The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Runway entry alert operating normally during Tokyo airport collision

TOKYO - A monitoring system that alerts flight controllers when an aircraft enters an airport runway to prevent accidents was operating normally when a Japan Airlines jetliner collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport earlier this week, the transport ministry said Friday.

The function causes the entire runway to flash yellow on the controller's display, with the aircraft in red, when it detects an entry. Investigators will look into the possibility that the controller may have missed the onscreen alert.

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Toyota unable to start production in Japan as quake hits suppliers

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday that it will not be able to start this year's vehicle production in Japan as planned as some of its suppliers suffered damage from the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the country's Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day.

The automaker had initially planned to start production on Monday, but the plan was scratched after the quake in central Japan, President Koji Sato told reporters in Tokyo, adding that it will decide on the timing by Sunday.

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N. Korea fires 200 artillery shots near maritime border with South

SEOUL - North Korea fired some 200 artillery shells near the de facto maritime border with South Korea on Friday morning, the South Korean military said.

The shots came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in a significant policy shift, said inter-Korean relations have become those of "two states hostile to each other," with the South viewing the North as its "principal enemy."

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Biden frames 2024 presidential election as fight for democracy

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday opened his 2024 reelection campaign with harsh criticism of his likely opponent Donald Trump, warning that American democracy will be in jeopardy if his predecessor returns to the White House.

"Whether democracy is still America's sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time," Biden said in his speech on the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then President Trump. "That's what the 2024 (presidential) election is all about."

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Central Japan quake causes no problem at local nuclear plant: utility

TOKYO - A recent major earthquake that hit a wide area centering on the Noto Peninsula, central Japan, has caused no major safety problems at the local Shika nuclear power plant, the operator said in a postdisaster review Friday.

According to Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Monday's 7.6-magnitude quake registered upper 5 of a maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale beneath the No. 1 reactor of the plant in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture. The two-unit plant was offline at the time.

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Creator of Japan football manga "Captain Tsubasa" to finish series

TOKYO - The creator of the Japanese football manga "Captain Tsubasa" will finish the series in April, ending a 43-year run in which it captivated children and even professional footballers around the world, including Spanish star Andres Iniesta.

Tokyo publishing house Shueisha Inc. said Friday that Yoichi Takahashi will finish the manga series featuring the character Tsubasa, a football prodigy, in the last issue of Captain Tsubasa Magazine Vol. 20, to be released in early April.

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Japan's new car sales increase 13.8% in 2023, 1st rise in 5 yrs

TOKYO - New car sales in Japan grew 13.8 percent in 2023 from the previous year, climbing for the first time in five years as manufacturers ramped up production following an ease in the global semiconductor shortage, data from industry bodies showed Friday.

Automakers sold 4,779,086 cars domestically last year, including minivehicles with engines of up to 660 cc, although the numbers failed to recover to 2019 levels before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association.

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FEATURE: Disney's 100th-anniversary work "Wish" challenges status quo

TOKYO - The animated film "Wish" was released in Japan last month to celebrate Disney's 100th anniversary, paying tribute to the studio's classic repertoire while at the same time portraying a spiritual "revolution" that rejects conservative values.

While critics lauded the attempt to shake up the status quo, the film has garnered mixed reviews on social media, with some arguing that it failed to satisfy their version of a fairytale or went too far in what they saw as political messaging.

==Kyodo

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