Nikkei climbs before BOJ nominees' confirmation; real estate stocks lead
Business Standard -- Mar 14
Japan's Nikkei average climbed 1.2 percent on Thursday, snapping a two-day losing streak, as real estate companies rebounded ahead of the expected confirmation of a new leadership team for the Bank of Japan.
Japan's lower house approved Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan and Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso to serve as the BOJ's two deputy governors on Thursday. They are expected to be endorsed by the upper house on Friday.
The new team is expected to take bolder policy measures to boost the ailing economy.
The Nikkei spurted in the last 30 minutes of trading to close at 12,381.19 points, after facing resistance at its five-day moving average at 12,313.67 earlier in the session. However, the index stopped short of a 54-month intraday high of 12,461 hit on Tuesday.
Betting on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to drag the economy out of deflation, foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese equities for the 17th straight week, the longest such run since early 2006 when reformer Junichiro Koizumi was prime minister.
Foreign investors bought 1.12 trillion yen in the week through March 9, their largest net buying since the Ministry of Finance began collecting the data in 2005. They bought a total of 5.36 trillion yen in the past 17 weeks, versus 5.80 trillion in their 19 straight weeks of net buying during the Koizumi era.
North Korea has fired its fourth missile in two days despite international condemnation against the tests. Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged a return to talks on the Korean peninsula to mitigate tensions. (Deutsche Welle )
Toru Hashimoto, co-head of Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party), told Shintaro Ishihara, the other co-leader of the Japanese opposition party, on Sunday that he has no intention to withdraw his recent remarks that have triggered outrage both at home and abroad. (Jiji Press )
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday underscored his government's intention to help promote the state-of-the-art medical technologies. (Jiji Press )
A possible solution to the increasing amount of contaminated water inside the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could be to pump groundwater into the sea before it gets into the reactor buildings, as planned by the plant operator, the head of international inspectors has said. (Kyodo )
A strong 6.1 earthquake has struck off the northern coast of Japan's main Honshu island, seismologists say, but no tsunami warning was issued and there are no immediate reports of damage. (news.com.au )
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 )
North Korea has fired its fourth missile in two days despite international condemnation against the tests. Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged a return to talks on the Korean peninsula to mitigate tensions. (Deutsche Welle 
) 
Toru Hashimoto, co-head of Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party), told Shintaro Ishihara, the other co-leader of the Japanese opposition party, on Sunday that he has no intention to withdraw his recent remarks that have triggered outrage both at home and abroad. (Jiji Press 
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday underscored his government's intention to help promote the state-of-the-art medical technologies. (Jiji Press 
A possible solution to the increasing amount of contaminated water inside the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant could be to pump groundwater into the sea before it gets into the reactor buildings, as planned by the plant operator, the head of international inspectors has said. (Kyodo 
A strong 6.1 earthquake has struck off the northern coast of Japan's main Honshu island, seismologists say, but no tsunami warning was issued and there are no immediate reports of damage. (news.com.au 
Dozens of American children are abducted to Japan every year-not by strangers, but by parents after messy divorces. (thedailybeast.com 
A 5-year-old boy sustained an injury at a shopping mall in Nagoya on Friday after his hand became trapped in an escalator. (Japan Today 
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 
A 70-year-old woman has been rescued from a toilet in which she had been waiting for help for three days, Hiroshima police said Friday. (Japan Today 
A traditional dance was performed on Friday at an ancient temple in Nikko City, northeast of Tokyo. (NHK 
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 
A bear was shot dead after it wandered into a school in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today 
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 