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Japan hangs 3, including train-station killer; country's first executions since 2010

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Three death row inmates have been executed by hanging in Japan, the country's first executions in more than a year and a half, according to media reports. The men were hanged in three different prisons early Thursday, Japanese media reported. One was convicted of killing five people at a train station in 1999. (Washington Post)

Operator of crippled Japan nuclear plant seeks another $12 billion to stay afloat

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The power company behind Japan's nuclear crisis is seeking more public funds to avoid insolvency as the cost of compensation and stabilizing damaged reactors swells. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday it is asking for another 1 trillion yen ($12 billion) from a state-backed fund. (Washington Post)

Star-struck Japan PM befriends Facebook's Zuckerberg

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda frequently entertains dignitaries from all over the world, but he was a touch star-struck on Thursday when he hosted a young billionaire with a whiff of celebrity: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. As cabinet ministers filed through Noda's residence for a late afternoon meeting, it was Zuckerberg who drew a fusillade of camera flashes from a hefty media contingent as he strode through the entrance like a movie star. (chicagotribune.com)

Tokyo stocks extend losses on uncertainty over global economy

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Tokyo stocks continued falling Thursday, as investors grew cautious over the outlook for the global economy including China and the United States, with export-linked and financial shares weighing on the market. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, which fell about 70 points Wednesday, lost an additional 67.78 points, or 0.67 percent Thursday, ending at 10,114.79. (Mainichi)

Baseball: Ichiro Suzuki a hit in Japan as Mariners beat A's

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Ichiro Suzuki gave his fans in Japan a performance to cheer about. Suzuki had four hits in his return home, Dustin Ackley homered and singled in the go-ahead run in the 11th inning, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 Wednesday night in baseball's season opener. (newsday.com)

Japan Inc.'s quest for resources

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Lifted by the strong yen and piles of cheap cash, Japan's business titans are prowling the world for assets to acquire. One of the most aggressive buyers of late has been Mitsubishi Corp., which has displayed a particular appetite for natural resources. The Tokyo-based trading house has announced nine energy and natural resource-related acquisitions in the first quarter of 2012 ending Friday, according to Dealogic. (chicagotribune.com)

No easy fix for Japan's taxing problems

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Japan's sales-tax increase is a start. But it won't put much of a dent in the country's ballooning health and welfare costs. The main problem with Japan's fiscal state is a rapidly graying population that is pushing social welfare spending up at a pace of $12 billion a year. But lackluster growth over the past two decades has led to a decline in tax revenue because of weaker corporate earnings and sluggish household income growth. (Wall Street Journal)

Politicians battle Tepco hike

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With Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s rate increase for businesses looming from Sunday, politicians were trying to somehow stop the move or at least make sure the utility won't resort to drastic actions against those customers unwilling to go along with the hike, such as cutting off their power. "I don't think (Tepco) understands that it is in an extraordinary situation," Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda said Wednesday night after meeting with Tepco President Toshio Nishizawa. (Japan Times)

China criticizes Japan textbook revisions

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A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Thursday slammed the latest revisions to Japan's textbooks, which alter the death toll of the Nanking Massacre. The revisions also claim the Diaoyu Islands as a Japanese territory. Sovereignty of the uninhabited islands has been disputed between China and Japan since 1971 when the United States relinquished control of them. (UPI)

Oshio jailed in woman's drug death

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Disgraced actor Manabu Oshio started his 30-month prison term Thursday for failing to come to his girlfriend's aid after she overdosed on Ecstasy during a drug- and sex-fueled night at his apartment. "I do not agree with what the ruling says and it is not my true wish to go to prison," Oshio, 33, said in a statement released by his lawyer. "But I would like to fully serve my time as I believe going to prison may have some meaning for me." (Japan Times)

Liquefaction driving away Chiba residents

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Chiba's population is declining for the first time in 66 years as residents in bedroom communities damaged by last March's liquefaction decide to abandon the prefecture, fed up with authorities' failure to repair their homes and fearful of radioactive fallout. Many of the prefecture's residents are still living in tilted homes, as they can't afford to fix them themselves and financial support from the central and local governments is minimal. (Japan Times)

