NHK WORLD RADIO JAPAN - English News at 03:00 (JST), October 15

Agriculture Minister Resigns — First Cabinet Departure Since Takaichi Government Took Office

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yana submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (高市早苗) on the evening of October 15, and it was accepted. The trouble began in May when Yana told a gathering in his home constituency of Tochigi Prefecture that he had engineered deep cuts to road budgets for two municipalities whose mayors had not supported him. He retracted the remarks and apologized last week, explaining that he had not actually pressured the ministry to make any cuts — but the opposition's demands for his resignation never subsided. Compounding his difficulties, allegations emerged that he had arranged free shuttle buses for supporters during a past Lower House election campaign, a potential violation of the Public Offices Election Act. Prime Minister Takaichi said she took the responsibility of having appointed him seriously and expressed deep remorse, adding that she would name a successor promptly.

Russia Detains Hokkaido Shimbun Correspondent on Espionage Charges, Transfers Him to Moscow

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced the arrest of the Hokkaido Shimbun's Sakhalin-based correspondent on suspicion of espionage. The FSB claims the reporter collected information on Russia's defense capabilities under the direction of a Japanese intelligence agency. He was taken into custody just before he was due to leave Russia and transferred to Moscow. Russian state television reported that the correspondent had gathered information from island residents — including those in the Northern Territories — about people mobilized or who had volunteered for the war in Ukraine, with the intention of passing that information to Japanese authorities. A Moscow court ordered him held for one month and twenty-nine days. The Japanese government said it had been unable to reach the reporter and called on Russia to disclose information about his situation and ensure fair legal proceedings.

Houthi-Saudi Fighting Intensifies; Aramco Headquarters Also Hit

Clashes between Yemen's Houthi movement and Saudi Arabia continued to escalate. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy confirmed that a Houthi attack caused a minor fire in an administrative building at Saudi Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran, with no casualties reported. Riyadh's international airport has been struck repeatedly this month, killing 14 people and wounding more than 300. On the evening of October 15, the Houthis announced that Saudi aircraft and missiles had carried out 104 attacks across various locations including Sanaa within a 24-hour period.

Anthropic Co-Founder Visits Tokyo for Japan Office's First Anniversary

Jack Clark, co-founder of U.S. AI startup Anthropic, held a press conference in Tokyo alongside Hidetoshi Tojo (東条英俊), head of the company's Japan operations. Clark noted that the Tokyo office — Anthropic's first in Asia — was marking its one-year anniversary, and reported that the number of Japanese companies using Claude had grown more than tenfold over the past year. He emphasized that Japan is well-positioned to benefit from current AI trends given its strengths in AI supply chains, scientific-instrument manufacturing, and robotics, and stated that Anthropic is also working to prevent its tools from being exploited in cyberattacks.

Indonesia's Drought and Wildfires Worsen; Estimated Economic Loss Reaches $6.8 Billion

A severe drought has fueled widening wildfires across Indonesia. A think-tank estimates that combined economic losses and medical costs from January through August will reach $6.8 billion. A farmer in West Java reported that his rice harvest had fallen to just one-tenth of the usual eight tonnes due to dried-up water sources. According to the Ministry of Forestry, roughly 2,000 square kilometers burned between January and July. Meteorological authorities have warned of further deterioration, attributing the drastic reduction in rainfall to El Niño. In West Kalimantan, acute respiratory infections surged to approximately 9,000 cases per week, and around 1.4 million children were forced into online schooling for more than a month. In Kalimantan, eight orangutans were rescued and are receiving treatment after being displaced by the fires.

Alligator Weed Spreads Across Chiba Farmland After Typhoon Breaches Levees

Heavy rain from Typhoon Krosser caused four levees around Lake Inba-numa in Chiba Prefecture to collapse, allowing the invasive South American plant alligator weed (Nagatsuru-no-geitou / ナガツルノゲイトウ) to spread into farmland around Narita City. First confirmed in Japan in 1989, the plant is highly resistant to drought and can regenerate from even small root fragments, making removal extremely difficult. Experts described it as a new kind of threat, noting that as an amphibious plant it can invade terrestrial environments on a large scale. They called for urgent action before autumn, when above-ground growth dies back and the plant becomes harder to detect.

Other News

The former Unification Church (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) appointed Moon Shin-chul, a grandson of founder Sun Myung Moon, to lead a newly established organization. The group is currently undergoing liquidation following a dissolution order in Japan; its leader Han Hak-ja was sentenced in South Korea in August to two years in prison on charges including violations of the Political Funds Act. — Japan's National Police Agency announced that seven Vietnamese nationals suspected of laundering approximately $9.5 million obtained through voice-phishing fraud were arrested with the cooperation of Vietnamese authorities. — In Chiba Prefecture, a Vietnamese-language driver's-license exam was temporarily suspended after it was discovered that an applicant had been viewing images of past exam questions on a smartphone during the test.