Japan on Monday approved a fresh $8.9 billion in aid for the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant as the company said it expected to lose a similar amount this year.
The decision means TEPCO stays solvent, but continues to run up costs as it struggles to clean up the mess left behind by reactor meltdowns and meet claims for compensation following the March 11 quake disaster and resulting nuclear crisis.
The 690 billion yen aid package was announced after Tokyo Electric Power revised up its estimate of what it would need …

Underworld organizations are stepping up their attacks on enterprises in the wake of efforts by prefectural governments to enforce bylaws that prevent businesses from distributing profits to gangsters and keep gangsters from participating in public works projects.
These bylaws are also making it more difficult for gangs to collect protection fees from enterprises. In the past, gangsters threatened businesses mainly by firing bullets at their buildings. Following the enforcement of the anti-gang bylaws, company presidents and executives themselves are being targeted. The crimes are premeditated, with few clues, if any, …

Thousands of Japanese people marched against nuclear power Saturday, amid growing worries about the restarting of reactors idled after the March 11 meltdown disaster in northeastern Japan.
Holding “No Nukes” signs, people gathered at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo for a rally Saturday, including Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe.
The protesters then marched peacefully through the streets demanding Japan abandon atomic power.
Read the rest of the story: Thousands march against nuclear power in Japan.

Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday to proceed with plans to transfer thousands of U.S. troops out of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, leaving behind the stalled discussion about closing a major U.S. Marine base there.
The transfer, a key to U.S. troop restructuring in the Pacific, has been in limbo for years because it was linked to the closure and replacement of the strategically important base that Okinawans fiercely oppose.
The announcement Wednesday follows high-level talks to rework a 2006 agreement for 8,000 Marines to transfer to the U.S. …

Japan and the United States are discussing the transfer of U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture out of the country ahead of the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station, government sources said.
The move comes as part of a review of a 2006 bilateral agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in the country. Under the accord, the transfer of the Marines to Guam and the relocation of the Futenma station were supposed to be handled together.
Senior officials of the foreign and defense ministries of the two countries …

Japan has accused China of unilaterally exploring gas deposits in the East China Sea, in violation of an agreement to jointly develop disputed areas.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters Wednesday that Japan protested to China after a flare was seen Tuesday at a Chinese structure at an undersea gas deposit. Japan has made similar complaints several times in the past.
“We have detected a flare, a sign that it is highly likely that there is a gas development going on,” Fujimura said. “Any unilateral exploration is unacceptable.”
Read the rest of …

Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi escalated his warnings against strengthening in the yen toward a postwar high, and signaled that the Federal Reserve is partly to blame for its recent advance.
“Speculative moves are increasing in the market and we can’t overlook them,” Azumi told reporters in Tokyo today as the yen heads for its biggest six-day jump since mid-August against the dollar. Against the “backdrop” of the Fed’s plan to keep interest rates exceptionally low until 2014, “short- term speculative buying” has increased, contributing to the yen’s gain, he said …

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan have wrought havoc on the long-term prospects for the country’s storied rice industry. let alone doing short-term damage, according to a report by the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute.
The Great East Japan Earthquake, as it is known, is believed to have been the most powerful ever to have hit Japan, triggering a devastating tsunami that generated 40-meter waves, washing deep inland and causing meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Complex. Some 15,844 people were confirmed …

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s proposal to double the country’s consumption tax by 2015 faces growing public skepticism as the main opposition party ramps up its call for elections over the issue.
Sixty percent of voters oppose the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s plan to raise the 5 percent tax in two stages to 10 percent, a Mainichi newspaper poll today said. Noda’s approval rating fell to 32 percent from 38 percent last month and has dropped 24 percentage points since September, when he became Japan’s sixth leader in five years, …

“Shame on you, shame on you,” shouted protestors, as officials met to discuss plans to restart Japans nuclear plants for the first time since last years Fukushima disaster.
About 20 demonstrators carrying anti-nuclear signs disrupted the closed meeting of government agency representatives and energy officials who were there to review the stress-test results for two idled reactors and pave the way to bring the plants back online.
The meeting could be observed by the public from a television monitor in a separate room, something the demonstrators say symbolized the governments intent to …