Japan eyes picking senior diplomat as chief TPP negotiator
Kyodo -- Mar 20
The government is arranging to appoint Koji Tsuruoka, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, as Japan's chief negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks, government sources said Wednesday.
The government plans to hold the first ministerial meeting on the TPP possibly on Friday, bringing together Akira Amari, minister in charge of negotiations on the regional free trade arrangement, and other members concerned, they said.
Tsuruoka, who became deputy foreign minister last September after serving as head of the ministry's Foreign Policy Bureau and minister at the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia, will head a team of Japanese TPP negotiators.
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 )
Yahoo Japan Corp said on Friday night it suspected that up to 22 million of its user IDs may have been "leaked" and it detected an unauthorized attempt to access the administrative system of its web portal Yahoo Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported. (Reuters )
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unveiled more details of his economic growth strategies using "winning the global market" as the key phrase. (NHK )
A government space panel has determined that Japan should begin developing its next-generation mainstay rocket for satellite launches in fiscal 2014. (NHK )
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 )
Police on Friday said that a real estate company employee was stabbed by an unknown assailant in the lobby of an office building near JR Akihabara station. The man is currently in a serious condition in hospital. (Japan Today )