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/ 14 February 2008

UN calls for compromise in climate-change talks

The United Nations climate chief on Thursday called for rich and developing nations to reach a compromise as they held talks in Japan in their bid to forge a new deal on fighting global warming by the end of next year. Officials from the United Nations and 21 countries opened two days of closed-door talks in Tokyo to help find common ground.

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/ 5 February 2008

Japan: China dumpling poisoning may be deliberate

Japan’s health minister raised the possibility on Tuesday that someone had deliberately contaminated Chinese-made dumplings imported into Japan with pesticide in an incident that made 10 Japanese sick and sparked a food scare. Japanese police have set up a joint task force to investigate the case on suspicion of attempted murder.

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/ 29 January 2008

Japanese firm offers ‘heartache leave’ for staff

Lovelorn staff at a Japanese marketing company can take paid time off after a bad break-up with a partner, with more "heartache leave" on offer as they get older. Tokyo-based Hime & Company, which also gives staff paid time off to hit the shops during sales season, says heartache leave allows staff to cry themselves out and return to work refreshed.

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/ 9 January 2008

Japanese game sales hit record high in 2007

The booming popularity of Nintendo’s Wii console and DS handheld sent the combined sales of game machines and gaming software in Japan to a record high last year, according to research by a Japanese publisher. The results underline the stellar success of Nintendo, the company maker behind Super Mario and Pokemon games.

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/ 8 January 2008

Gold hits record high on oil

Gold surged to a fresh record high on Tuesday, boosted by firm oil prices, with longer-term trends such as a weakening dollar spurring heavy buying by investment funds. Spot gold rose as far as ,80 an ounce, surpassing the previous record of ,05 reached last week.

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/ 25 December 2007

DoCoMo to tie up with Google:

Japan’s leading mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, trying to fight off resurgent competitors, will tie up with United States search-engine giant Google to upgrade its services, a report said Tuesday. DoCoMo will incorporate Google’s search and email features into its popular "i-mode" internet service as part of a broader alliance.

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/ 21 December 2007

Japan removes humpback whales from kill list

Japan’s whaling fleet in the Antarctic will avoid killing humpback whales for now, but will press on with plans to slay 1 000 other whales by early in the New Year, a government official said on Friday. Plans by Japan to include 50 endangered humpbacks in its annual hunt had sparked an outcry from activists.

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/ 20 December 2007

Japan’s defence minister braces for aliens

As Japan takes a more active role in military affairs, the defence minister has more on his mind than just threats here on Earth. Shigeru Ishiba became the second member of the Cabinet to profess a belief in UFOs and said he was looking at how Japan’s military could respond to aliens under the pacifist Constitution.

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/ 11 December 2007

Honda networks robots to work in pairs

As if the idea of having one robot to serve a person wasn’t unusual enough, Honda says its robots are now ready to work in pairs — and they can even serve drinks. At a demonstration held on Tuesday in Tokyo, the automaker showed off two of the child-sized Asimo robots serving tea and performing other tasks.

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/ 27 November 2007

Robot with soft hands chats, serves meal

A pearly white robot that looks a little like ET boosted a man out of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in Tokyo on Tuesday, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human inventors. Twendy-One, named as a 21st-century edition of a previous robot, Wendy, has soft hands and fingers that gently grip.

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/ 17 November 2007

Japan fleet plan to hunt humpbacks draws protests

Japan’s whaling fleet is set to depart on Sunday for an annual hunt that this year for the first time will take humpback whales — a perennial favourite among whale-watchers — sparking protests from activists. Japan abandoned commercial whaling in accordance with an international moratorium in 1986, but began the next year to conduct what it calls scientific research whaling.

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/ 5 November 2007

Citigroup up in Tokyo debut after CEO quits

Shares of Citigroup rose 5% in their debut on the Tokyo bourse on Monday, a day after the United States bank’s head resigned to take responsibility for spiralling losses on subprime-related investments. Charles Prince stepped down after four years as Citigroup’s chief on Sunday after the bank said it may suffer an -billion write-down for subprime losses.

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/ 1 November 2007

Japan pulls out of Afghanistan coalition

Japan ordered its naval ships on Thursday to withdraw from a refuelling mission in support of United States-led operations in Afghanistan as a political deadlock kept the government from meeting a deadline to extend the activities. The Pentagon said that Japan’s withdrawal would not affect its patrolling of the Indian Ocean.

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/ 23 October 2007

Back-seat toilet to end mishaps in traffic jams

If you’re stuck in traffic when Mother Nature calls, Japan’s Kaneko Sangyo Corporation has developed the loo for you. The manufacturer of plastic car accessories drew back the curtain on Tuesday on its new portable toilet for cars. The toilet comes with a curtain large enough to conceal users and a plastic bag to collect waste.