Japan's current account surplus shrank sharply last year to its smallest in 15 years as weak exports and surging fuel imports resulted in a rare trade deficit, raising worries about the country's declining ability to fund its huge public debt with domestic savings.
The current account balance -- a broad measure of trade and other flows--logged a surplus of 9.6289 trillion yen ($125 billion) in 2011, down 44 percent from the previous year, marking its biggest fall on record, although income from overseas investment still more than offset the trade deficit.
The decline in inflows has been heralded by earlier data that showed Japan posted its first trade deficit since 1980 last year as a devastating earthquake in March hurt exports and increased its reliance on fuel imports due to nuclear plant shutdowns. (Reuters)
Japan 2011 current account surplus smallest in 15 years
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Architect's 'sky villages' to protect Japan from tsunamis.
It's been nearly a year after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan. Now a Japanese architect is proposing a novel solution to the ongoing problem of how and where to rebuild villages destroyed by the disaster. Keiichiro Sako says the answer lies in what he calls "sky villages".
Architect's "sky villages" to protect Japan from tsunamis.
It's an idyllic scene set years into the future. The coastal plains of northern Japan, decimated by a tsunami in 2011, safely repopulated with communities sitting 20 metres above the ground.
It may look like fantasy, but for Japanese architect Keiichiro Sako, it's a very real plan to protect the towns of northern Japan from tsunamis. He calls them sky villages. (china.org.cn)
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Japan to slash use of a heavy rare earth as China tightens grip
Japan aims to cut domestic consumption of a heavy rare earth used widely in hybrid cars and electronics by 30 percent over the next two years as China keeps a tight grip on exports of the material, known as dysprosium.
China ratcheted up export controls on the rare earth, mainly used in high-powered magnets, early last year, sending prices 10 times higher to around 3,000 yen per tonne by the middle of 2011, though it is now trading at about 2,000 yen.
China produces about 95 percent of global rare earth supplies, but says that excessive production is depleting its reserves and damaging its environment. (Reuters)
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Japanese vending machines to offer free WiFi
Asahi Soft Drinks is setting up 1,000 new vending machines in five regions around Japan this month, with a goal of expanding the number to 10,000 within five years.
The vending machines are fitted with technology enabling smartphone users who are standing within a 50m radius to enjoy free access to the internet.
Users will not need passwords or payment to access the WiFi and will be able to enjoy uninterrupted internet access for 30 minutes sessions at a time.
Japan is home to the world's highest concentration of vending machines, with as many as one for every 24 people across the country, according to the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers' Association. (telegraph.co.uk)
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Japan continues reaching out to tourists
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Japan the new front in Jetstar, AirAsia battle
Qantas's budget offshoot, Jetstar, has brought forward the launch of its Japanese subsidiary by several months, in an attempt to pip its Malaysian rival, AirAsia, in setting up domestic services there.
Jetstar Japan had originally intended to begin flights on domestic routes late this year but today slated July 3 as the launch date. It also confirmed that the joint venture between the Qantas Group, Japan Airlines and Mitsubishi will begin with a network linking Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa.
The Japanese budget airline will begin with a fleet of just three new A320 aircraft - each seating 180 passengers - before increasing it to 24 within several years.
Jetstar and AirAsia are engaged in a two-horse race to set up subsidiary airlines around Asia.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
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Japan's older generation turns gamers
Close your eyes, and you know where you are: The unmistakable sound of anime voices and the jingle of a completed lap around the electronic track ring through the hall. This is a classic video game arcade in Japan, filled with the sounds long associated with this gaming nation. But open your eyes, and the players are not exactly the teenagers you'd expect to find.
In the center of the Sega Corporation game arcade in a Yokohama mall, about a dozen graying heads bobbed in front of video consoles, dropping tokens into the machines. The median age was no where near pre-teen, but much closer to post-retirement.
The arcade industry, while still dominated by younger players, is shifting to an unexpected population reality in the rapidly aging nation of Japan. Japan's government projects the population will shrink by a staggering 30% by 2060. By that year, the government says people age 65 and older will account for 39.9 percent of the total population. Crunch the numbers further, and seniors will outnumber children by 4 to 1. (CNN)
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Nikkei Closes Above 9,000 After Toyota Raises Forecast
Japanese shares rose, with the Nikkei 225 Stock Average closing above 9,000 for the first time since October, as Toyota Motor Corp. raised its earnings forecast and a drop in the yen boosted the outlook for exporters.
