Tokyo - Toshiba Corp posted an operating loss for the first quarter through June 30, mainly due to sluggish sales in its flash memory business, the company said Tuesday.

Tokyo - Stocks plunged more than 2 per cent in Tokyo Tuesday after Wall Street sharply fell overnight on renewed worries about the US financial market.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 287.34 points, or 2.15 per cent, to 13,066.44.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 30.42 points, or 2.24 per cent, to 1,270.37.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 107.43-46 yen, down from Monday's 5 pm quote of 107.73-76 yen.

Tokyo - Japan's unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in June, up 0.1 point from the previous month, the government said Tuesday.

Some 2.65 million people were jobless in the reporting month, up 240,000 from a year before, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report.

There were 91 jobs available for every 100 job seekers in June.

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp said Monday that it has revised downward its global sales projection for 2008 by 350,000 units to 9.5 million.

Japan's top automaker revised the projection to 9.5 million from an initial target of 9.85 million due to a sales decline in the United States.

The Toyota's figure includes sales of Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd.

Tokyo - More than 50,000 people had to leave their homes in central and western Japan Monday due to heavy rain and flooding, media reports said.

A 53-year-old man in the central city of Kanazawa was rescued two hours after his car was buried in mud. He suffered broken bones, the Jiji Press news agency said.

Heavy rain in Kanazawa forced more than 20,000 households to evacuate to nearby schools and public halls.

Landslides blocked roads in central Niigata province, while cars were submerged in water in the western city Kyotango.

Tokyo - Japanese farmers expressed concern as the government is poised to accept a compromise proposed at World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations that require developed nations to cut tariffs on key farm products, media reports said Monday.

"I'm worried what will become of Japanese agriculture if cheap imported farm products are coming," an official of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives was quoted as saying by the Kyodo News agency.

Lowering tariffs would be "a matter of life or death" for some farmers in Japan, a farmer in Okinawa prefecture told the agency.