Tokyo  - A freight plane crashed Monday morning

Tokyo  - A young woman in a railway compartment curls her eyelashes while a young cuddling couple does not bother to make room for a man with a leg in a plaster cast. A young man sprawled straddle-legged across two seats leafs through a book.

You can see such displays of rudeness in Japan, at least on posters that are part of a campaign by Japanese railway companies to promote good behaviour among passengers. Many foreign travellers are surprised at the admonitions because Japan, of all countries, seems positively steeped in politeness.

Nevertheless, Japanese railway passengers are peppered with both visual and acoustic reminders of "manaa" or proper conduct, a term that comes from the English word "manners."

Tokyo  - Tokyo stocks rose upon opening Thursday after the Federal Reserve said it would buy more than 1 trillion dollars in bonds, but they ended the morning session lower as the US central bank's move caused the dollar to fall against the yen, hitting exporters' shares.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average temporarily rose above 8,000 before falling 49.28 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 7,922.89.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also dropped 0.9 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 763.77.

Tokyo - Young Japanese animation artists are hit hard by the global economic crisis, despite growing international interest in animated movies from the country, an industry representative said Wednesday.

"Many cannot find the financial means to create their own works. Some do not have a business future," said Kei Shozuzawa of THINK Corporation, a Japanise animation company at the outset of the Tokyo International Anime Fair, one of the world's largest animation industry events.

Tokyo  - Japan's central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.1 per cent but decided to step up its purchases of government debt.

The Bank of Japan is to increase its monthly purchases of long-term government debt from 1.4 trillion yen (14.21 billion dollars) to 1.8 trillion yen to inject liquidity into money markets and prevent the rise of long-term interest rates.