What does "＝" equals sign mean in Japanese news headlines?


I try to read news in Japanese and sometimes I see equals sign used inside
sentences. I tend to think text to the right side of "＝" is kind of a
consequence of the left part. It does not look like it has anything to do with
any sort of equality. [This Wikipedia
article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equals_sign) notes that it can be used
as the separator for names, but this usage doesn't seem to fit my case. Here
is an example taken from [Jiji
Press'](http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2015011900012) site:

> 安倍首相「どんな結果でも友好を」＝ヨルダン国王とサッカー談義.

I hope somebody can clear this out for me.




If you take a look at [Japanese
newspapers](https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E&tbm=isch),
you'll find that the headlines are often stratified in multiple levels. The
biggest one is the eye-catcher, and the rest is some supplementary information
to explain further situation.

Now, the questioned `＝` is mostly used to delimit the "main" and "sub"
headlines in the one line environment. See [this
topic](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1192955791) in
a Japanese forum. I'm not familiar with English journalism at all, but if I
had to name a closest equivalent, it could be _semicolon_ , as I guess from
[this page](http://web.ku.edu/~edit/heads.html).




If you take a look at [Japanese
newspapers](https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E&tbm=isch),
you'll find that the headlines are often stratified in multiple levels. The
biggest one is the eye-catcher, and the rest is some supplementary information
to explain further situation.

Now, the questioned `＝` is mostly used to delimit the "main" and "sub"
headlines in the one line environment. See [this
topic](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1192955791) in
a Japanese forum. I'm not familiar with English journalism at all, but if I
had to name a closest equivalent, it could be _semicolon_ , as I guess from
[this page](http://web.ku.edu/~edit/heads.html).

