Recently, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia announced that even after trying hard to grow its market share in Japan, it has not helped in anyways, so the company would soon stop selling its handsets in Japan.

However, Nokia revealed that its luxury Vertu brand would continue being sold in Japan, and would dedicate its Japanese business for research purposes. Other than Nokia, Samsung and LG have been facing a lot of problems in Japan, where the market is primarily dominated by the sophisticated domestic phones.

Cologne, Germany - Japan makes better use of the abilities of senior citizens than Germany does, according to a German expert in the field.

"Public services, families and companies in Japan can access the expertise of older people through regional centres and networks, said Hartmut Meyer-Wolters, professor of gerontology at the University of Cologne. "We're a long way from reaching this stage in Germany."

TOKYO, Nov. 28 - Finnish phone maker Nokia, facing a tough market in Japan, will pull out of that country except to market its high-end Vertu, Forbes reported Thursday.

Nokia's Vertu phones, which cost up to $10,000, are handcrafted and feature precious metals, the financial magazine reported.

"There is definitely a market in Japan for Vertu," analyst Carolina Milanesi at Gartner Research was quoted as saying. She also approved of Nokia's decision, given the weak market share for its other phones.

TOKYO, Nov. 28  -- Japan, saying the Iraqi situation is improving, announced Friday it will end its military airlift mission in Iraq by year's end.

"The situation in Iraq is improving and Iraq has become able to reconstruct itself on its own by the Iraqi people under a democratic government,'' Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.

He said Japan's air self-defense force mission had helped in improving the Iraqi situation, Kyodo news service reported. The mission began about five years ago to help in the reconstruction of the war-torn country, the news agency said.

CNN reported the announcement is part of an effort to withdraw Japan's 210 military personnel.

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks ended Friday trading higher as investors remained positive about the outlook of a series of economic measures across the world.

Tokyo - Japan's industrial output dropped in October because of slow overseas demand for cars and high-tech devices amid the global financial turmoil as consumer prices rose for the 13th-consecutive month, leading Japanese to cut spending, government reports said Friday.