Around 10 members of a citizens’ group began a hunger strike Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to protest the government’s plan to restart two reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture.
The group plans to continue the hunger strike, with members taking turns for a few days or a week, until May 5, when the No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari plant, the only commercial reactor in Japan still operating, is scheduled to be taken offline for maintenance and …

Tokyo’s conservative governor said Monday that the metropolitan government has decided to purchase a group of islands in the East China Sea at the center of a bitter bilateral territorial dispute between the two regional powers, in a move that could heighten tensions between Japan and China.
Shintaro Ishihara, a popular politician known for his nationalistic views and provocative style, said Tokyo has been negotiating with the private Japanese owners of the islands-known as the Senkaku in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese-adding that the metropolitan government is close to reaching …

China’s move to make trading of its currency more flexible was a positive step that would help buoy the country’s domestic demand, a senior Japanese government official said on Monday.
Japanese officials also said Japan has yet to pledge its contribution to the International Monetary Fund, but was still considering an increase in funding to help it deal with Europe’s debt crisis while watching the stance of other countries.
China took a key step in turning the yuan into a global currency on Saturday by doubling the size of its trading band …

Hoping to avert potentially devastating summer power shortages, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Friday that his government would seek to restart two nuclear reactors, in what would be a first step toward ending an almost complete shutdown of the nation’s nuclear power industry.
Mr. Noda declared units No. 3 and No. 4 at the Ohi Nuclear Power Plant in western Japan to be safe based on the results of computer simulations designed to check the reactors’ tolerance of a large earthquake and tsunami like those last year that knocked out cooling …

The toxic puffer fish which contains tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin, has killed more than 20 Japanese diners in the past 10 years.
It is currently only served at licensed restaurants, but local governments are now easing laws to make provision for unlicensed outlets who say they are losing business.
Read the rest of the story: Japan to deregulate sale of lethal blowfish.

Japan and Britain agreed Tuesday to develop defense weapons together in Tokyo’s first such arrangement outside of its security alliance with the United States.
Japan has cooperated exclusively with the U.S. on missile shield development and other equipment under their long-standing alliance. Easing its decades-long weapons export ban in December allowed Japan to extend the exception to other defense partners, including European nations and Australia.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his visiting British counterpart, David Cameron, agreed to cooperate in research, development and production of defense equipment. The leaders agreed to find …

Japan’s defense minister Friday ordered missile units to intercept a long-range rocket expected to be launched by North Korea if the rocket or its fragments threaten to hit Japan.
The Unha-3 rocket is expected to fly past western Japan after its launch from North Korea’s west coast sometime between April 12 and 16. The plan has raised concerns that a failed launch, or a falling stage of the rocket, could endanger Japanese lives or property.
Friday’s order from Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka came at a meeting of Japan’s national security council and …

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his ruling Democratic Party of Japan-led government managed to submit the contentious bill to the Diet on Friday to double the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, while junior coalition partner Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party) was on the verge of collapsing over internal conflict on the legislation.
Given the green light by the Cabinet in the morning and submitted to the Diet later in the day, the bill is now ready to be deliberated on in the Lower House and the government is hoping …

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda used his opening speech at the summit to say the international community strongly demands North Korea exercise self-restraint on next months planned rocket launch.”
The planned missile launch North Korea recently announced would go against the international communitys nuclear non-proliferation effort and violate U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Noda said.
No other major leaders mentioned North Koreas nuclear ambitions or the ballistic missile launch which the Pyongyang says will carry a weather satellite into orbit. The West says the launch is a disguised test of a long-range missile …

Japanese stocks have had a good run so far this year.  But whether the good times continue–both for stocks and bonds–depends critically on whether the faction-riven Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), under the embattled leadership of Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko, comes up with a credible (and eventually passable) consumption tax increase bill as scheduled this week.
If not, the bearish scenario is that Japan’s bond market will continue heading down, and pull stocks with it.  This scenario has been given a name:  “Ozawa shock.”
Since hitting a low of 8,160 last November …