(260124) — TOKYO, Jan. 24, 2026 (Xinhua) — Tourists go to the neighborhood of the Senso-ji Temple in Tokyo, Japan, Jan. 20, 2026. The variety of guests from the Chinese mainland to Japan plunged 45.3 % from a yr earlier in December 2025, official information confirmed.
Tourists from the Chinese mainland fell to about 330,400 individuals in December 2025, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) stated on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Jia Haocheng)
(Photo credit score: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)
Stewart Cink fired a 9-under-par 63 and Sweden’s Freddie Jacobson carded a 64 on Friday to share the lead after two rounds of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai in Ka’upulehu-Kona, Hawaii.
The occasion is the opener of the 2026 PGA Tour Champions season.
Jacobson adopted his first-round 65 with a bogey-free spherical at Hualalai Golf Course to get to 15-under 129. He eagled the par-5 No. 10 and after beginning quick by recording birdies at Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and seven for 31 on the entrance 9. He additionally birdied the par-5 No. 14 on a relatively quiet again 9.
‘You can inform guys maintain urgent the fuel pedal round right here, so I used to be completely happy to get off to a fast begin and make some putts early — that at all times helps,’ Jacobson stated. ‘Yeah, round 10, making an eagle putt at that time, getting it going.
‘The previous few holes was a bit of tough. It was a bit of tough to get the putts to go in, however, total, I feel I hit just about all of the fairways as we speak and gave myself a variety of alternatives.’
Cink, who carded a first-round 66, shares the lead after making 10 birdies on Friday and only one blemish, a bogey on the par-4 No. 16.
‘The wind was light on the market, so there are scoring alternatives on this golf course,’ Cink stated on Friday. ‘But I stated it yesterday, too, you continue to need to do it. You cannot simply go to sleep on the market and count on to make an entire bunch of birdies. You nonetheless need to be actually dialed in.
‘You are given the chance to hit the ball shut and to benefit from the par-5s, however you continue to need to do it,’ Cink continued. ‘So that is been a key for me the final couple days is simply doing it. I have not been lackadaisical fairly often, I have not been enjoyable and I’ve been targeted when the time comes.’
Canada’s Stephen Ames, who led after the primary spherical, slipped right into a tie for third at 14 beneath with Argentina’s Angel Cabrera.
Cabrera carded the low spherical of the day with a 10-under 62, marked by simply 5 pars. He made an eagle, on the par-5 No. 4, and 10 birdies — Nos. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 16. Cabrera misplaced strokes with bogeys on the par-4 No. 11 and the par-3 No. 17.
Ames had a less-adventurous 66 with seven birdies, one bogey and 10 pars.
Fred Couples is alone in fifth at 13 beneath after his 66. He made 5 consecutive birdies on Nos. 4-8 for a 31 on the entrance 9, birdied No. 10 and gave again a shot with a bogey at No. 12 earlier than recording one other birdie at No. 14.
The three-round event concludes Saturday.
–Field Level Media
Batote (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], January 24 (ANI): The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH44) stays closed for the second consecutive day as a consequence of slippery street circumstances.
The incessant snowfall for the second consecutive evening on Saturday within the well-known hill resorts of Jammu province – Patnitop, Nathatop, Sanasar & Batote, in addition to Banihal, Gool and different reaches – has paralysed life in these areas.
However, a vivid, sunny day was noticed earlier within the day, which might assist with the restoration of energy and water provide, in addition to visitors.
Because of the blockage of all paths, NH44 and NH244, and the abandoned markets, elusive clients have compelled some shopkeepers to maintain their outlets closed for the second consecutive day at present in Batote market of Ramban district.
The vacationers, particularly the snow buffs who could not attain Patnitop as a consequence of street blockages, had been seen having fun with the snow, and their kids had been taking part in snow video games.
The delight of long-awaited snowfall has additionally introduced disruption to energy and water provides, in addition to floor (visitors) and telecommunications.
The Ramban district administration was caught unprepared to face this sudden heavy snowfall, because the road-clearing machines and the workers of Jammu Power Development Corporation Ltd (JPDCL) and Jal Shakti Vibhag had been discovered to be inadequate.
The distant tehsils like Batote, Banihal, Gool, Ukhral and Rajgarh stay disconnected from the Ramban district headquarters for the second day at present.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway (NH-44) was closed on Friday as a consequence of heavy rain and snowfall, with motion additionally stopped at Jakhani Chowk in Udhampur.
Snowfall additionally disrupted air journey, with Srinagar Airport and IndiGo Airlines asserting momentary suspension and cancellation of a number of flights.
Authorities mentioned that in view of ongoing rains and snow accumulating as much as Ramsoo, all sorts of visitors had been halted at safer places on NH-44 as a precautionary measure due to slippery street circumstances.
