 Around the World: Japan
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-04 07:42 Fukuda 'to attend Olympics' Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has decided to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, local media reported yesterday. Fukuda will be the first Japanese prime minister to attend an Olympics opening ceremony since the late Noboru Takeshita did so in Seoul in 1988, Kyodo News Agency reported. He will arrive in Beijing on Aug 8 and then return home in time to attend a memorial service for victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki the next day. Kyodo reported that Fukuda will travel in a small-sized, 19-seat airplane of the Air Self-Defense Force, rather than using a government aircraft, in order to save fuel. (China Daily 07/04/2008 page12) |
