The researchers found that low sex drive is often a symptom of more serious health problems that can increase the risk of chronic disease, including cardiovascular issues, obesity and poor lifestyle habits.

They noted that sexual interest is essential for maintaining positive sexual relationships and sexual function, which have been recognised as important indicators of good health and quality of life.

The study titled ‘Association between lack of sexual interest and all-cause mortality in a Japanese general population: The Yamagata prospective observational study’ was published in PLOS One.

The study was led by Prof Kaori Sakurada of the Department of Fundamental Nursing, Yamagata University Graduate School of Nursing, Yamagata, Japan.

The study enrolled 20,969 people – 8,558 males and 12,411 females, who participated in annual health check-ups in Yamagata Prefecture, and their sexual habits and interests were examined over a decade.

The researchers said, “Based on our results, we suggest that lack of sexual interest itself contributes to an increased risk of all-cause mortality, independent of established risk factors in men over 40 years old. However, it is possible that some important confounding factors were not identified or adjusted.

They noted that how the lack of sexual interest impacts health and longevity remained precisely unknown, but several possibilities could be considered.

Commenting on the study, a consultant urologist at the Ogah Hospital and Urology Centre, Fugar, Edo State, Dr Gabriel Ogah, said being healthy could increase longevity and sexual drive logically.

“When people are healthy, they are more likely to have a high libido. If someone is more healthy and has more money in his pocket, his libido will be high because that person can fund it. But if you have no money to pay for your temptation, then you won’t have a high libido, generally.

“But, that study is isolated. Before you can conclude that low sex drive is associated with an increased risk of early death, you have to carry out studies from different parts of the world. There should be multinational studies to make such a claim. The study has to be repeated in different countries and different situations. There is a logical link, but not medically established yet.”

He also said exercise, balanced diet, healthy weight increase sex drive.

The urologist and the researchers agreed that further study was required to clarify the mechanisms which underlie the preventive effects of sexual interest on mortality, the researchers said.

The last time North Korea fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of “fire and fury” when Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un traded insults with then-US president Donald Trump.

South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch of an IRBM, which flew around 4,500 km (2800 miles) at an altitude of about 970 km and speeds of around Mach 17.

“Specific details are under close analysis by South Korean and US intelligence,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff added in a statement.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a “provocation” that violated UN regulations

Yoon “ordered a stern response and to take corresponding measures in cooperation with the United States and the international community”, his office said in a statement.

Tokyo also confirmed the launch of an IRBM, activating the country’s missile alert warning system and urging people to take shelter.

“North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please evacuate into buildings or underground,” the government said in an alert issued at 7:29 am (2229 GMT Monday).

National broadcaster NHK said the alert was in effect for two northern regions of the country.

“A ballistic missile is believed to have passed over our country and fallen in the Pacific Ocean. This is an act of violence following recent repeated launches of ballistic missiles. We strongly condemn this,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that North Korea “has in the past launched Hwasong 12-type missiles four times, so this could be the same type”.

If so, the flight distance, which Tokyo estimated at 4,600 km, was thought to be a new record for that particular missile.

The last two times North Korea fired Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan, in September and August 2017, they travelled 3,700 km and 2,700 km respectively, Chad O’Carroll of Seoul-based specialist site NK News wrote on Twitter.

“This is the 8th test of the Hwasong-12 and the 3rd time it has overflown Japan,” Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies wrote on Twitter.

Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said the pandemic had interrupted the free flow of people, goods and capital that had helped the nation flourish.

“But from October 11, Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the US, as well as resume visa-free travel and individual travel,” said Kishida, who is in the city for the United Nations General Assembly.

Japan, along with China, has been a holdout in continuing tough restrictions on visitors, as much of the world has moved on from the pandemic.

But unlike China, Japan never imposed a strict lockdown during the crisis.

Tourists who come to Japan will enjoy a weak yen, which has plummeted so low against the dollar that the finance ministry intervened in the currency market Thursday for the first time since 1998.

The return of the visa-waiver program suspended in March 2020 will restore the ease of access that saw a record 31.9 million foreign visitors to the country in 2019.

Since June, Japan has allowed tourists to visit in groups accompanied by guides, a requirement that was further relaxed to include self-guided package tours.

The cautious approach to reopening has been deliberate, said James Brady, Japan analysis lead at US-based consultancy Teneo.

Kishida “took office a year ago knowing that perceived mishandling of the pandemic had been a key factor in undermining public confidence” in his predecessor’s government, Brady told AFP.

“He has been extremely careful not to repeat those mistakes.”

Japan has recorded around 42,600 coronavirus deaths in total — a vastly lower rate than many other countries — and 90 percent of residents aged 65 and over have had three vaccine shots.

There is no law requiring people to wear masks, but they are still near-ubiquitous in public places like trains and shops, with many Japanese willing to sport masks when ill even before the pandemic.

On the streets of Tokyo, members of the public hailed the announcement.

“I think it’s a good thing to gradually bring foreign tourists back here,” said Michio Kano, 76, who runs a bar.

He called for the move to be followed by a loosening of anti-Covid rules.

“You can’t soften the rules on one side for foreigners and still say to the Japanese, ‘Don’t do this or that’,” he said.

