At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March's tsunami, oversees a community where the votes and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to his and future generations. "That's the most difficult problem," Suda said. "For whom are we rebuilding?" The rebuilding of Onagawa and the rest of the coast where the tsunami hit is a preview of what may be the most critical test Japan faces in the decades ahead. In a country where power rests disproportionately among older people, how does Japan, which has the world's most rapidly aging population, use its resources to build a society that looks to the future as much as the past? The clashing generational interests are perhaps most striking in Onagawa, a town of 8,500 residents whose average age of 49.5 is above the national average of 45. (Jakarta Globe) [...]

"I'm convinced we're witnessing the lowest-risk, highest-reward trade in 61 years." That's what I told WSD Insider subscribers regarding Japan back in December 2011. Unsurprisingly, many balked at my assertion. Too many pundits for too long had been predicting the same turnaround for this country's stocks. And every time, one never materialized. But guess what? This time - dare I say it - could end up being different. And that's because the specific Japanese stocks I recommended are showing signs of a breakout. They're on a record-setting tear, up 26 days in a row, in fact. It's not just a glitch, either. There's momentum, valuation and positive fundamentals driving it home. So, surprising as it might seem. (SeekingAlpha) [...]

As Japan's tallest tower nears completion, the Tokyo Sky Tree is being promoted with a new perfume. Cosmetics company Shiseido will release Tokyo Sky Tree Parfum as a limited run of 634 bottles, matching the tower's 634 metres. The tower, the tallest in the world, is due to be completed this month and opened to the public in May. The tower will carry TV signals for some of the country's major broadcasters. It will have two observations decks open to the public. It was certified as the tallest freestanding tower by Guinness World Records in November 2011 after overtaking Guangzhou's Canton Tower. Other promotional activities include the creation of a children's character known as "Sorakara-chan". (BBC) [...]

Officials in Japan's Okinawa prefecture have been forced to cancel two children's snow events amid residents' fears the snow was radioactive. About 600kg of snow had been flown into Naha city from north-eastern Japan. Reports say that residents expressed fears the snow had been contaminated in the wake of the crisis at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant. But officials said the snow was from an area 400km (248 miles) from Fukushima and had undergone several safety tests. One of the cancelled events was due to take place on Thursday, at a children's hall in the Matsuo area of the city, with the second scheduled for Friday. (BBC) [...]

n the three prefectures hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake last March 11, 1,580 children lost either one or both of their parents, according to a health ministry survey of Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi conducted at the end of last year. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's poll, most of those children are being cared for by relatives. In Iwate Prefecture, 7-year-old Sora Sasaki from the coastal town of Sasaki lost his mother, Kanako, on the day of the disasters and is currently living with kin. His mother was raising him in a single-parent household; his father was out of the picture. (Japan Times) [...]

With school graduation season rapidly approaching, printing companies in areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake have been boosting production of school yearbooks under shortened deadlines. The firms only started full-scale production of the yearbooks from the beginning of this year, mainly because many schools and photo studios lost images and relevant data in the disaster. Sendai-based Saito Collotype Printing has received orders from about 3,500 schools nationwide, ranging from kindergartens to universities. (Yomiuri) [...]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has announced a plan to cover the seabed adjacent to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant with a coating material composed of clay and cement as a new measure to prevent the spread of soil contaminated with radioactive substances. According to TEPCO's announcement on Tuesday, the coating material will be placed in areas surrounded by breakwaters and silt fences that had already been installed. The work of laying the coating material on the seabed is set to be started later this month and completed in three to four months. The coating material, which will be about 60 centimeters thick, will cover areas stretching along a total of 900 meters of shoreline to a distance of 80 meters out. The 72,000-square-meter area is equivalent to 5.5 times the field area of Tokyo Dome. (Yomiuri) [...]

Japan's ancient sport of sumo rang up debts of almost $50 million in 2011 after a match-fixing scandal which triggered a television black-out and a government warning. "We find ourselves in an extremely difficult position," Japan Sumo Association (JSA) chairman Kitanoumi told reporters on Wednesday. "We must face the problem and quickly restore the public's faith in sumo." The JSA was forced to pull the plug on last March's spring tournament after a sting operation uncovered a match-fixing ring via texts left on mobile phones of wrestlers involved. (moneycontrol.com) [...]

A dead shark that was found in Yoyogi Park in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on Sunday was left there by a man who had photographed the creature and went home with the intention of retrieving it later, according to the police. The police plan to not file charges of illegal dumping against the 25-year-old company employee from Minato Ward, after concluding he had not intended to leave the shark in the popular park. A senior officer from Yoyogi Police Station said the man got the shark from a sushi restaurant in Shibuya Ward last Wednesday and kept it at a friend's house. (Yomiuri) [...]

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's largest bank, will withdraw from consumer banking in Japan, closing down six branches four years after starting the business. HSBC will stop selling new investment products, including mutual funds, from March 8, and it will end operations in its branches in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya by July 31, the London-based bank said in the memo e-mailed to its customers yesterday and obtained by Bloomberg News. A spokesman in London confirmed the details of the e-mail. The U.K. lender is scaling back in parts of Asia, including Japan, South Korea and Thailand, as Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver cuts costs and prepares for tighter capital rules. (sfgate.com) [...]

