Tokyo  - Asia's young fashion designers are excited to expose their creations to the region's fashion capital Tokyo and eager to plant seeds for future business opportunities.

"I consider Japan as Asia's fashion capital," Pablo Mendez III of the Philippines said on Wednesday at JFW International Fashion Fair in Tokyo. "I admire the aesthetics of the way [Japanese] people put dresses together."

The Japanese capital is hosting the 19th JFW International Fashion Fair which started Wednesday, at a convention hall Big Sight Tokyo, drawing 730 companies from 15 nations and regions from around the world.

Tokyo - Japan's key machinery orders marked the largest fall on record in November as corporate capital investment shrank amid global economic slowdown, the government said Thursday.

The private-sector machinery orders dropped a seasonally adjusted 16.2 per cent from October to 754.2 billion yen (8.44 billion dollars).

The November decline shows a 27.7-per-cent drop in unadjusted terms from the same month a year before.

Tokyo  - Japan's benchmark Nikkei index lost 4 per cent by the close of morning trading Thursday after Wall Street plummeted overnight and the Japanese government's machinery orders for November showed the largest decline on record.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 335.68 points to 8,102.77, and the broader Topix index of all First Section issues was also down 20.15 points, or 2.46 per cent, to 799.24.

Japan's core machinery orders posted a record monthly decline in November, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.

Tokyo - A shell, possibly left from World War II, exploded early Wednesday on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, inflicting serious injury to a construction worker, media reports said.

Police were quoted as saying Jun Kohagura suffered injuries on his face when the shell, believed to have been a dud fired or dropped from an aircraft during the war, exploded. A 75-year-old man laying bed at a nearby senior home also suffered minor injury to his heels from windows that broke as a result of the blast.

Tokyo - Tokyo is presenting itself as Asia's fashion capital as JFW International Fashion Fair opened at Big Sight Tokyo on Wednesday, drawing 730 companies from 15 nations and regions from around the world.

The three-day trade fair, which invites more than 30,000 visitors including buyers, provides an opportunity for the designers of fashion-related products to the global market, and also hosts a contest for up-and-coming designers.

Tokyo - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Wednesday urged Japan to make a stronger business and trade commitment to Ireland amid the global financial crisis, news reports said.

Cowen brought with him a trade mission of about 70 companies from Ireland to Tokyo for a six-day visit, along with Irish Trade and Commerce Minister John McGuinness.

"Ireland has a strong economic future beyond the present temporary difficulties by trying the right policies now," Cowen was quoted by Kyodo News Agency as saying at a press conference in Tokyo.