Meanwhile, heavy snowfall continued for the second consecutive day within the Bhalesa space of Doda district within the Jammu Division for the final 24 hours.
Due to snow obstructing roads and providers, the SDM Gandoh, Bhalesa, on behalf of the Doda district administration, suggested residents to remain indoors as a security precaution. Temperatures have dipped under zero.
Around one foot of snow has been recorded within the plains, whereas the higher hilly areas obtained practically two to a few ft of snowfall. All important providers, together with electrical energy and water provide, had been disrupted.
Roads, together with highways and hyperlink roads, stay blocked as a consequence of landslides, fallen timber, and heavy snow accumulation. Only emergency providers are permitted till circumstances enhance within the space. (ANI)
TOKYO (TR) – Executives from Prudential Life Insurance Co., Ltd. on Friday apologized at a press convention following revelations that workers inappropriately obtained over 3.1 billion yen from clients.
The press convention was the primary for the reason that scandal got here to gentle. President Hiroshi Mahara stated, “We offer our deepest apologies for the great anxiety and inconvenience caused. We are extremely sorry.”
Prudential Life Insurance is a foreign-owned firm that not solely sells life insurance coverage but additionally provides life planning companies, together with asset administration.
“We have discovered that 107 employees and former employees improperly solicited investments and improperly received a total of approximately 3.1 billion yen from 503 customers,” stated Mahara.
In response to this incident, Mahara has resigned, efficient on February 1.
As Nippon News Network (Jan. 23) experiences, the scandal, whose origin dates again many years, was clearly a matter of company tradition gone flawed.
An inner investigation revealed a sequence of problematic practices, relationship again 35 years, wherein present and former workers defrauded clients.
The strategies used assorted. In one case, an worker, aged of their 30s, working at a department workplace in Minato Ward ready paperwork for patrons that listed the corporate identify “Prudential Life Insurance.”
However, the worker advised investments in fictitious monetary merchandise. As a end result, a complete of roughly 53 million yen was defrauded from 4 clients.
In one other case, an worker stated approached clients with funding concepts unrelated to the corporate’s insurance coverage enterprise and accepted their cash. “I want you to lend me money for investment,” the worker instructed clients.
In some instances, they requested clients to lend them cash after which by no means paid it again.
Of defrauded quantity of greater than 3.1 billion yen, roughly 2.3 billion yen has by no means been repaid.
In explaining how workers have been capable of defraud the funds, Mahara stated, “First, our sales systems made it easy to commit inappropriate acts and difficult to detect fraud. Systems that were overly tied to performance attracted personnel who prioritized financial gain and led them to adopt such mindsets after joining the company. In addition, fluctuations in income based on sales personnel’s own performance led to income instability and led to inappropriate behavior.”
While acknowledging that “our internal compensation system was one factor in causing the problem,” he said that “there was no sharing of methods” amongst workers.
The community spoke with a former worker who labored in gross sales at Prudential Life for 2 years, beginning in 2018, to seek out out extra in regards to the state of affairs.
“There was a competitive spirit,” the foerm worker stated. “Awards got on a weekly, month-to-month and annual foundation. They submit issues like, ‘Today, such and such person was number one’ or ‘Number one for the week.’”
When asked if any employees were struggling, the former employee says there were.
“They were paid on a commission-based system, so if they don’t promote, they will’t pay their lease,” the previous worker stated. “I think that’s what happens to most people who quit. They can’t make a living.”
After this problem surfaced, present workers have been contacted. They instructed tales like, “My policies are canceled” and “I can’t even meet with customers.”
Another former worker instructed the community, “The harder you work, the more your salary skyrockets, and vice versa. If you don’t sell, some people even make minimum wage. There were always people who eventually couldn’t sell insurance and were in a bit of a bind, so they borrowed money, and that information was shared within the company.”
The latter borrowing from clients was shared throughout conferences.
A former gross sales worker stated, “There were things that were really left to individual discretion, so I wonder if there are times when supervision is lacking.”
Of the 107 individuals concerned within the scandal, most have already left the corporate. The remaining 10 or so workers shall be fired.
In addition, Prudential Life Insurance will set up a “Compensation Committee” composed of third-party consultants to re-examine instances beforehand deemed ineligible for compensation. It will present compensation for these deemed mandatory.
Regarding the two.3 billion yen in unreturned funds, Akitomo Nakajima, an lawyer specializing in company scandals, says Prudential Life is liable.
“If they used the company’s name to explain or provide materials as if they were part of a Prudential product, and it’s normal to believe they were doing so as part of their job, then Prudential Life Insurance would be held responsible,” Nakajima stated.
