Faced with balancing aggressive spending plans on a mountain of debt, Japan's government said it would cut overall planned bond issuance in the coming fiscal year. But investors are likely to see some of the plan's one-off issuance reduction tactics as little more than a temporary fix to an escalating problem.
Of the 92.6 trillion yen ($1.02 trillion) in expenditures in the government's budget proposal for the fiscal year starting in April, ¥42.9 trillion will be financed through the issuance of new bonds, slightly less than ¥44.2 trillion in the current fiscal year.
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today )
China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines. (Reuters )
Police said Friday they have found four dead bodies in an apartment in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in what is believed to have been a family murder-suicide. (Japan Today )
Shukan Post (May 24) conveys the difficulties experienced by other parts of the adult-entertainment biz in servicing customers from the communist nation.
A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. (Tokyo Reporter)
Six sailors were found dead after a fire on a foreign freighter docked at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The sailors are presumed to be Russians. (NHK )