News On Japan

Japanese stocks rose on Thursday afternoon as investors lapped up a media report that said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to have decided to call an early election amid mounting expectations he would postpone a planned sales tax hike. (brecorder.com)

The Japanese government held a second hearing Thursday on a consumption tax hike planned for October 2015, with four of the nine participating advisers expressing opposition to the plan. (Jiji Press)

Honda Motor Co. launched aircraft-related business on Wednesday by beginning production of jet engines at its factory in Burlington, N.C. (The Japan News)

Ryuzo Miyao, a Bank of Japan policy board member, asserted in a speech Wednesday that the central bank carefully considered the expected benefits, concerned costs and risks before introducing additional yen-printing measures on Halloween. (Nikkei)

Japanese carmakers and the government will work to make hydrogen as affordable as gasoline by shouldering a portion of the costs to operate fueling stations nationwide. (Nikkei)

A Fukushima police officer was found dead in a mountain forest in Minami-soma on Wednesday afternoon after having apparently hanged himself from a tree. (Japan Today)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed hopes Thursday that he will hold a trilateral summit meeting with Chinese and South Korean leaders. (Jiji Press)

Police in Saitama Prefecture arrested a man on Thursday for allegedly obstructing the work of a health care center after he claimed he was sick and may have recently visited Liberia, the center of an Ebola epidemic in West Africa. (The Japan News)

Like many students in Japan, Kim Yang Sun cycles to school each morning. Unlike most, she then changes into a traditional Korean outfit and studies under portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. (Japan Times)

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Thursday that the whereabouts of 141 children are unknown nationwide. (Japan Today)

Leaders participating in the East Asia Summit are divided over sovereignty issues in the South China Sea. (NHK)

Lucky people in Japan have gone 500 kilometers per hour in rides on a magnetically levitated train. (NHK)

Scores of fully-clad riot police raided a dormitory at one of the nation's leading universities on Thursday, in an apparently heavy-handed response to a left-wing movement that may involve students. (Japan Times)

Nine people were injured after a bus and small truck collided at an intersection in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Friday morning. (Japan Today)

Halloween may be over for this year, but the weather gods in Saitama clearly hadn't got the message on Wednesday morning this week, as the city was shrouded in a mysterious thick fog - with an even more mysterious name! (rocketnews24.com)

Japanese stocks gained on Friday to close near a seven-year intraday high amid choppy trade ahead of Monday's third quarter GDP figures. (Reuters)

A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu has been found in Yasugi, Shimane Prefecture, the Environment Ministry said on Friday. (Japan Times)

A 22-year-old college student sued Nippon Television Network Corp. after the major TV network terminated its offer to her of an announcer's job on the grounds that she had worked part-time at a night club in Tokyo's Ginza district. (Kyodo)

World-famous Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama Ward was bathed in hundreds of lights Nov. 13 to show off the warm fall colors gracing the grounds a day before the start of its annual autumn night viewings. (Asahi)

US President Barack Obama plans three-way talks with Japan and Australia on the sidelines of the G20 this weekend, looking to shore up defence ties with key Asia-Pacific allies in a move sure to rile Beijing. (AFP)

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