However, it may very well be difficult.
“If they made solicitations unrelated to Prudential Life Insurance, such as ‘Here’s a lucrative business opportunity for you’ or ‘Extend a loan to me and I’ll pay you back double,’ I think it would be difficult to hold the company responsible,” Nakajima stated. “If the sales pitch was deceptive, it could be considered fraud, so it’s entirely possible that victims will file a police report and the police will begin an investigation.”
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a so-called “men’s concept cafe” in Shinjuku Ward for licensing violations.
According to TBS News (Jan. 23), Yoshiki Uehara, the supervisor of Smile, positioned within the Kabukicho red-light district, and proprietor Sho Oshikawa additionally entertained a teenage woman whereas realizing she was a minor.
On January 21, Uehara, 24, and Oshikawa, 40, are suspected of working Smile with no license. Last April, they offered leisure to the highschool woman, then 17, whereas realizing that she was a minor.
During questioning, Oshikawa denied the allegations. Meanwhile, Uehara partially denied the fees about unlawful operation of the a enterprise and denied the allegation relating to the woman.
Male employees members at a males’s idea cafe serve primarily feminine prospects. In this case, Uehara met the woman on social media, police mentioned.
The cafe acquired steerage from the Tokyo police final November of final yr for working a enterprise with no license. However, it continued to function in the identical means after that.
(Photo credit score: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK through Imagn Images)
Teenager Blades Brown was sharper than anyone through the second spherical of The American Express on Friday at La Quinta, Calif., though his missed 8-foot putt on the ultimate gap prevented historical past.
Needing one birdie over his remaining three holes to set himself up for an elusive spherical of 59, the 18-year-old delivered three pars as an alternative to only miss out on posting the sixteenth sub-60 spherical in PGA Tour historical past.
Brown’s 12-under 60 was nonetheless ok for the course document on the Nicklaus Tournament Course, whereas vaulting right into a tie for the match lead with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at 17-under par 127.
‘Scottie is clearly an unbelievable participant and (I) have my title subsequent to his title on the leaderboard,’ Brown mentioned on the Golf Chanel broadcast. ‘We’re midway there so I’ve numerous golf to go however this weekend, I’m going to deal with executing the pictures I can and see what occurs.’
His two-round begin to the match is much more spectacular contemplating he was enjoying in an occasion within the Bahamas this week and did not arrive within the Palm Springs space till Wednesday night.
The Nashville, Tenn., native skipped school and joined the Korn Ferry Tour final season on a short lived standing, however he does have expertise enjoying within the California desert. His first PGA Tour occasion got here on a sponsor’s exemption at The American Express final yr, however he missed the reduce.
Brown would have been the youngest to publish a 59 on tour forward of Justin Thomas, who was 23 when he completed the feat on the 2017 Sony Open. The most up-to-date to shoot a 59 was Jake Knapp on the Cognizant Classic in February.
After beginning his spherical on the tenth gap and capturing an 8-under 28 over his opening 9 holes, Brown reached 12-under via his fifteenth gap of the day. Poised to succeed in the par-5 seventh gap in two pictures, Brown as an alternative put the strategy shot over the inexperienced and settled for a par.
On his remaining gap, he put his strategy shot to a cushty distance for a birdie however missed the putt on the excessive aspect.
‘I used to be truly fairly calm,’ Brown mentioned concerning the remaining putt, whereas admitting he did have some nerves late within the spherical. ‘… I mentioned ‘OK, I’m going to execute the shot that I do know I can. I’m going to putt this line that I see.’ Unfortunately, it did not go in, however I used to be pleased with the end result I had right this moment.’
Brown shot a 5-under 67 within the first spherical at La Quinta Country Club and can play his remaining two rounds on the host PGA West Stadium Course.
‘I’ll deal with the controllables that I can management and see what occurs,’ Brown mentioned.
–Field Level Media
(260124) — BEIJING, Jan. 24, 2026 (Xinhua) — Aoki Yuna of Japan performs throughout the ladies’s free skating on the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Beijing, China, Jan. 23, 2026. (Xinhua/Xie Han)
TOKYO (TR) – A former member of a legal syndicate on demise row over the murders of 4 individuals in Gunma Prefecture greater than twenty years in the past has died, the justice ministry mentioned on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Masato Kohinata, 56, stopped respiration on the Tokyo Detention House at round 1:30 a.m. on Friday.
In detention on the Tokyo Detention House, Kohinata had beforehand complained of shortness of breath.
He was transported to the hospital simply after 2 a.m. however was later pronounced lifeless.
