Kyodo news summary -9-

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, Jan. 7 -- (Kyodo) _ ---------- Sony Mobile's head office relocated to Tokyo from Sweden TOKYO - Sony Mobile Communications Inc. said Monday it has finished relocating its headquarters functions to Tokyo from the Swedish city of Lund as part of efforts to develop more attractive products by strengthening ties with other units of the Japanese electronics giant.

The new head office of the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corp., will be in charge of developing and designing its Xperia smartphones, as well as mapping out its global business strategy.

---------- Japan eyes 12 tril. yen extra budget to stimulate economy TOKYO - The government is considering creating an extra budget for fiscal 2012 worth around 12 trillion yen ($136.2 billion) to stimulate Japan's struggling economy, including over 4 trillion yen for public works projects, sources close to the matter said Monday.

To fund the large-scale supplementary budget, the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making arrangements to issue new government bonds worth more than 5 trillion yen, the sources said, a move that could raise criticism that Japan's fiscal health will worsen further.

---------- Cerberus to sell most of Aozora Bank shares TOKYO - Aozora Bank said Monday that U.S. investment fund Cerberus Group, its largest shareholder, will sell most of its Aozora shareholding.

Cerberus will sell 632.5 million shares to investors in and outside of Japan at a price to be determined in mid-January.

---------- Abe now eyeing visit to U.S. in Feb. due to scheduling difficulties TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to make arrangements for his visit to the United States in February, instead of January as previously agreed on, due to scheduling difficulties for U.S. President Barack Obama, Japanese government officials said Monday.

Abe, who intends to travel to the United States as his first foreign destination since becoming premier in late December, had agreed with Obama in telephone talks last month on a plan to hold a summit meeting in the United States in January.

---------- Sharp to shift to customer-oriented business model OSAKA - Major electronics maker Sharp Corp. plans to shift to a customer-oriented business model this year in an effort to recover from its business crisis, its President Takashi Okuda told reporters Monday.

Three in-house companies will be created in April to serve individual, corporate and manufacturing customers within the business model, he said.

---------- Japan eyeing new defense programs by year-end TOKYO - Japan's ruling party headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved on Monday a plan to come up with new national defense programs by the end of this year, lawmakers said.

Abe's government will review the two programs, crafted in 2010 by the previous government led by the Democratic Party of Japan, for the purpose of strengthening the country's defense capabilities in light of China's growing assertiveness.

---------- Ghana's president sworn in for new term NAIROBI - Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama was sworn in Monday for a new four-year term in the West African nation's capital of Accra after winning a closely fought election in December.

Mahama, 54, became vice president in January 2009 and assumed the presidency last July after the death of President John Atta Mills.

---------- China to suspend labor camp system: report HONG KONG - China will this year stop sending dissidents to labor camps, mainland media reported Monday.

Meng Jianzhu, secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, said during a commission work meeting that so-called "reeducation through labor" will be modified, the Caixin financial news website was quoted as saying.

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