Japan

TOKYO (AP) — Japan reports its exports tumbled 8.4 percent in January from a year earlier, as slowing Chinese growth pushed its monthly trade deficit to the highest level in nearly five years.

Exports to all of Asia dropped 13 percent year-on-year, largely due to the 17 percent plunge in shipments to China, where growth recently has fallen to its slowest pace in three decades.

06 Feb 2019; AFP: Japanese car giant Toyota slashed its full-year net profit forecast Wednesday after saying its nine-month figure had tumbled nearly 30 percent as it was hit by investment losses.

The firm's senior managing officer Masayoshi Shirayanagi also told reporters there was no way to avoid a negative impact in the event of a no-deal Brexit -- days after fellow Japanese carmarker Nissan announced a cut in production in Britain.

01 Feb 2019; AFP: There were 161 jobs for every 100 jobseekers on average last year in Japan, the highest ratio since 1973, highlighting the labour shortage in the world's third-largest economy and its ageing society.

According to labour ministry data released on Friday, the ratio was even higher in December, at 163 jobs available for every 100 people looking for work.

TOKYO, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Friday that the nation is contending with a flu epidemic with a record-high number of patients being diagnosed last week.

According to the ministry, an average of 57.09 patients were diagnosed with influenza last week at each medical facility conducting tests for the virus, with the figures gathered for the seven days through Sunday being the highest number since data gathering on the virus began in 1999.

TOKYO, January 23. /TASS/. Signing a peace treaty between Japan and Russia is not an easy problem that can be solved just after several rounds of talks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.

"This is not such an easy problem, which can be solved immediately after several rounds of negotiations," Suga stressed, signaling that concluding a peace treaty with Russia will take certain time.

20 Jan 2019; AFP: "World's oldest man" Masazo Nonaka, who was born just two years after the Wright brothers launched humanity's first powered flight, died on Sunday aged 113, Japanese media said.

Nonaka was born in July 1905, according to Guinness World Records -- just months before Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity.

Guinness officially recognised Nonaka as the oldest living man after the death of Spaniard Francisco Nunez Olivera last year.

TOKYO (AP) — Representatives from a Pacific Rim trade bloc geared up to roll out and expand the market-opening initiative as they met Saturday in Tokyo, reaffirming their commitment to open and free trade and inviting new membership.

The Pacific Rim free trade agreement, rejected by President Donald Trump after he took office in 2017, took effect at the end of last year after Australia became the sixth nation to ratify it. So far, seven of the 11 member countries have done so, and the others are expected to follow through soon.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan faces unforeseen risks in guiding economic policy as its population of about 126 million ages and declines, the governor of its central bank said Thursday.

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda told fellow financial leaders Thursday that policies must be devised to prevent the shrinking population from hindering economic growth.

17 Jan 2019; AFP: Hitachi said Thursday it would freeze construction of its stalled nuclear power station in Wales due to problems financing the project, a blow to Britain's nuclear strategy and a costly decision for the Japanese firm.

The company said in a statement the decision was made "from the viewpoint of Hitachi's economic rationality as a private enterprise".

Shelving the project at the Wylfa Newydd plant on Anglesey, a small island off the Welsh coast, will cost the Japanese firm 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion), it said.

TOKYO, January 6. /TASS/. The signing of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia will have a positive impact on the security of the Asia-Pacific region and will also be beneficial for Washington, which signed a security treaty with Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the NHK TV Channel on Sunday.

When asked to comment on how the mutual obligations of Tokyo and Washington influence the Russian-Japanese peace treaty negotiations Abe said: