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/ 30 May 2008

Japanese man finds woman living in his closet

A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said on Friday. The 57-year-old man living alone — or so he thought — installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.

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/ 27 May 2008

Japanese plan to brew ‘space beer’

A Japanese brewery on Tuesday said it was planning the first "space beer", using offspring of barley once stored at the International Space Station. Researchers said the project was part of efforts to prepare for a future in which humans spend extended periods of time in space — and might like a cold beer after a space walk.

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/ 19 May 2008

Facebook stresses independence amid talks

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressed his company’s independent spirit on Monday, after a report the social networking site might be sold to software giant Microsoft, which is hunting for ways to beef up its internet business. Asked specifically about the prospect of a sale, Zuckerberg declined to comment.

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/ 14 May 2008

Lock your front door — from your car

Drivers in Japan can check on their pets, turn lights off and on and lock their front door, all from inside their cars — with a new car navigation system from Panasonic. The Strada F-Class guides drivers with maps to destinations, but the gadget also links to your home through an internet-linking cellphone.

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/ 10 May 2008

Weather forecasting — another Olympic contest

Meteorologists may not always feel appreciated, but at the Beijing Olympics at least they will have their own contest. Weather agencies from eight countries or territories plan to hold their own competition during the Games in August, squaring off on which one can most accurately predict conditions in Beijing, the Japanese side said on Friday.

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/ 7 May 2008

Gates plays down prospects of fresh Yahoo! bid

Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates on Wednesday played down the chances of a fresh takeover bid for Yahoo!, saying the United States software giant would focus on an independent strategy. "We put a lot of effort into talking to Yahoo! and the conclusion was reached that we should pursue our own independent path," he told reporters during a visit to Tokyo.

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/ 6 May 2008

Formula One: Aguri call it quits

Japanese team Super Aguri are pulling out of Formula One racing after prolonged financial difficulties, founder Aguri Suzuki said on Tuesday. ”I have been very happy that I was able to achieve a miracle and become a team owner, but I have to make the difficult decision to withdraw,” Suzuki told a news conference.

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/ 3 May 2008

Japan, China to join in $300m CO2 project

Japan and China will cooperate in a -million project to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from a thermal power plant, a Japanese daily reported on Saturday. Under the plan of the project, emitted carbon dioxide from a thermal power plant will be injected into a major Chinese oil field to extract more crude oil, the report said.

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/ 17 April 2008

G8 business chiefs spar over climate change

World business chiefs gathered in Tokyo on Thursday to discuss ways to tackle global warming as transatlantic tensions emerged over how far industry should go to reduce emissions. The heads of the business federations of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations agreed that climate change needs serious attention.

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/ 27 March 2008

De Beers, Swarovski open flagships in Japan

Top jewellers De Beers and Swarovski on Thursday opened flagship stores in Tokyo in a bid to lure customers in the highly lucrative but increasingly saturated Japanese luxury market. De Beers, the British-South African diamond giant, and Switzerland’s Swarovski cut the ribbons on the stores blocks away from each other in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

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/ 26 March 2008

Downsizing, the Japanese way

Corporate Japan will join the country’s battle against bulging waistlines next month with the introduction of compulsory "flab checks" for the over-40s and penalties for firms that fail to bring their employees’ weight under control. Health authorities hope the measures will arrest the rise in obesity among middle-aged men and slow soaring medical costs.

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/ 24 March 2008

Japan’s economy poised on knife-edge

Masaaki Shirakawa, the Bank of Japan’s acting governor, has warned that the country’s economy faces an uncertain future. It comes at the end of a week in which the Nikkei share index sank to its lowest level for almost three years. Shirakawa took up the post after Parliament failed to agree on a long-term appointment.

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/ 23 March 2008

Blogging turns Japanese singer into star writer

Mieko Kawakami, a former bar hostess and bookstore clerk, was just another obscure singer until she started a blog. Her poetic, street-wise writing stood out so starkly among internet diaries in Japan — which, like those around the world, tend to be more informative or gossipy than narrative — that she is now Japan’s biggest literary star.

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/ 4 March 2008

Japanese firm tells workers: Drinks are on us

Boozing into the night might inhibit coherent speech, but a Japanese company bets it will make workers communicate better. And it’s even willing to pay for it. Japan General Estate said on Tuesday it is planning to dole out thousands of dollars a month for its employees to go on the town in a bid to help communication.

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/ 18 February 2008

Cheers as Toshiba nears HD DVD surrender

Investors cheered an impending end to a format war for next-generation DVDs on Monday, pushing up shares of both Toshiba, on the verge of abandoning its HD DVD discs, and Sony, the leader of the rival Blu-ray camp. Toshiba shares jumped 5,1% as analysts praised its decision to cut its losses.

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/ 14 February 2008

Japanese super-dog hailed for saving lives

Japanese police on Thursday heaped praise on a Labrador Retriever who found an elderly man who fallen over in freezing conditions at night, the second time the dog was credited with saving a life. The three-year-old black Lab, named ‘Dor, suddenly started barking when she was taking a walk with her owner in the western city of Iwade one evening last month.