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.

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened higher Monday on overnight gains in the US market and a weaker yen.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 71.07 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 13,405.83.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 6.38 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 1,304.66.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 107.85-90 yen, up from Friday's 5 pm quote of 106.78-80 yen. A weaker yen helps boost Japanese companies' earnings overseas.

Tokyo - Three people died Saturday in Japan due to extreme temperatures, media reports

Tokyo - Honda Motor Co said Friday that its net profit increased 8.1 per cent in its first quarter to 179.61 billion yen (1.67 billion dollars), thanks to strong sales in Asia and Brazil.

Japan's second-largest automaker reported a 2.2-per-cent decline in sales in the April-June quarter to 2.87 trillion yen.

Its operating profit, or a company's earnings minus interest payments and taxes, which are seen as a measure of its earnings power from ongoing operations, fell 0.2 per cent to 221.35 billion yen.

Hanoi - Sony plans to close its television picture tube factory in Vietnam after 14 years of operations, a company official said Friday.

Sony Vietnam, a joint venture between Japan's Sony Group and Vietnam's Viettronics Tan Binh Co, is to close its factory in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of September, company spokeswoman Pham Xuan Anh Thy said.