Tokyo - More than 590,000 people Monday participated in earthquake drills across Japan on a national quake preparedness day.

Heads of government ministries and agencies gathered at the prime minister's office early Monday to discuss emergency measures and responses on assumption that a mock magnitude-8.6 earthquake hit western Japan.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told citizens to "respond calmly to this major disaster and cooperate to expedite rescuing people and put out the fires."

Tokyo - Tokyo stocks opened lower Monday on Wall Street's falls before the weekend and a stronger yen.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 176 points, or 1.35 per cent, to 12,896.87.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also down 18.82 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 1,235.89.

Exporters were hurt as a stronger yen affects Japanese companies' earnings overseas. Also, reports of a slowdown of US consumer spending in July raised fears of lower demand for Japanese products.

Tokyo - The Japanese government Friday unveiled a economic stimulus package totalling 11.7 trillion yen (107.03 billion dollars) to lift the financial burden caused by rising oil prices and shore up the economy.

The government was to install the package to help small- and medium-size firms raise funds, financially support business sectors hit hard by rising oil prices such as truckers or bus and taxi operators, and reduce income and residential taxes.

The lion's share of the package, is, however, a 400-billion-yen credit guarantee programme that backs loans worth about 9 trillion yen, which brings genuine spending down to about 2 trillion yen.

Tokyo - Japan's economic indicators on Friday showed the fastest rise of the nation's consumer price index (CPI) in more than 16 years, a slowing down of household spending, a slightly better unemployment rate and stronger industrial output data for July.

Japan's core consumer price index (CPI) grew 2.4 per cent in July from a year before, marking the 10th straight monthly rise, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Friday.

Tokyo - Stocks rose more than 2 per cent Friday as the Tokyo market sentiment improved thanks to overnight gains on Wall Street and Japan's July industrial output data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 279.37 points, or 2.19 per cent, to 13,047.62.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 27.96 points, or 2.29 per cent, to 1,247.49.

Japanese industrial production in July grew 0.9 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, compared to the previous month, the government said Friday.

Tokyo - Japan's leading carmaker Toyota Motor Corp expects sales in 2009 to drop, owing to weak demand from North America, the company said Thursday.

Toyota lowered its global sales prognosis from 10.4 million units to 9.7 million units for next year, delaying the company's goal to become the world's first carmaker to sell more than 10 million units per year.