SNA (Tokyo) — The following stories were reported today by the Shingetsu News Agency.

Politics

—Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, 92, rushed to hospital after becoming ill, but appears to have stabilized. He was in office under Keizo Obuchi and was often a voice of reason within the ruling party.

—The Party of Hope officially endorses “The Party of Hope” as its English-language name, not that anyone was suggesting otherwise.

—Despite Finance Ministry now proven to have sold public land to Moritomo Gakuen at rate far below justifiable price and then dumped the records, Finance Minister Taro Aso says he has no plans to punish any official.

—Finance Ministry admits there is at least one unreleased audio recording of negotiations between them and Moritomo Gakuen, so all records may not have been destroyed after all.

International

—Prime Minister Shinzo Abe supports the rightwing fantasy that foreign ownership of land near Japan and US military bases is somehow “a crucial issue concerning national security” in spite of there being not a single documented case of any problems.

—Japan government detects signals leading them to believe North Korea is preparing to fire more missiles within the next couple days.

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