Katsunori Mukai, 28, said Japan should welcome tourists as long as there are no surges in cases.

“It’s true that here we still have the culture of wearing masks and other things but I think that if there is no serious danger of catching a serious disease in general, people can come as many times as they want,” he said.

While the return of mass tourism should give a “slight bump” to Japan’s economy, the benefits are likely to be limited by China’s zero-Covid policy, Brady, the analyst, said.

“Much of the economic benefit pre-pandemic came from high numbers of Chinese visitors coming and spending lots of money on tech products (and) cosmetics,” he explained.

But “currently, Chinese citizens face their own travel restrictions at home and won’t be traveling to Japan in large numbers.”

There is pent-up demand for travel to the country, however, according to Olivier Ponti, vice president of insights for travel analytics firm ForwardKeys.

“Searches for travel to Japan reached their highest point this year at the end of August,” and while flight bookings were just 16 percent of 2019 levels in early September, “we’d expect bookings to jump” when the visa rules are scrapped, Ponti said.

Demand from Europe may still be subdued “due to the increase in the cost of living in Europe caused by the Russian-Ukraine crisis plus the rising fuel costs driving up air travel costs,” said Liz Ortiguera, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

“Former prime minister Abe was shot at around 11:30 am,” in the country’s western region of Nara, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, told reporters.

“One man, believed to be the shooter, has been taken into custody. The condition of former prime minister Abe is currently unknown.”

“Whatever the reason, such a barbaric act can never be tolerated, and we strongly condemn it,” Matsuno added

Abe was fighting for his life on Friday after being shot at a campaign event, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said, condemning the “absolutely unforgivable” attack.

“Abe was shot in Nara and I have been informed he is in a very grave condition,” Kishida told reporters after arriving in Tokyo by helicopter from the campaign trail.

“I pray that former prime minister Abe will survive,” the visibly emotional leader said.

“It is a barbaric act during election campaigning, which is the foundation of democracy, and it is absolutely unforgivable. I condemn this act in the strongest terms.”

Local media including national broadcaster NHK and the Kyodo news agency said Abe appeared to be in “cardiorespiratory arrest”, a term often used in Japan before a feared death can be officially confirmed by a coroner.

The attack on a man who may be Japan’s best-known politician comes despite the country’s famously low levels of violent crime and tough gun laws, and with politicians campaigning ahead of upper house elections on Sunday.

Abe, 67, had been delivering a stump speech with security present, but spectators were able to approach him fairly easily.

Footage broadcast by the NHK showed him standing on a stage when a loud blast was heard with smoke visible in the air.

As spectators and reporters ducked, a man was shown being tackled to the ground by security.

Local media identified the man as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, citing police sources, with several media outlets describing him as a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, the country’s navy.

Witnesses at the scene described shock as the political event turned into chaos.

“He was giving a speech and a man came from behind,” a young woman told NHK.

“The first shot sounded like a toy bazooka. He didn’t fall and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible, you could see the spark and smoke,” she added.

“After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him cardiac massage.”

Abe was bleeding from the neck, witnesses said and photographs showed. He was reportedly initially responsive but subsequently lost consciousness.

Officials from the local chapter of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party said there had been no threats before the incident and that his speech had been announced publicly.

The attack prompted international shock.

This is a very, very sad moment,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at a G20 meeting in Bali, saying the United States was “deeply saddened and deeply concerned”.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha was “very shocked” at Abe’s shooting, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply distressed” by the news.

The founder of e-commerce giant Rakuten said in a letter addressed to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that the donation of 1 billion yen ($8.7 million) will go toward “humanitarian activities to help people in Ukraine who are victims of the violence”.

Mikitani said he visited Kyiv in 2019 and met with Zelensky.

“My thoughts are with you and Ukraine people,” Mikitani said in his letter. I believe that the trampling of a peaceful and democratic Ukraine by unjustified force is a challenge to democracy. I sincerely hope that Russia and Ukraine can resolve this issue peacefully and that Ukraine people can have peace again as soon as possible,” he wrote.

Japan warned of the growing threat posed by Chinese and Russian collaboration and said it was necessary to “wake up” to Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and protect the island “as a democratic country.”

State Minister of Defense Yasuhide Nakayama said the fate of Taiwan and Okinawa are key to stemming the military influence of China and Russia in the Western Pacific.

“We are family with Taiwan,” said Yasuhide Nakayama, Japan’s state minister of defence to the Hudson Institute online forum.

Its security “is clearly related to Okinawa’s protection,” part of Japan.

Okinawa is home to concentrations of Japan Air and Maritime Self-Defense Forces and American Air Force, Marine Corps and naval support facilities, as well as service members’ families.

Okinawa and Taiwan are “kind of like nose and eyes, really close,” he said.

Nakayama revealed that China recently sent 28 fighters across the Taiwanese straits, with some flying into Taiwanese air space to intimidate Taipei. He added Chinese president Xi Jinping is also trying to leave the Taiwanese with an impression that they are surrounded, by sending ships, including an aircraft carrier, fighter aircraft and bombers on patrols and exercises east of Taiwan.

