Since April, heatstroke has killed 59 people in Japan, according to the disaster management agency. Parasols and chunky necklaces that can be stored in the freezer have been a common sight around Tokyo, where street performer Jiro Kan, 56, told AFP he was feeling the heat. “After spending two hoursContinue Reading
SEOUL: Korean Air will stop serving instant cup noodles, a popular snack in Korea known as ramyeon that requires boiling water, on its long-haul flights, part of changes in response to increased turbulence incidents. Concerns about turbulence on planes have heightened since a Singapore Airlines flight from London in MayContinue Reading
Speaking to the state broadcaster on Monday (Jul 29), the university’s vice president Zhao Hongguang said graduates can pursue careers in industry associations, marriage agencies, or family and marriage counselling organisations, to name some.
According to Ms Yu, there is currently a lack of highly trained professionals in the wedding and matchmaking industries in China. There has also been increasing demand for people who can provide “sophisticated wedding planning services and design and develop matchmaking services”.
The unveiling of a marriage-related degree comes as the country of 1.4 billion people keeps up a concerted push to encourage marriages and childbirth in turn, especially as the implications of a declining population weigh heavy.
The number of marriages in China has been going down for close to a decade, aside from a post-pandemic rebound in 2023. While the number of newlyweds rose to 7.68 million last year, a 12.3 per cent on-year jump, it’s still far below the peak of 13.47 million couples in 2013.
Marriage rates are closely tied to birth rates. But more women in the country are choosing to stay single, amid record youth unemployment and an economic downturn.
According to official data, China’s single population aged over 15 hit a record 239 million in 2021. That same year, a Communist Youth League survey of about 2,900 unmarried urban young people also found that 44 per cent of women do not plan to marry.
In March, Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged that the government would work towards “a birth-friendly society and promote long-term, balanced population development”, as well as reducing the cost of childbirth, parenting and education.
He said the country would improve policies to boost birth rates by “refining parental leave policies, improving the mechanism for sharing the related labour costs of employers and increasing the supply of childcare services”.
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday (Jul 30) “a threat from China to any country is a threat to the world”, emphasising to lawmakers of more than 20 countries that global democracies must unite against “authoritarian expansion”. China has in recent years stepped up military and political pressures onContinue Reading
TOKYO: Grilled eel, or unagi, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.
Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunch boxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.
One of the customers – reportedly a woman in her 90s – died, Shinji Kaneko told reporters on Monday (Jul 29), bowing deeply and offering “our most sincere condolences”.
The products included eel cooked in the traditional “kabayaki” style: Skewered, grilled and basted in a sweet, sticky mixture of soy sauce and mirin rice wine.
Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and remains found in Japanese tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years.
A probe by health officials detected a type of bacteria called staphylococcus aureus in the products, Keikyu Department Store said.
“We take what happened very seriously and feel deeply sorry about it. We will fully cooperate with investigations by public health authorities,” Kaneko said.
Tokyo-based restaurant Isesada, which operates a stand inside the Keikyu department store, was responsible for cooking and directly selling the eel products.
Summer floods in North Korea often cause serious damage to farmlands due to poor drainage, deforestation and dilapidated infrastructure. Typhoons and torrential rains in 2020 were among the difficulties Kim previously said had created “multiple crises” at home, along with draconian pandemic-related restrictions and UN sanctions over his nuclear weaponsContinue Reading
BEIJING: According to state media reports on Sunday ( Jul 28 ), persistent heavy rain from Tropical Storm Gaemi caused flash floods in northeast China on the border with North Korea and caused railway disruptions and landslides in other areas of the nation. Two officers, including the deputy governor ofContinue Reading
The military leaders vowed to increase war effectiveness by staging an “overwhelming assault on the army anywhere and without delay and completely eliminate them again the respectable Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gives an order, while accusing the US and South Korea of “being hell-bent on provoking a radioactive war.”Continue Reading
Tokyo: According to officials and media reports from Friday ( Jul 26 ), record heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan as rivers burst their banks wreak havoc on bridges and cars. In Yamagata and Akita regions on the major area of Honshu,Continue Reading
” Big Floods” Officials in China were alerted that Typhoon Gaemi was bringing with it heavy storms that might cause flooding. They have relocated more than 290, 000 people in Fujian and locked down public transportation, offices, schools and businesses in some places. In the neighboring Zhejiang province, film airedContinue Reading