Overview
- The government decided on Monday to extend the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force deployment in Middle Eastern waters through next November to continue anti-piracy escorts and intelligence patrols, and it plans to formalize the move at a forthcoming cabinet meeting.
- The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17) opened in Yerevan on Monday to evaluate progress toward 2030 nature targets and warned that current action is too small and slow to meet those goals.
- Tokyo stocks fell sharply on Monday, with the Nikkei briefly dropping more than ¥1,400 intraday and closing down ¥407.59 at ¥64,916.70 after a sell-off in US high-technology shares pressured related Japanese firms.
- The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism began accepting applications for desired motorcycle license-plate numbers on Monday, with popular numbers to be allocated by lottery in some cases.
- Fifteen members of Japan's 68th Antarctic advance team departed Haneda on Monday to reach Showa Station and support an inland mission that will attempt to sample ice more than one million years old.