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

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G7 leaders agree to provide $50 billion in loans for Ukraine

FASANO, Italy - Leaders of the Group of Seven countries agreed Thursday to provide at least $50 billion in loans for Ukraine, using interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor more than two years ago, senior U.S. and Japanese officials said.

In addition to Ukraine's future, a major topic on the first day of their summit in Fasano, southern Italy, was the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, with the G7 members having endorsed a cease-fire plan presented by the United States.

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BOJ to reduce gov't bond buying, details to be released in July

TOKYO - The Bank of Japan decided Friday to reduce its government bond buying, in a further step toward policy normalization after years of massive monetary stimulus to achieve stable inflation.

At the end of a two-day policy meeting, the BOJ did not specify by how much it would taper its bond purchases, currently set at around 6 trillion yen ($38 billion) per month. A detailed reduction plan for the next year or two will be released when the Policy Board meets in July, it said.

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Japan enacts laws for new foreign worker scheme amid labor crisis

TOKYO - Japan's parliament on Friday enacted revised laws to replace the nation's controversy-plagued foreign trainee program with a new system that encourages workers from abroad to stay longer, as authorities look to address the serious labor shortage created by the country's demographic crisis.

The changes also include contentious new measures to revoke permanent residence status from individuals who fail to pay taxes or social insurance premiums. The laws will take effect within three years of their promulgation.

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Yen sinks to 158 range vs dollar as BOJ says it will cut bond buying

TOKYO - The yen briefly sank to the lower 158 range against the U.S. dollar on Friday in Tokyo after the Bank of Japan said it will reduce its purchases of government bonds without specifying the size of the cuts.

The Japanese currency, trading in the lower 157 range versus the dollar in the morning, dropped to around 158.10 after the BOJ announcement.

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Tohoku Univ. to become 1st to receive new Japan gov't research grants

TOKYO - The government is set to provide substantial research grants to Tohoku University, the education ministry said Friday, in the first such move under a program aimed at elevating Japanese research institutes in the global rankings.

The university in the northeastern city of Sendai had been selected as the only candidate for receiving the grants, to be paid out of profits generated from a 10 trillion yen ($63.5 billion) fund for up to 25 years from fiscal 2024.

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Key figure in burned bodies case north of Tokyo faces murder charge

TOKYO - A man was served with a fresh arrest warrant Friday on suspicion of murdering his partner's parents whose bodies were found burned north of Tokyo in April, with police believing he ordered the crime.

Seiha Sekine, 32, is among six men who have already been arrested for allegedly damaging and abandoning the corpses of the couple. Ryo Maeda, 36, who managed the property at which the couple are believed to have been killed, was also served with a fresh arrest warrant on suspicion of murder Friday.

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Japan pianist arrested for allegedly stealing cabin attendant's apron

TOKYO - A Japanese pianist has been arrested for stealing a cabin attendant's apron from a parked All Nippon Airways plane in April, police said Friday.

Kazuya Saito, a 34-year-old Tokyo resident, admitted to the theft, with police quoting him as saying, "Collecting women's uniforms is my hobby. I smelled it and wore it myself."

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Record 80,000 consumer complaints made for social media scams in 2023

TOKYO - Consumers in Japan made a record 80,404 reports in 2023 about shopping and financial scams on social media, up by nearly 20,000 cases from the previous year, the government said Friday.

There was a significant increase in complaints to government consumer affairs centers from people in their 50s or older, while the number of reports over issues with subscription-based services also surged by over 20,000 from 2022 to a record 98,101, it said.

==Kyodo

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