Sim Sata, Director of the Department of Copyright and Related Rights of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, attended the 45th Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 15–19, 2024.
The meeting was attended by member states of the World Intellectual Property Organisation on the rights of authors, observers, and international organisations related to copyright rights around the world.
The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the draft treaty on the Broadcasting Organization Treaty. There will also be discussions about exemptions and restrictions on eligibility.
The treaty is scheduled to conclude negotiations and discussions this year and be submitted to the WIPO General Assembly a Diploma Conference in 2025.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has apparently succeeded in demonstrating the strong Japan-U.S. ties around the world during his latest visit to the United States as a state guest, but he may find it difficult to leverage the diplomatic achievement in shoring up his flagging administration. "I was able to tell the U.S. Congress, the American people and the world what kind of future Japan and the United States, as global partners, are trying to create for the next generation," Kishida told reporters in the southern U.S. state of North Carolina on Friday. At a White House summit Wednesday, Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to strengthen their countries' cooperation in various fields, including security and defense, apparently keeping China, which is increasing its hegemonic moves, in mind. In his speech at a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Kishida underlined the need for Japan and the United States to work together to maintain the international order, receiving a standing ovation from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. In North Carolina, Kishida highlighted Japanese companies' investment in the United States, through his visits to an automotive battery plant of Toyota Motor Corp. and a factory of Honda Motor Co.'s aircraft unit, making preparations in case former U.S. President Donald Trump, who attaches importance to bolstering economic benefits for his country, returns to the White House in the November presidential election.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden announced a “new era” for their countries’ alliance during a state visit to Washington by the Japanese leader on Wednesday, with the pair heralding a historic upgrade of defense ties as they look to beef up Tokyo’s role in countering China’s growing assertiveness.
The state visit — which includes all the fanfare, from a military honor guard in full regalia and a swanky black tie banquet — was the culmination of years of deepening cooperation under Biden and Kishida that has taken the U.S.-Japan relationship to new heights.
“Over the last three years, the partnership between Japan and the United States has been transformed into a truly global partnership,” Biden said ahead of talks with Kishida at the White House.
The two leaders pledged to push ties even closer, unveiling plans to revamp the U.S. military’s command and control frameworks in Japanfollowing a similar move by the Self-Defense Forces, “to enable seamless integration of operations and capabilities and allow for greater interoperability and planning between U.S. and Japanese forces.”
The move comes as concerns rise over China’s military moves around democratic Taiwan and nuclear-armed North Korea’s increasingly belligerent saber-rattling.
Talks on those changes would be fleshed out at so-called two-plus-two talks between the allies’ defense chiefs and top diplomats, Kishida said. A meeting is expected to take place in the coming months.
In total, Biden and Kishida unveiled a spate of around 70 agreements — in what one senior White House official said was “the largest set of substantial, significant deliverables that we've seen” to date.
The two sides also said they would create a new consultative body "to leverage our respective industrial bases to meet the demand for critical capabilities and maintain readiness over the long term." The Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition and Sustainment (DICAS) forum, co-led by the Pentagon and Japanese Defense Ministry, would use this "to identify priority areas for partnering U.S. and Japanese industry" on defense and military equipment.
Biden and Kishida also unveiled plans to upgrade defense communications networks and to network air defense capabilities between the U.S., Australia and Japan to counter air and missile threats.
Biden characterized the bolstered ties as “the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established,” with one senior White House official calling the developments “unimaginable just a few years ago and frankly, unimaginable with a leader other than Fumio Kishida.”
The visit highlighted the importance that Biden has put on building up alliances in the face of China, but especially its alliance with Japan — which has undergone a dramatic shift in defense policy overseen by Kishida.
This shift has included a commitment to increase defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027 and most recently an easing of strict defense export guidelines to enable the transfer of a future sixth-generation fighter aircraft and finished defense products, including lethal ones, manufactured in Japan under foreign license to the patent-holding countries.
At a news conference following about two hours of talks, Biden touted his push to “rebuild the muscle” of the United States’ alliances, which he called “America’s greatest asset.”
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Bank of Japan policymakers at their meeting in January discussed proactively its monetary policy management after the end of the central bank’s negative interest rate policy, minutes of the meeting showed Monday.
The BOJ’s Policy Board decided last week to end the policy of applying an interest rate of minus 0.1% on part of commercial financial institutions’ current account deposits at the central bank, marking its first interest rate hike in about 17 years.
The board also decided to scrap the yield curve control regime, which called for guiding the yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds to around zero.
As to the BOJ’s new short-term interest rate target after the termination of the negative rate policy, one Policy Board member said at the Jan. 22-23 meeting that the bank would encourage the unsecured overnight call rate, the key short-term interbank lending rate, to move “in a range of zero to 0.1%,” the minutes showed.
Some members said that the BOJ would continue JGB purchases regardless of whether the yield curve control framework is terminated, indicating that a system to prevent a spike in long-term interest rates should be in place after the abolition of the yield curve control, according to the minutes.
At last week’s meeting, the Policy Board decided to nudge the unsecured overnight call rate to around zero to 0.1% and continue buying massive amounts of JGBs for the time being, while scrapping the yield curve control framework, including the application of the negative interest rate on some current account deposits. The yield curve control was the pillar of the BOJ’s ultraeasy monetary policy.
At the Jan. 22-23 meeting, Policy Board members agreed on the importance of the BOJ organizing its “basic thinking” on points it should take into account when changing its policy and on its policy conduct thereafter, in light of the growing likelihood of the central bank’s 2% consumer inflation target being met, the minutes showed.
Many members agreed that accommodative financial conditions would “highly likely” be maintained after the BOJ takes policy actions such as ending the negative rate policy, according to the minutes.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has issued a statement on Friday’s deadly attack in Moscow, in which at least 113 people died.
