News Headlines - 22 January 2021

▽Rio de Janeiro city gov't cancels this year's Carnival - La Prensa Latina Media

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes on Thursday announced the cancellation of Carnival this year due to fact that the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 has only just begun in Brazil but also because organizers have relatively little time left to organize the celebration for next July, as had been scheduled... The Rio Carnival, one of the world’s most famous such celebrations, had been scheduled for February 2021 but the samba schools, which are responsible for staging the celebration’s huge and colorful dance parades, had already decided to postpone it until July due to the coronavirus pandemic, although they had conditioned that move on the availability of a vaccine and a well-under-way vaccination campaign.

▽Pandemic raises Japan suicide rate after decade of decline | The Japan Times

The number of people taking their own lives in Japan rose for the first time in over a decade last year, as the pandemic reversed years of progress combating a stubbornly high suicide rate.
The health ministry said Friday that 20,919 people died by suicide in 2020 according to preliminary data, up 3.7% from the previous year. That compares with 3,460 deaths from coronavirus in the same period.
It marks the first year-on-year rise in suicides in more than a decade, with women and children in particular taking their lives at higher rates.

▽Fireball observed over wide areas of Japan | NHK WORLD

People in many parts of Japan have reported seeing what appeared to be a fireball flashing through the sky on Wednesday night.
Eyewitness reports were posted on social media about the phenomenon that was observed shortly after 8:30 p.m. in regions including Kanto, Tokai and Kinki.

▽Ad agency Dentsu weighs sale of Tokyo HQ in $3bn megadeal - Nikkei Asia

Advertising agency Dentsu Group will consider selling its headquarters in central Tokyo in a deal possibly worth around 300 billion yen ($2.9 billion), which would mark one of the largest property sales ever in Japan... Completed in 2002 in the waterfront district of Shiodome, Dentsu Group's headquarters stands roughly 210 meters tall with 48 floors above ground. The lower levels house a commercial complex called Caretta Shiodome.

▽Japanese comedian Yuji Tanaka hospitalized after stroke - The Mainichi

Yuji Tanaka, 56, one half of Japanese comedy duo Bakusho Mondai, was rushed to a Tokyo hospital in the small hours of Jan. 20 after complaining of a headache subsequently diagnosed as a stroke... In August 2020, Tanaka contracted the coronavirus and was hospitalized. He was discharged in September and made a full return to work.