News On Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the government should make every effort to conclude the talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact. (NHK)

Japanese figure skater Mao Asada received great acclaim in China on Friday for her impressive free skating performance at the Sochi Olympics in a flurry of online messages and an influential newspaper, despite souring relations between Japan and China. (Jiji Press)

Japan's curiously-named Pocari Sweat is to be sent to the moon, its Japanese maker has said, in what the firm claims will make it the first sports drink on the celestial body. (Global Post)

Porsche Japan K.K. decided Friday to ask owners of the new Porsche 911 GT3 sports car in Japan not to drive their cars until the causes of recent fires involving the model in Europe are discovered. (Jiji Press)

Japan's National Consumer Affairs Center is warning against the possible overheating of smartphones. (NHK)

Sure, Japan is a hard working society, and the spread of productivity-sapping sickness is always a concern at schools and workplaces, but that doesn't seem like reason enough for the proliferation of facial coverings that sometimes has Tokyo offices looking more like an operating room. (Japan Today)

Shimane Prefecture residents and historical researchers have expressed mixed feelings ahead of Takeshima Day, designated by local ordinance in 2005 and set to be marked Saturday under considerable scrutiny because of its link to a territorial row with South Korea. (Japan Times)

The boyfriend of a nurse who was murdered in her dorm in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Dec 31, was found dead at his home at around 1 p.m. Thursday after having apparently hanged himself, police said. (Japan Today)

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. launched the PlayStation 4 video game console in Japan on Saturday. (Jiji Press)

The Diary of Anne Frank and related books have been vandalized at dozens of libraries in Tokyo. (NHK)

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says the latest spill of radioactive water from a mountainside tank may have been caused by worker error. (NHK)

The body of a man wanted for questioning over the murder of a woman in a car in a supermarket parking lot in Tatebayashi City, Gunma Prefecture, was found in a minivan in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, on Friday. (Japan Today)

Japan's Foreign Ministry is warning Japanese nationals in Ukraine and those planning to travel there not to go near sites of anti-government demonstrations. (NHK)

Mexico is on track to become the United States' No. 1 source of imported cars by the end of next year, overtaking Japan and Canada in a manufacturing boom that's turning the auto industry into a bigger source of dollars than money sent home by migrants. (Washington Post)

South Korean students and activists have staged a protest rally against Japan in the capital, Seoul, calling on Tokyo to drop its claims over a group of disputed islands. (PressTV)

Whether ministers participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations can attain their goal of reaching a "broad agreement" at the four-day talks that opened Saturday in Singapore hinges upon how much progress Japan and the United States achieve on the tariff issue. (The Japan News)

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of 20 nations have adopted a target to increase GDP by at least 2 percent over 5 years. (NHK)

Japan has drafted new guidelines that would reverse a decades-old ban on weapons exports, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday, a move that could further strain ties with neighbors China and South Korea. (Reuters)