The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News.

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Japan PM says ruling coalition must deliver before upcoming elections

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday said his party must focus on delivering for voters to guarantee victory in the upcoming national and local elections, a day after the ruling camp won key gubernatorial races.

"We have to continue bracing ourselves" for a challenge while listening to voices of encouragement and hope for the Liberal Democratic Party and the ruling coalition including its junior partner Komeito, Kishida told reporters at his office.

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Japan's current account surplus down 2.3% in Feb. on year

TOKYO - Japan's current account surplus in February shrank 2.3 percent from a year earlier to 2.20 trillion yen ($16.6 billion) due to inflated imports on a weak yen, the Finance Ministry said Monday.

Helped by a slower increase in imports, the current account, one of the widest gauges of international trade, returned to the black after incurring a deficit in January, according to the ministry's preliminary data.

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Woman stabbed to death at Nagoya station, man hit by passing train

NAGOYA - An 18-year-old woman was found stabbed with a kitchen knife stuck in her chest in a platform waiting room at a station in the central Japan city of Nagoya on Saturday, police said.

Tsukine Kawamura was later confirmed dead, and the police suspect the involvement of a 29-year-old man, Takuya Minami, who died after jumping in front of a passing train from the same platform around the same time.

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Japan Display, China's HKC to jointly produce organic EL displays

TOKYO - Japan Display Inc. and Chinese display maker HKC Corp. have agreed to jointly build factories in China to produce a next-generation organic electroluminescent display, with plans to start mass production in 2025, JDI said Monday.

The total investment for the joint project could amount to hundreds of billions of yen, the Japanese firm said. HKC will cover the costs of factory construction while JDI will provide the expertise for manufacturing the product.

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Japan PM Kishida's ruling bloc wins key gubernatorial polls

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's ruling bloc on Sunday won key gubernatorial elections, with its candidates defeating their rivals backed by the leading opposition party in the first round of nationwide local polls.

The victories, such as that of Naomichi Suzuki, the incumbent governor of Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, may bode well for Kishida and his Liberal Democratic Party amid speculation that he could dissolve the lower house for a snap election at an early date.

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11-yr-old Japan dancer takes top prize in youth ballet competition

NEW YORK - An 11-year-old male Japanese ballet dancer won the top prize Sunday for his age group at a major international ballet competition for young dancers seeking to become professionals.

Shinji Mitoma, a sixth-grader from Yokohama, near Tokyo, triumphed in the category for boys aged 9 to 11 in classical ballet at the Youth America Grand Prix, known as the world's largest student ballet scholarship competition.

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FEATURE: Japan's "ama" divers struggle to survive as incomes plummet

TSU, Japan - Yoshino Uemura came late to the world of female "ama" divers, taking the plunge in her 40s. But now, over two decades later, she feels there is no time to lose if her chosen profession is to survive for future generations.

Clad in wetsuits, ama divers submerge to great depths without air tanks to gather abalone, seaweed and other seafood, and sometimes pearls. They exist only in Japan and South Korea, but in the profession's Japanese heartland of Mie Prefecture, it is dying out.

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Baseball: Ohtani homers off Kikuchi but Angels lose to Blue Jays

ANAHEIM, California - Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run homer off compatriot Yusei Kikuchi, one of his two hits on Sunday, but grounded out for the final out of the Los Angeles Angels' 12-11, 10-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

In a matchup between graduates of Iwate Prefecture's Hanamaki Higashi High School, Ohtani hit his third home run of the season, driving a 2-1 slider from the left-handed Kikuchi deep to left-center to push the Angels' lead to 5-0 in the third inning.

==Kyodo

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