Toyota, Japan's biggest company by revenue, jumped 5 percent. Renesas Electronics Corp. surged 10 percent after a report it's in talks to merge chip units with Panasonic Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. JFE Holdings Inc. led steelmakers higher after ArcelorMittal, the world's top maker of the material, forecast improvement in the first half.
(BusinessWeek)
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Japanese brands hesitant on Twitter
Some 40% of Japan's biggest brands are still not active on Twitter, just one indication of the extent to which they lag behind their US counterparts in exploiting the microblog's potential.
Adam Acar, associate professor of communication at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, analysed the engagement levels of the 100 largest Japanese brands on Twitter.
Uptake among this group, which features the auto marques Toyota and Honda, electronics specialists Sony and Panasonic, beverage maker Suntory and telecoms giant NTT DoCoMo, hit only 60%.
This compared with a 95% reach for the 100 largest intangible assets in the US. Similarly, whereas 86% of active American brands tweeted in the week before the study, this figure stood at 41% for their Japanese peers. (warc.com)
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Seoul axes intel agent for spilling beans in Tokyo
A South Korean intelligence officer posted to Seoul's embassy in Tokyo was fired for allegedly leaking "secret" information to the Japan Coast Guard and Japanese reporters, according to South Korean media reports.
The officer, who allegedly leaked eight items of confidential information during his 2009-2011 posting, has denied wrongdoing and filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, saying the information didn't meet the threshold of a state secret, the Chosun Ilbo paper and other media reported.
They said that among the areas under the intelligence officer's responsibility at the embassy was keeping an eye on the activities of the pro-Pyongyang group Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan). (Japan Times)
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Biomass plants to burn quake debris
The Forestry Agency will provide financial support for the construction of four biomass power plants to burn wood debris from the March 11 disasters, officials said.
The plants to be built in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures are expected to burn a total of 200,000 tons of debris a year, generating 16,000 kw and covering the consumption needs of 30,000 households.
Their operation to accelerate the disposal of debris while promoting renewable energy is expected to start by March 2014, the officials said Tuesday. (Japan Times)
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Foreign visitor target set at 18 million by 2016
Japan hopes to boost the annual number of foreign visitors to 18 million by 2016 by repairing the country's damaged reputation as a safe travel destination in its next five-year tourism plan.
The Cabinet is expected to endorse the plan to be implemented from fiscal 2012 possibly in March, according to a draft obtained by Kyodo on Tuesday.
The number of foreign visitors to the country, which hit a record high 8.61 million in 2010, is estimated to have dropped to 6.22 million last year following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and the ensuing nuclear crisis. The nation had previously set a target of 10 million foreign tourists annually by 2010. (Japan Times)
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U.S. Marines to move; base row will drag on
Tokyo and Washington said Wednesday they have agreed to revise a 2006 bilateral accord aimed at transferring U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam, effectively no longer making the redeployment contingent upon construction of a replacement airfield by 2014.
The two sides said they have already started formal negotiations on moving some of the marines to Guam before the planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa. The plan, based on a 2006 bilateral accord, called for moving 8,000 marines and their dependents to Guam from the Futenma base upon the 2014 completion of the replacement airfield on the Henoko coast of Nago farther north on Okinawa Island. (Japan Times)
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Japan tells U.S. it will keep nothing off the table in TPP negotiations
Japan on Tuesday explained to the United States its basic stance regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, saying it will put all items on the table once it joins the multilateral trade framework, a senior Japanese government official said.
Japan revealed its stance during the first preliminary talks with the United States in Washington on its bid for full participation in TPP negotiations.
According to Takeshi Yagi, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Economic Affairs Bureau, politically sensitive items, such as rice, will not be excluded from negotiations.
However, in future negotiations, Japan will likely explore the possibility of treating these items as exceptions to tariff eliminations, observers said. (Yomiuri)
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Tsunami was up to 21 meters in Fukushima
The tsunami that hit Fukushima Prefecture on March 11 was particularly high--possibly up to 21 meters--along the coast in the center of the prefecture where the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is located, a survey has found.
