Japan to accelerate bilateral consultations on TPP
NHK -- Mar 16
Japan's government plans to speed up bilateral consultations with participants in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally announced on Friday that Japan will take part in the US-led negotiations on the country's joining the free-trade talks.
Economic Revitalization Minister Akira Amari will take charge of TPP matters with a several dozen secretariats.
The delegates for the talks in crucial areas will include private sector officials.
A government research panel says there is a 60 to 70 percent probability that a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8 to 9 will occur off Japan's Pacific coast in the next 30 years. (NHK )
Weather officials say the average density of carbon dioxide in Japan is rising above the international standard at all 3 observation points in the country.
Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases associated with global warming. (NHK )
A 21-year-old woman was stabbed by her ex-boyfriend Friday at her apartment in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, where she lives with her current boyfriend, police said. (Japan Times )
The Diet passed a bill Friday to set up a system that will assign an identification number to every citizen to improve government management of income, social security and tax information despite public concerns about the potential for data abuse. (Japan Times )
Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it. (AP )
At the Nagoya Castle compound in central Japan, restoration work has been completed on the entrance and reception room of the main residential building for the first time in 70 years. (NHK )
The government of Japan has bestowed one of that nation's highest honors on a Japanese-American, a former U.S. Soldier and World War II veteran, for his work furthering relationships between the Japanese and Americans. (army.mil )
Osaka District Court accepted a claim on Thursday that losses on betting on horse racing should be deductible from payouts to calculate taxable income. (Jiji Press )
An 18-year-old youth has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder after he allegedly hit a 16-year-old girl in the head with a baseball bat. (Japan Today )
This Monday, members of the seminal metal band X Japan were in Odaiba rubbing shoulders with the likes of Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and AKB48′s Yuko Oshima. The catch? They were all made out of wax. (Japan Times )
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has announced that it intends to draw up a set of unified rules for the use of baby strollers on buses and trains. (Japan Today )
A man stabbed his ex-wife on a street in Isehara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday morning, and then caused a car crash while he was fleeing from the scene. (Japan Today )