Like Japan itself, Sony struggles to adapt

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Sony once was a company famous for firsts. The world's first short-wave transistor radio. The first portable television. The first stereo cassette player. But those firsts are museum pieces now, sealed into glass display boxes and stored in a Tokyo archives room, available to visitors by appointment only. Sony is still a manufacturing giant, but a troubled one, and its recent struggles to cut costs and match more nimble international competitors typify a lumbering Japanese electronics industry that is famous far more for its past products than its current ones. (Washington Post)

Recordings of interrogations to be expanded to include early stages

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The National Police Agency said Thursday it will expand the case criteria for recording interrogations in April to help ensure that people are properly investigated and to prevent wrongful charges. Police started using audiovisual recordings on an experimental basis in 2008 mainly for serious criminal cases subject to lay judge trials. In these cases, interrogations were partly videotaped only after suspects confessed to crimes earlier in the investigation process. (Japan Times)

12 universities to launch forum on fall enrollment

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Twelve leading universities have agreed to establish a forum of their presidents to discuss switching the start of the academic year to fall to conform with educational institutions overseas, the University of Tokyo said Thursday. One of the university's seven executive vice presidents, Takao Shimizu, made the announcement during a news conference to unveil the final report by an in-house panel on switching the start of its academic year from spring to fall. (Japan Times)

Y3 trillion stopgap budget is fast-tracked

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The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday submitted a ¥3.61 trillion stopgap budget for fiscal 2012 to cover spending for the first six days of April, after the ruling and opposition parties failed to agree on a full-scale budget. The urgently prepared budget, the first of its kind in 14 years, is expected to clear both Diet chambers Friday. The provisional budget will cover the shortest period ever. The previous record was eight days, set in fiscal 1988. (Japan Times)

New rights eyed for publishers / Would enable firms to sue over illegal copies of digital work

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A study group comprising major publishing companies, writers and Diet members has agreed to establish "original edition rights" to protect publication rights and copyrights in an age of electronic media. Chaired by Masaharu Nakagawa, minister of state for disaster management, the group has been discussing how to improve circumstances for printed and electronic cultural products, according to its members. It decided to promote awareness of the new rights and how copyrights and publishing rights should be protected in the digital age, they said. (Yomiuri)

'Space Musical Instruments' was performed on board Kibo

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JAXA Education Payload Observation (EPO) "Space Musical Instruments"* was performed on board Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module. The theme intends to look for a new sound and playing style in microgravity using two innovated musical instruments, a kind of brass instruments (such as maracas and handbells.) The instruments are played on orbit, and the performance and sound are recorded by a HD camcorder. (jaxa.jp)

Accidental gunshot in NY police raid injures Japanese woman

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A woman visiting from Japan was shot and injured when a police officer's gun accidentally discharged, sending a bullet through the floor and into the living room where she was sleeping, police said. Plain-clothes officers were executing a search warrant Thursday morning on a third floor apartment at 3003 Clarendon Road in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood when the shot was fired. (Wall Street Journal)

North Korea begins fueling rocket, says Japanese report

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North Korea has reportedly begun fueling a rocket for a launch next month, defying calls to abort an event the West says is a disguised missile test, as the US suspended planned food aid. "The launch is coming closer. The possibility is high that the launch date will be set for April 12 or 13," Japan's Tokyo Shimbun reported yesterday, quoting a source "close to the government" in Pyongyang. It cited the source as saying that North Korea had begun injecting liquid fuel into the rocket. (Taipei Times)

Japan passes tax increases

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The Japanese government on Friday approved a politically charged bill to double the national sales tax, taking action after prolonged wrangling within the ruling party and narrowly avoiding an embarrassment for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. The Cabinet approval finally clears the way for Mr. Noda to meet his promise to bring the bill before parliament before the March deadline stipulated by the tax law, with attention now focused on parliamentary debate, expected to begin in early April. (Wall Street Journal)
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