Written by 
A giant float is paraded during the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage-listed Karatsu Kunchi festival in Karatsu in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 3, 2024. (Kyodo)
The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.
———-
33 changed gender in Japan without surgery after 2023 court ruling
TOKYO – At least 33 individuals changed their legal gender in Japan without surgery this year since the Supreme Court ruled against a law requiring transgender people to remove their reproductive capabilities for such alteration, a survey by the top court showed Sunday.
The data is the first comprehensive figure on gender changes since the top court declared in October last year that the controversial requirement was unconstitutional, as previous numbers were only based on individual reports.
———-
Reactor in Japan’s 2011 disaster area to stop just days after restart
SENDAI – A nuclear reactor in northeastern Japan will be halted just days after becoming the first one to restart in the region since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, the plant operator said Sunday, citing the need for checkups.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. said it has not confirmed any abnormalities in the No. 2 reactor at the Onagawa plant in Miyagi Prefecture. The latest decision stemmed from a problem in sending in a device necessary to confirm the reactor’s condition.
———-
Baseball: DeNA BayStars win 1st Japan Series title in 26 years
YOKOHAMA – Masayuki Kuwahara led the DeNA BayStars to their first Japan Series baseball title since 1998 and third in franchise history with a 11-2 rout of the SoftBank Hawks in Game 6 on Sunday.
Kuwahara, the series MVP, and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo drove in seven runs between them in the clincher as the pre-series underdog BayStars took a 3-0 lead in the second inning and put the game away with a seven-run fifth at Yokohama Stadium.
———-
Japanese official to meet China’s Wang to arrange leaders’ talks
TOKYO – Japan’s top national security official Takeo Akiba will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Monday to discuss a possible summit between the two countries’ leaders later this month, according to government sources.
The first summit between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took office on Oct. 1, and Chinese President Xi Jinping is being arranged on the sidelines of an international gathering to be held in South America, the sources said Sunday.
———-
U.S. forces, Okinawans yet to meet under new forum over assault cases
TOKYO – The U.S. military in Japan has yet to convene a new forum it announced in July to enhance cooperation with the Okinawa government and local residents, following alleged sexual assault cases involving its service members in the southern island prefecture.
The schedule for holding the first meeting is unclear, with the topics and participants also not decided.
———-
South Korea, U.S., Japan run joint air drills after North Korea ICBM launch
SEOUL – South Korea’s military said it held joint air drills Sunday with the United States and Japan, three days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that marked the longest-ever flight time for such a weapon from the country.
In response to Pyongyang’s missile launch, the trilateral exercise took place in airspace where the air defense identification zones of Seoul and Tokyo overlap, north of South Korea’s southern island of Jeju, the military said.
Video: Giant floats paraded at Karatsu Kunchi festival in Saga Prefecture
