World: Japan

NARA, Japan (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday wound up his five-day visit to Japan, which has seen the traditional rivals commit to closer ties but also met with protests over Beijing's rule in Tibet.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese lawmakers voted Friday to allow the military use of space, breaking a decades-old taboo in the officially pacifist country which has an increasingly ambitious space programme.

TOKYO (AFP) - The US military said Friday it had given a Marine a two-year prison term and dishonourable discharge for sexual misconduct with a Japanese woman, even though he was cleared of charges of gang-rape.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan cleared the way for a law allowing non-aggressive military use of space on Friday, overturning a decades-old policy of limiting space development to peaceful uses.

TOKYO - A U.S. Marine accused in an alleged gang rape of a Japanese woman last year was sentenced to two years in prison Friday for "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" but cleared of rape, the U.S. military said.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a symbolic visit to cement warming ties with Japan, urged the two Asian powers to look to the future as partners not rivals, but protests outside even as he spoke suggested some bumps ahead.

TOKYO (AFP) - Two Japanese women, who were released within hours of being kidnapped in Yemen, apologised Thursday for worrying people back home and said they felt no threat to their lives.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is considering a copyright fee for buyers of iPods and similar portable audio players, as well as hard disc video recorders, an official said Thursday.

TOKYO (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a visit to repair ties with Japan, pledged Thursday that his country would never become a military threat.

TOKYO (AFP) - A series of strong earthquakes including one with a magnitude of 6.7 hit the Tokyo area early Thursday, briefly cutting off power to more than 4,000 homes and causing light injuries, officials said.

SAN'A, Yemen - Two female Japanese tourists kidnapped in Yemen's Marib province Wednesday were freed after tribal mediation, a Yemeni security official said.

TOKYO - A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Japan early Thursday, the national Meteorological Agency said, waking up people 100 miles away in Tokyo.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 jolted a wide area of eastern Japan early on Thursday, including Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

SANAA (Reuters) - Two Japanese tourists were kidnapped in the town of Marib in Yemen on Wednesday, a provincial government official said.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday that it had agreed to tie up with India's JSW Group to manufacture and market steam turbines and generators for thermal power plants in India.

TOKYO (AFP) - Animal rights activists on Wednesday urged Japan to reject visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao's offer of two pandas, saying the crowd-pleasing animals would be miserable in a zoo.

TOKYO (AFP) - President Hu Jintao on Wednesday greeted Japanese Emperor Akihito, kicking off the official agenda of the first visit by a Chinese leader to Japan in 10 years.

TOKYO (AFP) - President Hu Jintao is due Tuesday in Japan for the first visit by a Chinese head of state in a decade, in a sign of steady reconciliation between the Asian giants despite lingering disputes.

TOKYO - Thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered Sunday for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. will raise sale prices in North America this month in a bid to offset rising production costs and the stronger yen, a report here said Sunday.

TOKYO - Iwao Hakamada, Japan's longest serving death row inmate, has insisted for 40 years that he is innocent of the four murders he was convicted of. The evidence was suspect, he says, and his confession was coerced.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ten years after a disastrous visit to Japan by China's top leader dominated by their bitter wartime past, Beijing and Tokyo are keen to avoid a rerun that would risk damage to the deep economic ties between the Asian rivals.

TOKYO - Yasukuni war shrine is Japan's ultimate taboo subject. A symbol of the country's militaristic past, the shrine is revered by nationalists, despised by Japan's Asian neighbors, and rarely mentioned in public by anyone else.

TOKYO - A U.S. serviceman was accused of sexually assaulting a Japanese woman on Friday, the latest in a series of criminal accusations sparking anger against the American military presence in Japan.

TOKYO (AFP) - Support for embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet has plunged below 20 percent, the lowest for a government in more than seven years, a poll showed Friday.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan Airlines said Friday its annual net profit was more than twice as large as expected after cost cuts helped Asia's largest carrier return to the black after two years of losses.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan next week will be about soothing fears, not sealing deals, as Asia's two biggest powers try to look past festering bilateral disputes and tensions over Tibet.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Police in northern Japan arrested a U.S. serviceman on Friday for sexually assaulting a young woman, in the latest in a string of such cases involving American military that have sparked anger among Japanese.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese financial institutions together lost more than 1.5 trillion yen (14.4 billion dollars) in the year to March because of the US subprime mortgage crisis, a report said Friday.