On 3 September, China will stage a show of force to mark the anniversary of its victory over Japan. The event has strong symbolic and political significance, reflecting the country's strategic rivalry with Washington and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. From the Japanese city of Okinawa, which in recent days commemorated the battle in which some 200,000 people lost their lives, a message to the contrary has emerged, calling for the past to be remembered in order to build peace, rather than tomorrow's conflicts.
During a visit in August, India and Japan will ink the deal for the E10 series of high-speed trains. But investments in semiconductors and strategic cooperation are also on the agenda ahead of the Quad summit next fall.
Half of all these seats in the upper house will be renewed on 20 July, a crucial date for PM Ishiba after his Liberal Democratic Party failed to obtain an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament in last October's elections. For voters, the government’s response to rice prices will be crucial. This most iconic of grains has gained great importance in the country since the 1970s.
In a message marking the anniversary of the end of World War II, the Bishops' Conference renews its call for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons. Asking forgiveness for having tried to “show patriotism” in the imperial era, Catholic bishops criticize today's change of course in Tokyo with new missile units in Okinawa and Nansei: “The elderly tell us: we are preparing for war.”
The Catholic charity is the fourth recipient of the Human Dignity Award by Nanzan University, a Catholic institution. Caritas President Card Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo and a former student, collected the prize. In his address, the prelate mentioned Caritas’s missionary origins, and its transformation into a confederation of 162 national chapters, involved in ongoing emergencies, like Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar. He noted that the organisation does “not act for the poor – we act with them". It is never a "stranger", but always "part of the community".
Vatican Museums Director Barbara Jatta and Auxiliary Bishop Andrea Lembo of Tokyo explained the symbol of hope lent by the Vatican to the world expo currently underway in Japan. The painting is on display for six months in a dedicated area inside the Italian Pavilion. For the prelate, “Caravaggio does not ask us to believe. He only asks us to look and try to recognise that that body could be ours”.
