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

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Regulators lift operation ban on TEPCO nuclear plant in Niigata Pref.

TOKYO - Japan's nuclear watchdog said Wednesday it has lifted its de facto ban on the operation of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture, more than two years after an order was issued for the improvement of counterterrorism measures.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority confirmed that measures had been enhanced after inspections of the seven-reactor complex on the Sea of Japan coast and hearing from TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa, but it remains uncertain whether the nuclear plant will resume operation as the trouble-prone utility still needs to obtain local consent.

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Office of LDP faction member searched amid funds scandal

TOKYO - Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday searched the Tokyo office of Yoshitaka Ikeda, a House of Representatives lawmaker belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, amid a political fundraising scandal.

The faction, formerly led by slain Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is alleged to have failed to declare hundreds of millions of yen in revenue from its fundraising parties in political funding reports and created slush funds.

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Toyota global output hits new 1-year high on robust overseas demand

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its global output from January to November reached 9.23 million vehicles, soaring to a new single-year record with still one month left in 2023, helped by robust demand in North America and Europe.

The all-time high came as the automaker's worldwide production for November rose 11.2 percent from a year earlier to 926,573 cars, a single-month record. The previous high in a full year was 9.05 million units in 2019.

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Sentences finalized for 3 ex-SDF members guilty of indecent assault

FUKUSHIMA - Two-year suspended prison sentences were finalized on Wednesday for three former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members found guilty of indecently assaulting their former subordinate Rina Gonoi.

The high-profile legal battle ended after the Fukushima District Court on Dec. 12 handed down the sentence, suspended for four years, to Shutaro Shibuya, 31, Akito Sekine, 30, and Yusuke Kimezawa, 29, recognizing the men used martial arts techniques to force Gonoi, 24, onto a bed, where they got on top of her and pressed their bodies against hers.

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N. Korea begins key year-end party meeting, Kim hails achievements

BEIJING - North Korea's ruling party opened Tuesday a key year-end meeting to review its policies from 2023 and discuss a draft budget for next year, with leader Kim Jong Un hailing achievements in boosting "national power," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Kim, who presided over the plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, in his report defined 2023 as "a year of great turn," in which North Korea "left a great trace in the glorious course of development in the efforts to improve the national power and enhance the prestige of the country," KCNA said Wednesday.

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Japan gov't rejects Nagasaki casino resort plan due to funding woes

TOKYO - The government on Wednesday rejected a plan to open a casino resort in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, amid doubts about the feasibility of its funding.

The plan for the so-called integrated resort had been under review by the government since April, following the approval of a similar project in Osaka.

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BOJ members at Dec. meeting saw need for policy normalization debate

TOKYO - Bank of Japan board members cited the need for a debate on a future exit from its ultralow interest rate policy, while maintaining the current framework for the time being to ensure wage growth accelerates, a summary of their December meeting showed Wednesday.

One member said at the Dec. 18-19 policy meeting that the likelihood of achieving the BOJ's goal of stable inflation of 2 percent was rising and therefore the timing of policy normalization was "getting closer."

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FEATURE: Global Peruvian food boom has deeper ties in Japan

TOKYO - Japan and Peru may seem to have little in common, but as Peruvian cuisine has gained global recognition this year, chefs with roots in the South American country are serving up meals to treat Japanese taste buds with a side of history.

With the two countries celebrating 150 years of diplomatic relations in 2023, restauranteurs and members of the Peruvian-Japanese community are also reflecting on how their culinary traditions have evolved through intercultural exchange.

==Kyodo

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