The height of the tsunami was previously assumed to have been about 15 meters at the nuclear plant, but this could not be confirmed because the area within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant is designated a no-entry zone.
Researchers including Shinji Sato, a professor at the University of Tokyo, obtained permission from local governments to enter this zone, and for the first time since the tsunami, were able to survey coastal areas Monday and Tuesday. (Yomiuri)
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Japan testing traffic lights for colour-blind drivers
The signals have been developed by Taro Ochiai, a professor at Kyushu Sangyo University, with the first set of traffic lights installed in the southern city of Fukuoka. A second month-long test is to be started in Tokyo before the end of February.
Prof Ochiai began researching the use of light-emitting diodes in 2003, when they first began to be used in traffic lights in preference to regular light bulbs. Drivers with colour-blindness quickly reported that the LED signals were more difficult for them to discern based only on brightness as the visual indicator.
Working with lighting manufacturer Koito Electric Industries Ltd., Prof Ochiai incorporated blue LEDs with four times the brightness of the other diodes in the shape of a cross through the red lamp. (telegraph.co.uk)
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Jetstar Japan to start domestic flights in July
Budget airline Jetstar Japan, part-owned by Australia's Qantas, said Wednesday it will launch domestic flights serving five major destinations as Japan's aviation industry enters a period of change.
The new service, slated to begin July 3, is the latest chapter in a bid to open up a market that has traditionally suffered from high prices because of dominance by two major carriers, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways (ANA).
"The launch network of Tokyo (Narita), Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa will be serviced by an initial fleet of three new A320 aircraft," said Jetstar, a joint venture between Qantas, Japan Airlines (JAL) and Mitsubishi Corp.
Japan's major airlines were behind global rivals in terms of entry into the low-cost sector, but ANA last year set up budget airline Peach Aviation with a Hong Kong investment fund. Flights are scheduled to start in March. (AFP)
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Japan's amazing snow monsters on the prowl
When Hilary Wendel, a Tokyo-based photographer and good friend, asked me to tag along as she photographed "Japan's scariest monsters," I was apprehensive at first.
Fortunately for us both, the Snow Monsters of Zao in Yamagata Prefecture are more impressive than terrifying.
They are actually Aomori fir trees that have been coated with extremely wet snow and ice carried by a cold Siberian Jetstream that also freezes them almost solid in some of the most peculiar shapes I've ever seen.
And they're easy to reach from Kanto too -- tickets from Tokyo Station to Yamagata by Shinkansen cost ¥21,800 round-trip and the train takes 150 minutes to get there.
If you're skiing and not just snapping, you might want to consider sending your equipment and luggage ahead by Japan's extremely convenient takkyubin service so as not to start the trip off with a sardine-can experience on the subway. (CNN)
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Maid to measure in Tokyo
"Welcome home, Master," is the greeting at the door. But this is as far from home as it gets.
It's not clear why the small, tackily decorated room is stiflingly hot. Or why the overpriced menu contains - among other whipped cream-heavy options - a dessert resembling a cutesy panda face.
But most baffling is the young girl in a French maid's outfit who sits with a balding man, quietly colouring in a picture book.
Welcome to Tokyo's maid cafes, where nerdy men pay top yen to be pampered by girls dressed like the heroes of the anime/manga culture so prevalent in modern Japan.
Customers come to think of particular maids as akin to girlfriends and, the day of our visit, a group brought in birthday gifts for their favourite waitress.
Photographs and touching the dozen maids who flit about the cafe is strictly prohibited.
With the lights on and fizzy drink served in place of alcohol, the cafe has a harmless air - like a children's tea party infused with the sadness of a strip club. (New Zealand Herald)
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Getting married in Japan
Some couples are content to tie the knot at the courthouse down the road. But for those who are more adventurous, a destination wedding -- and an international marriage -- are a must. Nonresidents of Japan can marry in the country. There is no waiting period. Couples do not have to post intents to marry in Japan. In fact, they are married the same day they apply for a marriage license. Acquiring a marriage certificate through the municipal government means the couple is legally married.
A wedding ceremony does not have to take place in Japan in order for the marriage to be legal. Once a couple obtains a marriage certificate at the municipal government office, they are legally married. (huffingtonpost.com)
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