TOKYO, May 14 (Reuters) – The assembly in a western Japanese
town that hosts a nuclear plant agreed on Monday it was
necessary to restart two off-line reactors, domestic media said,
the first such nod since all the country’s stations were halted
after the Fukushima crisis.

With power shortages looming in the region when demand peaks
this summer, the central government has been trying to win
approval from towns and prefectures that host reactors. All 50
reactors are off-line since the last one shut down for
maintenance on May 5.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s government is rushing to try to restart two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, by next month out of what experts say is a fear that surviving a total shutdown would make it hard to convince the public that atomic energy is vital.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet on Thursday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan – a region dubbed the “nuclear arcade” for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s government is racing to get two nuclear reactors, idled after the Fukushima crisis, running again by next month out of what experts say is fear that a total shutdown would make it hard to convince a wary public that atomic power is vital.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three cabinet ministers are to meet on Thursday to discuss the possible restarts of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co’s Ohi plant in Fukui, western Japan – a region dubbed the “nuclear arcade” for the string of atomic plants that dot its coast.

TOKYO (Reuters) – When Yusaku Maezawa quit playing drums in a punk band to devote himself full-time to his business selling Tokyo street fashion on the Internet, his main goal was to have fun.

Twelve years later, Maezawa, 36, is the billionaire CEO of online fashion retailer Start Today, one of a clutch of growing firms led by a different breed of executives determined to avoid the errors of the global Japanese brands whose faltering fortunes are making Japan Inc synonymous with decline.

TOKYO, April 3 (Reuters) – When Yusaku Maezawa quit playing
drums in a punk band to devote himself full-time to his business
selling Tokyo street fashion on the Internet, his main goal was
to have fun.

Twelve years later, Maezawa, 36, is the billionaire CEO of
online fashion retailer Start Today, one of a clutch of
growing firms led by a different breed of executives determined
to avoid the errors of the global Japanese brands whose
faltering fortunes are making Japan Inc synonymous with decline.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese ruling party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa threatened to vote against bills to increase the sales tax, the latest sign of trouble for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his battle to fix the nation’s tattered finances.

Analysts say if the proposals are voted down, Noda, Japan’s sixth leader in five years, will be under pressure to resign.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Three months after Japan’s March 11 triple disaster, a long-time expert on the country arrived in Tokyo to research a book he intended to entitle “Rebirth of a Nation.”

Months later, Richard Samuels is calling his work “The Rhetoric of Crisis.”

TOKYO, March 7 (Reuters) – Three months after Japan’s
March 11 triple disaster, a long-time expert on the country
arrived in Tokyo to research a book he intended to entitle
“Rebirth of a Nation.”

Months later, Richard Samuels is calling his work “The
Rhetoric of Crisis.”

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and the United States are close to an agreement on cuts in Japanese imports of Iranian oil that will allow Tokyo to avoid U.S. sanctions, and may conclude a deal this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba told Reuters on Monday.

But Gemba said the two sides might not make public the size of the cuts because of the possible impact on markets.

TOKYO (Reuters) – “What Japan needs most now is a dictator.”

Toru Hashimoto, a lawyer and TV celebrity-turned politician,

was quick to add when he made that widely publicized remark last year that a Hitler-style dictatorship was neither desirable nor possible given Japan’s democratic checks and balances.

But the call for strong leadership from the charismatic mayor, whom some believe has ambitions to be Japan’s next premier, is resonating with voters frustrated by years of political deadlock that has kept the country from tackling the deep-rooted problems of a fast-ageing society.