Japan's stock market has been on a tear, adding more than 7% over the past month as investors cheer looser monetary policy and the buckets of fiscal stimulus being pumped into the country's economy, which together have depressed the yen.
Last week, the Nikkei rose to its highest level in more than four years, riding a wave of optimism that has coincided with Abe's rising political fortunes. While the rally may yet have a little further to run, stocks have probably seen most of the gains they can expect from the currency move.
A former prime minister who resigned his post only to ride a wave of popular dissatisfaction back into office, Abe has pursued a controversial set of policies designed to revive Japan's faltering economy and end decades of stagnation.
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 )