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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Xi reluctant to resolve disputes with Japan during talks with Kishida

TOKYO - Chinese President Xi Jinping showed his reluctance to resolve recent disputes with Tokyo, such as Beijing's detention of Japanese citizens, during his talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in November, bilateral sources said Wednesday.

Xi also expressed a negative reaction to Kishida's request to remove a buoy installed by Beijing within Japan's exclusive economic zone near the Senkaku Islands, administrated by Tokyo in the East China Sea, the sources added.

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Okinawa appeals high court ruling over key U.S. base relocation

NAHA, Japan - The governor of Okinawa said Wednesday he has appealed last week's high court ruling that ordered him to approve a modified landfill plan to relocate a key U.S. military base within the southern island prefecture.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki has ignored the order by the Fukuoka High Court's Naha branch, setting the scene for the central government to approve in his place the modified plan for the transfer of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely-populated Ginowan to the Henoko coastal area in Nago.

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Tokyo gov't, state ordered to compensate for illegal investigation

TOKYO - A Japanese court on Wednesday ordered the Tokyo metropolitan government and the state to compensate the president of a Yokohama-based company and others for an unlawful investigation into alleged illegal export of items capable of producing biological weapons.

The Tokyo District Court awarded compensation totaling some 160 million yen ($1.1 million) to Masaaki Okawara, 74, president of machinery maker Ohkawara Kakohki Co., Junji Shimada, one of its former directors and the family of former adviser Shizuo Aishima, who died in February 2021 after falling ill during detainment.

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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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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.

==Kyodo

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