in more easily due to the low influence of cold air from the continent.

In a tragic incident, over 30 dolphins were found stranded on the coast of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture. While surfers and volunteers worked to return the dolphins to the sea, three of them were confirmed dead.

To encourage children’s interest in voting, Kawasaki City Election Commission is distributing origami made of the same material as ballot papers at polling stations for the unified local elections.

Finally, musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who won an Academy Award for the music of The Last Emperor and was a member of the music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, passed away on March 28th at the age of 71. We take a look back at his life and achievements.

And that’s it for today’s news. Thank you for listening to Japan Daily News.