Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled his Cabinet for the third time this year Monday in hopes of boosting flagging public support for his government amid speculation that elections will be called in coming months.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Friday he would resign after almost 15 months in office amid plunging approval ratings over his government's handling of the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis.
A former foreign minister announced his candidacy to lead Japan just hours after unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that he would be out of the picture by early next week.
Japan's foreign minister suddenly quit Sunday for having accepted an illegal political donation from a foreigner, dealing another blow to the embattled administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
North Korea is responsible for the disruption of GPS signals in some part of South Korea's capital region last week that caused malfunctions in mobile phones, media reports quoted officials as saying on Sunday.
World leaders focused attention on North Korea on Monday, as an International Criminal Court prosecutor opened a war-crimes investigation into the reclusive country's recent military strikes and as U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials conferred at the State Department.
China said Thursday it will not use exports of rare earths, exotic minerals required by high-tech industry, as a diplomatic "bargaining tool" while Washington pressed Beijing to clarify its policy following its de facto ban on supplies to Japan.
Japan declared an end Tuesday to a dispute with China over a high-seas collision last month and the two countries agreed to resume exchanges and projects that had been stopped because of the incident.
China's recent halt of exotic metal shipments to Japan amid a diplomatic spat has reverberated throughout the world's high-tech manufacturing hubs _ now on heightened alert to the risks of relying on one country for materials that do everything from helping hybrid engines run to creating the color red in televisions.
