Tokyo - The defence ministers of Japan and Australia on Thursday signed an agreement on deepening diplomatic and security cooperation after talks between the foreign and defence ministers of both countries.

In the so-called "two-plus-two" meetings, Australia and Japan aim at transforming their relationship from a trade-oriented one to a comprehensive security partnership, officials said.

The new scheme foresees expanding joint military exercises and intensifying cooperation within United Nations missions, preventing nuclear proliferation and disaster prevention and relief.

Tokyo - Japan will accept around 30 refugees from Myanmar who are currently seeking refuge Thailand in the fiscal year starting April 2011, the Kyodo news agency reported Thursday.

Government officials quoted in the report referred to a recent government decision to introduce a so-called third-country refugee resettlement programme.

The programme calls for third countries to accept refugees who flee from their conflict-stricken home countries to nearby states but find it hard to resettle in either of those nations.

Tokyo- Japanese new-car sales in 2009 were expected to fall below 5 million for the first time in 31 years, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday.

It forecast sales would fall 4.9 per cent to 4.8 million vehicles in a fifth-straight annual decline. Passenger car sales alone were expected to drop 6.9 per cent to about 3 million, it added.

"The outlook for next year is bleak," association chairman Satoshi Aoki said.

The reason for the sales drop was not only the recession in the world's second-largest economy and third-largest car market.

Tokyo  - Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp has secured the takeover of competitor Sanyo Electric Co with deals to buy stakes in the smaller firm held by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs and two Japanese investment firms, the financial newspaper Nikkei reported Thursday.

Sanyo's management threw its support last month behind the takeover, which would create one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies.

Tokyo  - Stocks in Tokyo rose Thursday on investor speculation that the central bank would drop interest rates.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 54.71 points, or 0.63 per cent, to close at 8,667.23.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues also inched up 0.23 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 838.69.

The increases were seen as a two-day meeting of the Bank of Japan got under way Thursday with investors betting on a rate cut after the US Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark rate to a record low this week.

Tokyo - As if the economic crisis engulfing Japan were not enough, bad news coming out of Tokyo's imperial palace have many Japanese worrying about things to come.

Doctors found traces of internal bleeding in the stomach and intestinal tract of Emperor Akihito, who turns 75 on December 23, as he was forced to cancel appointments because of irregular pulse and high blood pressure, raising fears over the health of Japan's ceremonial head of state.

The emperor is ill because of worry, many say, the Tenno being concerned over the succession and "various" other things, as Shingo Haketa, head of the arch-conservative Imperial Household Agency, hinted at.