Some of these exercises are conducted with the Russians, “giving lots of threats to Taiwan.”

“We have to show deterrence to China and Russia,” not just defence, as they act more aggressively in the Indo-Pacific, he said. They have ramped up joint military exercises in the region to make their forces more interoperable.

As steps to improve deterrence, Nakayama said Tokyo “is thinking about stand-off capabilities” for the future and launching new satellite constellations to detect hypersonic cruise missiles that Beijing and Moscow have newly developed.

He also revealed that Tokyo is continuing to buy aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and other technologies from Washington, D.C and says both countries should have continual exercises so individual service members have a better understanding of how their allies think and operate.

He then called on the United States to look at Japan’s technical capabilities for security, like “space debris clean-up” to protect satellite constellations.

Nakayama said future generations in Japan and the United States may question their nations’ decision to accept a “One China” policy in the early 1970s that linked mainland China and Taiwan together as one country.

“Democratic countries have to protect democratic countries and allies” against “the autocrats,” China and Russia, he said.

Nakayama said the security domains ranged from air, sea, land, cyber and space to include electronic warfare.

Several times during the discussion Nakayama mentioned how close the United States and Japan have become since the attack on Pearl Harbor and the ending of World War II in the Pacific, with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Now it’s the most strong alliance; any other cannot compare,” he said.

But what is “happening around Japan” should “be a very big matter for the U.S., Europe and allies. Looking at China alone, Nakayama noted its increased investments in ballistic missile submarines and the concurrent development of the JL-3 sea-launched ballistic missile that is capable of striking the continental United States. “This is a big, big threat not just for us,” but the United States and Europe, he said referring both to the longer-range sub-launched missiles and China’s building of artificial islands.

As this is occurring, “the Russian are exercising [naval forces] right off [the] western front of Honolulu” and exercising with China in land and air manoeuvre near their shared borders, Nakayama added.

Under UN Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles, considered threatening weapons.

Japanese officials said North Korea fired the two missiles after 07:00 local time on Thursday. They flew 420km and 430km respectively before landing in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. There was no damage inflicted to ships or aeroplanes.

US allies, Japan and South Korea have condemned the test. The missile test comes just days after North Korea reportedly fired two non-ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea. The US Pacific Command, which is in charge of military forces in the Asia-Pacific region, said that the test highlighted “the threat that North Korea’s illicit weapons programme poses to its neighbours and the international community”.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden laughed off the short-range missile launch which took place over the weekend, saying the US did not consider it a provocation.

North Korea has spent more than a year in isolation cutting off trade with China amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. North Korea last fired ballistic missiles a year ago amid stalled relations between then-US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The Government of Nigeria is restricting entry into the country for travelers from China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, the United States of America, Norway, the United Kingdom, Netherlands & Switzerland.

The Federal Government is temporarily suspending all visas issued to nationals from these countries. Nigerians arriving from these countries will be subjected to supervised isolation for 14 days.

The Government is also advising all Nigerians to avoid travel to these countries. These restrictions will come into effect from Friday 20 March 2020, for 4 weeks, subject to review.

Hideaki Kumazawa, 76, was arrested in June on suspicion of killing his 44-year-old son, Eiichiro, after calling the police and admitting to stabbing him in the neck and chest at their home in Tokyo.

Kumazawa, a retired agricultural vice minister and former envoy to the Czech Republic, told cops at the time he “thought my son might harm others” after finding out about an unconnected stabbing rampage two days earlier that resulted in two people dead and 17 wounded, according to Kyodo News.

He later pleaded guilty to the crime during the trial.

“I think it is my duty to pay for the crime and pray that my son can spend a peaceful time in the afterlife,” Kumazawa said Friday during the closing court session, Kyodo News reported.

During the trial, Judge Tomoyuki Nakayama said the son’s body had more than 30 stab wounds, including some that were very deep, indicating that the killing was not purely self-defence. The son died from massive blood loss.

Prosecutors had sought an eight-year prison term while defence lawyers instead pursued a suspended term, claiming Kumazawa killed the 44-year-old in self-defence after the son’s threat.

Witnesses say the attacker carried a knife in each hand and slashed school children at a bus stop in Kawasaki, Japan.

His son had a developmental disorder and was routinely violent toward his mother. He was removed from his parents and lived alone in an apartment until he returned home a week before the killing.

The Tokyo District Court said in its ruling that the son resumed his violence as soon as he returned home and threatened to kill his father.

In its ruling, the court said that Kumazawa feared his son might harm others as in a case days earlier, when a man described as a social recluse — known in Japan as “hikikomori” — stabbed a number of schoolchildren at a bus stop outside Tokyo, killing two people and wounding 17 others, mostly schoolgirls, before killing himself.

The court ruled that Kumazawa deserved a more lenient six years in prison, taking into consideration his effort to improve his family’s relations with the son, the violence inflicted by his son and the threat of being killed.

The case and the earlier attack in Kawasaki highlighted growing concerns about “hikikomori.”

A government survey in March showed there are an estimated 610,000 “hikikomori” between the ages of 40 to 64 in Japan, mostly men, with many still taken care of by their elderly parents without proper support from the outside.