Tokyo - Japan may extend economic sanctions against North Korea past their April 13 deadline if Pyongyang goes ahead with a planned rocket launch, a top government spokesman said Thursday.
Japan "aims to reinforce its stance in seeking progress in dialogue [with North Korea]" by extending sanctions for another year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a press conference.
The Stalinist state has been preparing to launch a communications satellite between April 4 - 8, which is widely believed to be a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.
Tokyo - Japan's domestic sales of new vehicles fell to the lowest in 38 years as the global economic downturn shaved off consumer appetite for cars, buses and trucks, an industry organization said Wednesday.
Sales of new motor vehicles declined 15.6 per cent in the 2008-09 business year that ended March 31 to 2,891,901 units, which was the first time the sales dropped below 3 million since 1971, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.
Taipei - Taiwan has picked Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc to help upgrade the island's semiconductor industry, an industry source said Wednesday.
But John Hsuan, head of the Taiwan Memory Co (TMC), which was formed last month to integrate Taiwan's semiconductor industry, said TMC also seeking the cooperation of US chipmaker Micron Technology Inc.
Tokyo - Nissan has started extensive testing of a fuel-cell prototype SUV based on the Nissan X-Trail that it hopes to have ready for serial production in 2015, reports said.
Compared to a previous model, the latest X-Trail FCV generation power output has been boosted from 90 to 130 kW. At the same time, the fuel cell stack has been reduced in size from 90 to 68 litres, giving the engineers more flexibility in the packaging, the German auto-motor-sport magazine reported.
Tokyo - Japan may extend economic sanctions against North Korea past their April 13 deadline if Pyongyang goes ahead with a planned rocket launch, a top government spokesman said Thursday.
Tokyo - Tokyo stocks extended its gains Thursday with key indices rising more than 3 per cent on optimistic US economic data.
Tokyo - Japan's domestic sales of new vehicles fell to the lowest in 38 years as the global economic downturn shaved off consumer appetite for cars, buses and trucks, an industry organization said Wednesday.
Tokyo - The Japanese market opened the new fiscal year in a positive light Wednesday, despite the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey results.
Taipei - Taiwan has picked Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc to help upgrade the island's semiconductor industry, an industry source said Wednesday.
Tokyo - Nissan has started extensive testing of a fuel-cell prototype SUV based on the Nissan X-Trail that it hopes to have ready for serial production in 2015, reports said.
