NHK aired a news flash saying that North Korea’s state-run media reported this morning that the country succeeded in test-firing a Pukguksong-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday.

All commercial broadcasters and national dailies except Nikkei led with reports on a press conference held in Osaka on Wednesday, during which Kansai Electric Power Co. admitted that 20 of its executives accepted gifts from a former deputy mayor of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, where one of the company’s nuclear power plants is located. Two of the gifts were reportedly worth more than 100 million yen ($930,000) each.

Nikkei’s lead item was a report on Japanese automakers’ plans to hire more mid-career workers instead of recruiting fresh college graduates in large numbers.