A regular passenger ferry connecting Okayama City and Shodoshima is set to begin commercial operations using autonomous navigation technology within the current fiscal year, according to an announcement on December 10th by the Nippon Foundation, which confirmed that the vessel Orinpia Dream Seto has been certified by the national government as the world’s first regular passenger ship approved for commercial autonomous operation, a milestone expected to ease the industry’s chronic crew shortages. (News On Japan)

Asahi Beer announced on December 10th that its sales in November fell by roughly 20 percent from a year earlier, marking a deeper decline than in October, as the company continues to feel the impact of a system outage caused by a cyberattack on Asahi Group Holdings in late September that forced restrictions on shipments of gift items such as year-end offerings, while a spike in orders when the company resumed taking requests in October is also believed to have contributed to the downturn. (News On Japan)

The Nobel Prize award ceremony was held on the evening of December 10th, or early on December 11th in Japan, at the Stockholm Concert Hall, where King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presented the highest honors — the medal and certificate — to Osaka University specially appointed professor Shimon Sakaguchi, 74, the recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and Kyoto University distinguished professor Susumu Kitagawa, 74, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (News On Japan)

America’s business magazine Forbes announced on December 10th that Prime Minister Takaichi has been ranked third on its list of the “World’s Most Powerful Women,” placing the Japanese leader near the top of a global ranking of 100 figures across politics, business, and culture, and marking a prominent acknowledgment of Japan’s first female prime minister. (News On Japan)

China’s Foreign Ministry issued a renewed advisory on December 11th urging Chinese nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Japan, reiterating a call made nearly one month ago but this time citing a series of earthquakes observed off the eastern coast of Honshu as the reason for heightened caution. (News On Japan)

A supplementary budget worth 18.3 trillion yen for the current fiscal year was approved by a majority vote in the Lower House Budget Committee on December 11th, backed by the ruling coalition and part of the opposition, and is expected to pass the upcoming plenary session before being sent to the Upper House. (News On Japan)