News stories by Suvendrini Kakuchi, page 11

Asako Nakano, 52, a company employee, invested in a condominium two summers ago, settling the deal with a down payment of around 155,000 U.S. dollars from her savings.

Expectations are high for Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, who has taken over the reins of a country saddled with massive public debt and a domestic furore over the failure of the former head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and newly resigned premier Yukio Hatoyama to deliver on his campaign pledge to move the controversial U.S. military base out of the southern island of Okinawa.

A clumsy and failed attempt by Japan’s nine-month-old coalition government to change the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, a post World War II landmark in bilateral relations after the Japanese defeat and often referred to as the lynchpin in Asian regional defence, has shaken domestic politics and fueled East Asian anxiety.

Although unmarried, Rajini Padamaraj, 32, is burdened with the responsibility of looking after the needs of her entire household, composed of her mother and two younger siblings.

Junko Hamada, 59, is now in her 12th year as an elected member of the city council of Isehara, a sprawling bed town west of Tokyo with an estimated population of 150,000.

Mitsuko and Koji Iwatsuki, both in their senior years, spend their days taking walks, playing golf occasionally and going on foreign trips once a year.

Mounting international criticism against Japan’s Atlantic bluefin tuna imports linked closely to the extinction of the species has turned the spotlight, once again, on the lack of a viable means of protecting most of the world’s fast- depleting natural resources.

Now that the electorate has given its verdict, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s victory in the just concluded presidential polls sends an ominous signal to the minority people of the island state.

TOKYO, Dic 31 (IPS) - The world's most generous aid donor has just posted its lowest increase in overseas development assistance (ODA) in history, but development experts say this should not be a cause for alarm.

TOKYO, Dic 27 (IPS) - The card sent out by the Morita family for the holidays has one of Japan's most illustrious and charismatic business leaders brandishing a tennis racket, looking as competitive as ever.