Representatives of Hiroshima atomic bombing survivors met Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Thursday, warning against tampering with the country’s "Three Non‑Nuclear Principles" as the city marked the 81st anniversary of the nuclear attack.
They voiced alarm over recent talk within the government and ruling party of revising the longstanding non‑nuclear principles or pursuing a "nuclear sharing" arrangement with the United States. Such ideas run counter to the will of Hiroshima atomic bomb victims and are intolerable, the representatives said. After the session, Satoshi Tanaka, secretary‑general of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Victims’ Group Liaison Council, said the prime minister had failed to give a clear commitment to the Three Non‑Nuclear Principles. Responding with an ambiguous and evasive stance, the prime minister’s attitude is quite worrying, Tanaka added.
In addition to the meeting, an anti-war protest broke out in Hiroshima on Thursday to commemorate the nuclear bombing and warn against any attempt to revise the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.
Hiroshima survivors, protesters warn Japan against tampering with non-nuclear principles
Tokyo stocks closed mixed on Friday as the earnings of major companies showed diverse results, with artificial intelligence and semi-conductor stocks slumping while video games firm Nintendo enjoyed a bump amid a recent sales boost.
The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended down 76.55 points, or 0.12 percent, from Thursday at 65,606.71. The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 19.08 points, or 0.47 percent, higher at 4,074.93.
Timothy Pope, an analyst for the China Global Television Network (CGTN), gave his assessment of the day's trading in Tokyo.
"Over in Japan, the markets were mixed today. The Nikkei 225 dragged a bit lower by its AI and chip-related heavyweights. It finished the day down only about 0.1 percent, but it had been down more than 1.5 percent earlier on in the session," he said.
"Two of today's notable stocks, SoftBank and Nintendo, reported earnings yesterday. SoftBank was down 2.5 percent. Its earnings were predictably complicated: profits were better than expected, but still down 18 percent year on year. It reported 1.86 trillion yen in investment gains, but -- this is a crucial one -- no valuation gain from its massive investment in OpenAI. Nintendo shares, meanwhile, were up 5.3 percent after quarterly operating profit jumped by 150 percent. It says thanks there are due to strong demand for software for the Switch and Switch 2 (games consoles), and also a hefty refund from U.S. tariffs," said Pope.
Tokyo stocks end mixed as heavyweights diverge: analyst
