Tokyo stocks close up 0.25%
News On Japan via -- Sep 25
Tokyo stocks have closed up 0.25 per cent as buyers move to lock in interim dividends before Japanese companies close their books for the half-year to the end of September.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished up 22.25 points on Tuesday at 9,091.54 while the Topix index of all first-section issues gained 0.53 per cent or 3.98 points to 757.66.
The market got support from "short-covering to lock in the fiscal first half payout", said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
Some major stocks gained ground. Toyota Motor rose 1.11 per cent to 3,185 yen and Panasonic went up 1.32 per cent to 535 yen.
Shares in Sharp rose 0.48 per cent to 207 yen after a Kyodo News report the troubled electronics firm has decided to cut some 11,000 jobs worldwide and sell $2.7 billion worth of assets and factories.
Japan Airlines (JAL) plunged 8.73 per cent to 3,395 yen less than a week after relisting, amid concern over a festering territorial spat between Tokyo and Beijing.
| May 19 | Japan's child kidnapping problem |
 Dozens of American children are abducted to Japan every year-not by strangers, but by parents after messy divorces. (thedailybeast.com  ) |
| May 18 | 5-year-old boy's hand gets caught in shopping mall escalator |
 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 ) |
| May 18 | Woman stabbed by stalker despite asking police for help |
 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 ) |
| May 18 | 70-year-old woman rescued from toilet after 3-day ordeal |
 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 ) |
| May 18 | Traditional dance performed at Nikko temple |
 A traditional dance was performed on Friday at an ancient temple in Nikko City, northeast of Tokyo. (NHK ) |
| May 18 | China cracks down on over-the-top anti-Japan dramas |
 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 ) |
| May 17 | Bear shot dead after entering school in Ishikawa |
 A bear was shot dead after it wandered into a school in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today ) |
| May 17 | Man kills 3 family members, then himself |
 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 ) |
| May 17 | Chinese tourists a bane for Japanese hookers |
 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) |
| May 17 | 6 dead in freighter fire at Wakkanai |
 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 ) |