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Kyodo Top12 News (16:10)
[September 17, 2014]

Kyodo Top12 News (16:10)


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ---------- Japan ex-PM Mori to meet with S. Korea leader TOKYO - Final arrangements are now under way for former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to meet with South Korean President Park Geun Hye in Seoul as early as Friday when he visits the country, sources close to Japan-South Korea ties said Wednesday. The meeting comes at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to hold direct dialogue with Park at an early date in a bid to improve bilateral ties soured over history-related issues, including differing perceptions of Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and the so-called "comfort women" issue. Abe, who has yet to hold a one-on-one summit meeting with Park, is envisioning such talks with her on the fringes of an annual leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November in Beijing.



---------- Ministerial, working-level TPP talks eyed in Australia in October WASHINGTON - Countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative are considering holding ministerial and working-level meetings in October in Australia, sources close to the negotiation said Tuesday. Top negotiators from the 12 TPP countries are expected to gather in mid-October in Canberra and ministers are expected to meet in Sydney afterward, with concrete dates still under discussion. In the previous TPP talks held in Hanoi, Vietnam from Sept. 1 to 10, negotiators made only limited progress in narrowing the gaps between them and difficult issues such as those on intellectual assets and a reform of government-owned companies were carried over to the next meeting.

---------- Park urges "courageous decision" by Japan on "comfort women" issue SEOUL - South Korean President Park Geun Hye has urged Japan to make a "courageous decision" to resolve the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during World War II, Reuters news agency reported Wednesday. "What we wish to see is an apology to these victims as well as a courageous decision on the part of the Japanese political leadership to take measures to wholly restore honor to these comfort women victims. And doing so, I would say, offers a short route to easing the strains in our relationship," Park said in an interview with Reuters. The issue of such women, known euphemistically in Japan as "comfort women," remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks in improving strained ties between South Korea and Japan.


---------- No change in Japan's legal stance over "comfort women" TOKYO - Japan will not change its legal stance on so-called "comfort women," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Wednesday, in response to South Korean President Park Geun Hye's call for Tokyo to make a "courageous decision" to help resolve the contentious issue. "We have repeatedly said that Japan and South Korea already resolved the issue of the right (for South Koreans) to seek compensation," the government spokesman said at a press conference, adding that this stance is not subject to change. Comfort women were mostly Asian women coerced into working at brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The issue has prevented Tokyo and Seoul from improving bilateral ties, which have also been chilled by a territorial dispute.

---------- Eel producers agree to limit volume of young eel in aquaculture ponds TOKYO - Representatives of Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan agreed Wednesday at a multilateral forum on the conservation of the endangered Japanese eel to limit the volume of young eels put into aquaculture ponds. The deal, which will implement the restrictions on farmed eels from November, was reached by Japan and its neighbors under the first international framework on managing the species as a marine resource. The representatives, who began their meeting in Tokyo from Tuesday, also agreed to set up an entity which will manage the production of eels. Masanori Miyahara, adviser to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told reporters after the meeting that the delegates were able to come up with an agreement because of a shared view that measures must be taken to prevent the extinction of the Japanese eel.

---------- Monorail serving Tokyo's Haneda airport marks 50th anniversary TOKYO - The monorail linking Tokyo's Haneda airport with the downtown area marked its 50th anniversary on Wednesday, with six types of rail cars previously and currently in service featured at a commemorative event. Tokyo Monorail connecting the airport and Hamamatsucho Station launched its service on Sept. 17, 1964, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics later that year. The 17.8-kilometer monorail of the straddle-beam system had carried a total of 1.83 billion passengers by the end of March this year. In the event, the latest 10000 series car, which debuted in July, departed Hamamatsucho Station at 10 a.m., followed by the other types including the 2000 series car with big windows introduced in 1997.

---------- Smoke suspends Shinkansen operations for 2 hours TOKYO - Bullet train operations on northbound shinkansen lines were suspended for two hours on Wednesday after smoke was detected from below a platform at Tokyo Station, East Japan Railway Co. said. JR East resumed operations shortly past noon on the Tohoku, Joetsu, Nagano, Yamagata and Akita shinkansen lines after firefighters found no fire at the site. The operator said a station employee detected the smoke at around 9:50 a.m. During the suspension Tokyo Station was crowded with passengers. Operations on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line of Central Japan Railway Co. were not affected by the incident.

---------- Princess Mako leaves for Britain to study at graduate school TOKYO - Princess Mako, a granddaughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, left Japan on Wednesday for London to pursue a master's degree in museum studies at the University of Leicester in the East Midlands of England. The 22-year-old eldest daughter of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko plans to live in a dormitory and stay there for about one year while earning her degree, according to the Imperial Household Agency. She studied at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland for around nine months from September 2012, focusing mainly on art history, while she was a student at International Christian University in Tokyo. She graduated from ICU this spring.

---------- SoftBank offers Japan users fixed-rate iPhone services in U.S.

TOKYO - SoftBank Mobile Corp. said Wednesday it will offer Japan-based customers visiting the United States fixed-rate mobile phone and data communication services for the new Apple Inc. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones. The services will be offered free of additional charges in a campaign period beginning after Friday's launch of the new Apple smartphones, allowing the customers unlimited Internet access and phone calls from the United States to Japan and within the United States. After the campaign period that has yet to be fixed, the services will be free for customers receiving fixed-rate services with mobile data traffic of 5 gigabytes per month or more in Japan, and cost 980 yen per month for other customers.

---------- Sony projects increased loss in FY 2014 TOKYO - Sony Corp. said Wednesday it expects to book a 230 billion yen group net loss for the current business year through next March, sharply increased from the earlier forecast 50 billion yen. It would mark the sixth loss in seven years for the Japanese technology and entertainment company, which is struggling to rebuild its troubled electronics business. Sony logged a group net loss of 128.40 billion yen in the previous year.

---------- Tokyo stocks end lower, dollar trades in lower 107 yen zone TOKYO - Tokyo stocks ended slightly lower Wednesday, weighed down by selling amid a cautious mood ahead of the closure of the U.S. Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting later in the day. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average edged down 22.86 points, or 0.14 percent, from Tuesday to 15,888.67. The broader Topix index finished 5.90 points, or 0.45 percent, lower at 1,304.96. On the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded in the lower 107 yen range. At 4 p.m., the dollar fetched 107.24-25 yen compared with 107.08-18 yen in New York late Tuesday afternoon. The euro was quoted at 138.85-86 yen against 138.82-92 yen in New York.

---------- Weather forecast for key cities in Japan TOKYO - Weather forecast for Thursday: Tokyo=fair, occasionally rain; Osaka=fair, occasionally cloudy; Nagoya=fair; Sapporo=fair, occasionally rain; Sendai=fair, occasionally cloudy; Niigata=cloudy, occasionally fair; Hiroshima=fair, occasionally cloudy; Takamatsu=cloudy, occasionally fair; Fukuoka=fair, occasionally cloudy; Naha=fair.

(c) 2014 Kyodo News

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