From The Mainichi:
Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. said Friday it will expand its flights between Tokyo and Europe, launching new routes connecting to Milan, Stockholm and Istanbul starting later this year to stoke demand for travel to and from Japan.
Francis Tang from The Japan Times:
Alberto Felice De Toni, the mayor of Udine in northern Italy, proclaimed a day of mourning on Wednesday in honor of Shimpei Tominaga, saying his loss represents “a serious and painful wound” for the city.
Local media reported that Tominaga, a Japanese businessman who ran a furniture trading firm in Udine, got beaten up while trying to break up a fight last Friday. He fell into a coma and had been put under intensive care at a local hospital but died on Tuesday.
Shimpei Kawakami from Nikkei:
European countries are sending more air and sea forces to Asia for defense exercises with Japan, bringing them closer to what remains a distant security challenge: China.
A destroyer from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force held an exercise with a Turkish navy corvette on Sunday. Earlier this month, a Dutch frigate participated in the Netherlands' first joint exercise with an MSDF destroyer before heading to the upcoming U.S.-led international Rim of the Pacific exercise off Hawaii.
Regardless if anyone will say it out loud, but Japan is clearly a hub for a greater Pacific alliance of western nations against China, Russia, and North Korea. The real question is if Abe's dream of expanding the SDF into a military will become reality within this framework.