News Headlines - 20 February 2021

▽Water Levels at Fukushima Reactor Containers Falling - JIJI PRESS

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said Friday that the water levels in the containment vessels for the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors at its disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have fallen by tens of centimeters. The water levels continue falling by several centimeters a day, according to TEPCO.

▽Honda appoints Japan R&D chief Toshihiro Mibe as new CEO | The Japan Times

Honda Motor Co. is promoting its current head of research and development Toshihiro Mibe to chief executive, the latest in a number of bold moves the automaker is taking to step beyond its more than half-a-century-long reliance on selling gasoline-powered cars.
Mibe, 59, will also assume the president role effective April 1, the company said in a statement Friday. Honda’s current CEO Takahiro Hachigo, who helmed the firm for six years, will become a director as of that date and then retire from the company at its general meeting in June.

▽Kim Jong Un’s wife reappears after unusual one-year absence | The Japan Times

The wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made her first public appearance in a year, ending an unusual absence that stoked speculation about her condition.
Ri Sol Ju joined her husband at a musical performance for the anniversary of the birth of former leader Kim Jong Il, which is known as the Day of the Shining Star in North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

▽China takes another baby step toward ending birth limits - Nikkei Asia

China is showing greater urgency on its looming demographic crisis, moving to let three northeastern provinces look into scrapping restrictions on how many children a woman can bear in her lifetime.
Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang will be able to study removing birth limits, the National Health Commission said Thursday. The research could lead to pilot programs to adjust policies on family planning.
China's old one-child policy was instituted around 1980 amid overpopulation fears. It became a victim of its own success, with a shrinking working-age population dragging down the potential economic growth rate and creating concerns over a strained social safety net.

▽At least 2 protesters killed in Myanmar as police open fire - Nikkei Asia

At least two people were killed in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, on Saturday when police opened fire to disperse protests against the military coup, according to local media.
This brings the number of deaths among protesters to three, including a woman who died on Friday.