The trade balance between Japan and the United States has been destabilized again on Tuesday

Major League Baseball teams are vying for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 26 year old Japanese power pitcher

Here?s a theoretical scenario for you to contemplate: Japan, unnerved by North Korea?s having acquired nuclear weapons, decides to develop its own nuclear weapons program.

YouTube, the popular video file sharing site owned by Google Inc. has bowed to pressure from a group of Japanese media representatives that demanded that it remove thousands of files over copyright infringement.

The new prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has paid a visit to the Chinese capital of Beijing as regional worry-causer North Korea maintained its right to test a nuclear weapon due to what it terms as threats to Pyongyang from the United States.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso has formally declared his intention to run for the country`s premiership, and has also pledged to improve diplomatic ties with neighboring Asian countries. He first run for the position in 2001, in the election which was won by Koizumi.

At least four major banks in the State of Japan have raised mortgage and deposits interest rates. The announcement came as welcome news for pensioners, who have not been receiving any interest on their savings during the last five years. Investors were also said to be happy with the move.

Japan no longer has any troops serving in Iraq; the last troops returned to the home islands, ending a two-and-a-half year stint that saw the Japanese Self-Defense Forces take on a non-combat support role to the American, British, Australian, Polish, Dutch and Italian troops who have been serving in the country since the toppling of Saddam Hussein?s dictatorial regime in 2003.

The Japanese economy would seem to have taken a beating in recent weeks, as North Korean missile tests, bad weather, and Middle Eastern tensions have led to a situation where according to forex Japanese yen analysts, one of the world?s most stable and dependable economies as of late has faced threats from all sides, and in its own region.

Japan`s Foreign Minister Taro Aso, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga have reached a conclusion that a decision on the timing of a withdrawal of Japanese non-combat troops from Iraq would have to wait for the Iraqis to take over security responsibilities in the area in question from the British. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is scheduled to hold a summit with President Bush in Washington, D.C. the last week of June.

One of the fastest and most lucrative new businesses in Japan is all about relazing. And more and more Japanese are turning to the creates and patterns of the sea to help themsleves relax.

Ishinosuke Uwano, 83, was officially registered as dead by the Japanese Government in 2000, as he had not been heard from since 1958, when he was last reported seen on Russia`s Sakhalin Island. It was unclear why and how Mr. Uwano, who served in the Imperial Army of Japan on Sakhalin Island until the war`s end in 1945, ended up in Ukraine.

Judge Kenichi Ido of Japan`s Kanazawa District Court in northwestern Japan ordered the shutdown of the country?s second-largest nuclear reactor. Earlier this week, fire broke out at a nuclear plant`s waste incinerator in western Japan, injuring two workers.

This year`s World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan. Ichiro Suzuki and his less-famous countrymen beat Cuba in the championship game Monday night, 10-6, ripping a page out of Cuba`s scorebook by winning a major international tournament. The Classic`s slogan is "Baseball Spoken Here."" This week Baseball was speaking Japanese and the word was yakyu, which in Japanese means "field ball".

The People`s Republic of China on Monday strongly condemned Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso`s remarks that the high standard of education in Taiwan is a legacy of imperial Japan`s 50-year colonial rule of the island. Aso has made a habit of making remarks that have angered Japan`s neighbors.

Memoirs of a Geisha, released in Japan this week as "Sayuri," is little more than a simple love story on one level. The decision to cast Chinese actresses in many of the main roles has caused ripples on both sides of the East China Sea, coming as it does amid tensions over Japan`s and China`s views of Japan`s brutal World War II history.

United States is proud to finally offer the hang over medicine from Japan. Available for the first time, the one thing that helps hard-drinking Japanese open their eyes after a night of partying, has arrived in the US just in time for the holidays.

Economic growth in Japan has slowed to 0.4% in the three months ending in September, as domestic demand declined. Still, both the Bank of Japan and the government recently declared the economy has moved out of a soft patch and there are signs that a return to inflation is near, after almost eight years of falls in consumer prices.

Japan Post (which has 25,000 post offices - more branches than any Japanese bank) and some $3 trillion in assets will be split into four entities under a new holding company, and then privatized in two years` time.

Japanese trading houses Toyota Tsusho Corp. and Tomen Corp. have plans to merge in April next year, according to reports. The new company will have combined sales of 4.9 trillion yen, or $43 billion dollars.

In most countries, a long line may turn off visitors. In Japan, it signals that something good awaits. After 185 days and 22 million visitors, the 2005 World Expo ended here Sunday.

Japan votes Sunday in a snap election called by the prime minister over his economic reforms. The flamboyant style of Japan`s PM may be paying off.

Opposition parties see the chance to end graft and create more accomodating foreign policy as PM Junichiro Koizumu dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament and called for elections this last Monday to take place next month.