The government has asked the U.S. government to grant permission for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the United States to Japan, according to sources. The government is trying to diversify energy supply sources to cope with shortfalls in energy supply after the shutdowns of nuclear reactors in the nation and the recent decision to reduce imports of Iranian oil. The United States regards LNG as a strategic material and restricts exports of the product. (Yomiuri) [...]

The dollar rose to a seven-month high against the Japanese yen, a week after the Bank of Japan announced a surprise increase of its economic stimulus program. The dollar rose to 80.24 Japanese yen late Wednesday from 79.71 yen late Tuesday. The dollar rose as high as 80.40 yen, its highest point against the yen since July 11. The Bank of Japan said on Feb. 14 that it would buy more government bonds while keeping short-term interest rates close to zero to boost the country's economy. (Seattle Times) [...]

More than 10,000 New Zealanders and 90 people from Japan, some teary eyed, stood in silence at a Christchurch park Wednesday while police officers and firefighters read out the names of all 185 people who died in a devastating earthquake one year ago. The reading was followed by two minutes of silence at 12:51 p.m., the minute the magnitude 6.1 quake struck. It destroyed thousands of homes and much of downtown Christchurch, causing $25 billion in damage by the government's estimate. Family and friends of 24 of the 28 Japanese victims, who all died when the CTV building collapsed, were among the participants in a government-sponsored ceremony and offered a moment of silence. (Japan Times) [...]

Chinese Internet users are in an uproar after the mayor of Nagoya told a delegation from Nanjing that he doubted Japanese soldiers had committed atrocities during their World War II occupation of the city. The southern Chinese city of Nanjing suspended contact with Japanese sister city Nagoya on Tuesday night. The historical scars left by Japan's wartime occupation remain a flashpoint in relations between the two East Asian powers. Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine-where Class-A war criminals are enshrined along with the war dead-and revisionist text books in Japan that gloss over the country's military adventurism in Asia have led to large, and sometimes violent, protests outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing. (Wall Street Journal) [...]

Australia refrained from declaring support for Japan's participation in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade initiative during the two countries' first preliminary talks Tuesday in Canberra, sources said. While Australia indicated it would welcome Japan's participation in the multilateral negotiations, it demanded Tokyo introduce a high level of farm market liberalization, the sources said. Australia, a major agricultural exporter, has called on Japan to eliminate tariffs on beef, dairy products and sugar during separate talks over the past five years on concluding a bilateral free-trade agreement, while Japan wants the items exempted from tariff elimination. (Japan Times) [...]

A 61-year-old woman suffered serious stab wounds in the back and arm Wednesday afternoon in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, and a woman in her 70s was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, according to police and fire officials. The police are checking if the suspect, who claims to be from Fukuoka, is mentally competent to be held criminally liable, as she has made strange comments, including: "I got upset from being stared at," police officials said. The victim suffered three wounds and was taken to a hospital, but her injuries are not life-threatening, the officials said. She told authorities she did not know her assailant. (Japan Times) [...]

Japan thrashed Malaysia 4-0 in their penultimate Olympic group qualifier Wednesday to keep alive their hopes of securing a place at the London Games. Coach Takashi Sekizuka said they could have used a few more goals to cement their place at the top of the Group C rankings -- and with that their Olympic chances as only the group winner automatically qualifies for London. Before the match, Japan were tied with Syria on nine points and on goal difference. But Syria topped the four-team group, having scored one more goal. Japan now have 12 points. Syria play later Wednesday against third-placed Bahrain away in Manama. (India Times) [...]

Tokyo stocks rose almost one percent to close Wednesday at their highest level in six-and-a-half months as exporters were boosted by a sliding yen. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 0.96 percent or 90.98 points to 9,554.00, its strongest finish since August 4, while the Topix index of all first-section issues was up 1.12 percent, or 9.11 points, at 825.40. Exporters were the main beneficiaries of the yen's slide. The dollar strengthened to 80.04 yen from 79.69 yen in New York late Tuesday, breaking through the psychological 80.00 yen level against the Japanese unit. (Economic Times) [...]

It might the stuff of science fiction dreams, but a Japanese construction company has announced that it will have built a working space elevator by 2050. According to the The Daily Yomiuri, construction company Obayashi Corp has announced it will have built a space elevator capable of shuttling passengers 36,000 kilometers above the Earth by 2050. The company plans to use carbon nanontubes, which are 20 times stronger than steel, to produce the cables required for the elevator. Those cables will be stretched to a counterweight 96,000 kilometers above our planet, about one-fourth of the distance between the Earth and the moon. The terminal station, 36,000 kilometers above Earth, will be reached by cars that can carry 30 people and travel at 200 kilometers per hour. (gizmodo.com) [...]

Japan has repeatedly warned the United States against price rises in Lockheed Martin Corp's new F-35 fighter jet, its top government spokesman said on Wednesday, after U.S. and Lockheed officials noted delays in orders will increase its total cost. The comments from Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura come after Japan's Sankei newspaper cited unidentified U.S. government officials as saying that Japan had threatened that it may even cancel its orders if prices climbed. Japan picked the F-35 as its next mainstay fighter in December, choosing it over combat-proven but less stealthy rivals. (Reuters) [...]