In the statement, entitled “Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation on the Terrorist Attack at Moscow Crocus Concert Hall”, the Ministry states:
“We are shocked by the deaths of dozens of people and hundreds injured in a terrorist attack at the Moscow Crocus Concert Hall on 22 March 2024.
The Royal Government of Cambodia condemns the vicious attack in the strongest possible terms.
We extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims and the Government of the Russian Federation, and wish a speedy and full recovery to those injured.
Cambodia reiterates that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of motivation. We stand with the Russian government and people during this time of grief.”
Donald Trump appears to be scrambling for funds to pay a $464m (£365m) fraud fine. Could the stock market ride to his rescue?
Trump Media, which runs the social media platform Truth Social, is poised to become a publicly listed company, after a majority of shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp voted on Friday to acquire it.
Mr Trump is due to have a stake of at least 58% in the merged company, worth nearly $3bn at Digital World's current share prices.
It's an astonishing potential windfall for Mr Trump in exchange for a business whose own auditor warned last year it was at risk of failure.
Never mind the many red flags associated with the deal, including unresolved lawsuits from former business partners. There's also an $18m settlement that Digital World agreed to pay last year to resolve fraud charges over how the merger plan came together.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk in Beijing on Thursday.
Noting that China and Cambodia are good neighbours, good friends and good partners, Han said bilateral relations have withstood the test of the evolving international landscape and remained rock-solid for more than half a century, setting a fine example of equality and mutual benefits between countries of different sizes.
He said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China and Cambodia have ushered in a new era of building a high-quality, high-level and high-standard China-Cambodia community with a shared future.
“China stands ready to work with Cambodia to implement the important consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, push for new progress in China-Cambodia comprehensive strategic cooperation and bring more benefits to the two peoples,” Han added.
Sihamoni and Monineath expressed appreciation for China’s long-term selfless assistance to Cambodia and a series of global initiatives proposed by China, noting that Cambodia firmly abides by the one-China principle and is willing to join hands with China to build a Cambodia-China community with a shared future, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields and pass on the traditional friendship from generation to generation.Xinhua
North Korea appears to have fired at least two ballistic missiles on Monday.
Japan said that North Korea fired a second suspected ballistic missile on Monday morning, which also fell in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone(EEZ).
According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, Japan’s defense ministry said North Korea fired what appeared to be a ballistic missile at 8:24 a.m. and Japan’s coast guard said the missile already landed in waters outside Japan’s EEZ.
The announcement came soon after the ministry said the North had fired a suspected ballistic missile at 7:54 a.m., which fell outside the EEZ.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly ordered the government to collect and analyze information regarding the launch and ensure the swift and accurate disclosure of information to the public.
He also instructed the government to make every effort to confirm the safety of aircraft and ships.
When the widow of the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny addressed the European Parliament recently, she said something striking. "If you really want to defeat Putin, you have to become an innovator," Yulia Navalnaya told MEPs. "And you have to stop being boring."
Being innovative and interesting may be traits not always associated with some European politicians.
But they are having to think differently, not just about how better to support Ukraine but also to increase pressure on Russia.
The shadow of a potential Donald Trump presidency hangs over the continent, raising doubts about America's long-term backing for Ukraine.
A $60bn (£47bn) package of US military support for Ukraine is held up in the House of Representatives. And on the battlefield, Russian forces are beginning to make gains against their less well armed opponents.
Two years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European capitals have largely maintained their political backing for Kyiv.
In January the European Union agreed in January a €50bn package ($55bn; £43bn) of grants and loans to fund Ukraine's government and public services.
But the EU failed to meet its target of sending one million shells to Ukraine by the beginning of this month.
EU diplomats are still haggling over plans for a new €5bn top-up to the European Peace Facility to buy more weapons for Kyiv. And Nato says that this year about 12 European members may still not meet the alliance's target of spending 2% of national output on defence.
As China's annual parliamentary sitting comes to a close after a hectic week of meetings, a glaring void looms on Monday's final agenda.
The National People's Congress is usually capped off by the premier's press conference. But this year, and for the rest of the term, the tradition has been mysteriously nixed.
Officials have said there was no need for it given there were other opportunities for journalists to ask questions. But many observers saw it as another sign of consolidation and control, in what became a running theme for the congress, even as top officials preached openness.
The cancellation of the press conference also effectively diminishes Premier Li Qiang's profile. Though the event was scripted, it was a rare chance for foreign journalists to ask questions and gave the country's second-in-command some room to flex his muscles.
In years past, it even yielded some unexpected moments. In 2020 then-premier Li Keqiang disclosed figures that stoked debate over a government claim that it had eradicated poverty.
The dimming of the spotlight on the premier, along with a shorter congress this year, are all signs of ongoing structural change within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) where President Xi Jinping is increasingly accumulating power at the expense of other individuals and institutions, noted Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore who studies Chinese governance.
But to the outside world, the party is keen on projecting a different kind of image as it battles dwindling foreign investor confidence and a general malaise in its economy.
Addressing international journalists last week, foreign minister Wang Yi insisted China was still an attractive place to invest in and do business.
"China remains strong as an engine for growth. The 'next China' is still China," he said, before citing ways in which "China is opening its door wider".
This year's economic blueprint, delivered by Mr Li at the start of the session, laid out plans to open up more areas to foreign investment and reducing market access restrictions in sectors such as manufacturing and services.
These moves come after foreign investors were spooked by recent anti-espionage and data protection laws, as well as several sudden high-profile detentions of Chinese and foreign businessmen. Foreign direct investment in China recently fell to a 30-year low.
"There are fewer political checks and balances, there is no transparency. This is the bigger concern for investors… you cannot predict what's going to happen, so you avoid the risk," said Dr Wu.