On January 25, 2003, Kohinata, then a member of the Yano Mutsumi-kai, was one in all two gunmen who shot three individuals lifeless and wounded two others, together with a boss of a rival gang, inside a “snack” hostess membership in Maebashi City, Gunma.
Once outdoors, the pair shot the bodyguard of the rival boss to demise.
Yano Mutsumi-kai was an affiliate gang of the Sumiyoshi-kai. The taking pictures was part of an ongoing turf warfare between the Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai through which the rival boss was the goal. The incident was payback for the homicide of two Sumiyoshi-kai members at a funeral residence in Tokyo two years earlier than.
After the killings, a courtroom sentenced Kohinata to demise, a ruling that was finalized in 2009.
The explanation for demise of Kohinata is unknown, however he exhibited signs of an acute myocardial infarction, the justice ministry mentioned.
The variety of inmates on demise row nationwide is now 104.
IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have revealed that the person accused of murdering his former girlfriend in Mito City might have realized the place she lived by hiding a GPS unit inside a toy, experiences TV Asahi (Jan. 23).
On December 31, Takumi Ouchi, 28, is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed 31-year-old manicurist Haruka Komatsumoto with a knife and hit her on the top with a blunt object at her residence.
Ouchi, who was pregnant, was later discovered collapsed and bleeding by her husband. She was taken to a hospital the place she was later confirmed useless, police mentioned.
Ouchi and Komatsumoto ended their relationship in 2024. According to police, Ouchi, an workplace employee dwelling within the city of Shirosato, had been in search of the placement of her residence since final October.
In the newest improvement, police mentioned {that a} stuffed animal left at her residence might have been utilized by the suspect to be taught her tackle.
According to investigators, the stuffed animal was delivered to Komatsumoto’s dad and mom’ residence just a few days earlier than the incident.
The toy, which had been left at their door, contained a GPS unit that might transmit its location. I used to be delivered within the identify of a theme park operator and enclosed with a letter purporting to be a “gift for the winner of a prize draw.”
Once the stuffed animal was handed over to Komatsumoto from her dad and mom’ residence, the transmitter’s proprietor was capable of decide her present tackle. Police are contemplating the chance that the suspect himself delivered it to her dad and mom’ residence.
“A GPS unit communicates with satellites to pinpoint your location, making it possible to know your location anywhere in the world,” says crime prevention advisor, Mika Kyoshi. “They can sometimes be found in items you wouldn’t normally check the contents of. Look inside stuffed animals, presents, lucky charms and the bottoms of bags. If you find a transmitter or similar, contact the police immediately.”
Upon his arrest on suspicion of homicide on January 21, Ouchi denied the allegations.
TOKYO, Jan 24 (News On Japan) –
A six-vehicle pileup at a busy intersection in Akasaka, Minato Ward, left 9 individuals lifeless or injured after a Cabinet Office car is believed to have entered the intersection at excessive velocity greater than a minute after the site visitors mild had turned purple, investigators stated.
The crash occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. on January twenty third in the course of the night rush, when the official car reportedly drove into the intersection in opposition to a purple mild and collided with a white wagon, triggering a chain-reaction accident involving a number of automobiles.
A reporter on the scene described extreme injury to a black automobile’s entrance finish, with particles scattered so far as the sidewalk, though no pedestrians had been caught up within the crash.
According to witnesses, the affect was sudden and violent. One driver concerned within the accident stated they heard a loud sound after which noticed the white car burst into view, including that the driving force seemed to be bleeding closely within the face.
The accident killed taxi passenger Noboru Akashi, a 32-year-old firm worker, who suffered a deadly head damage, whereas eight different individuals, together with women and men of their 20s to 60s, sustained accidents starting from minor to critical.
Police stated the official car was being pushed by a 69-year-old man employed by a non-public firm contracted to supply driving providers for the Cabinet Office, and he suffered critical accidents together with damaged ribs.
Investigators stated the federal government car had been touring from the course of the National Diet constructing when it struck the wagon coming from the proper, then continued to contain a taxi touring alongside. The wagon and taxi had been thrown into oncoming lanes, the place they collided with extra automobiles together with a rubbish truck and a luxurious overseas automobile earlier than coming to a cease.
A taxi driver caught within the crash stated his car hit a number of others and appeared to spin roughly twice, including that the scene modified so shortly he was nonetheless struggling to totally course of what occurred.
Investigators additionally consider the official car entered the intersection at a velocity exceeding the authorized restrict of 60 kilometers per hour, and no clear skid marks had been discovered on the scene, suggesting the driving force could not have braked earlier than affect.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the circumstances, together with the potential for harmful driving leading to demise or damage.
The firm using the driving force informed JNN on January twenty fourth that there had been “no particular issues” along with his work situations instantly previous to the crash.
Source: TBS
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