Tokyo  - This year's holidays are looking gloomy for Japan's temp workers as the nation's manufacturing sector reduces its output due to the global recession.

Japan's exporters have suffered slowing demand, especially in the United States and Europe, as businesses have revised their earnings forecasts for the full year through March 31.

Behind the corporate pessimism, more than 3.2 million workers who are outsourced via temporary staffing companies have become the first victims of cost cuts.

The nation's leading automaker, Toyota Motor Corp, was slapped with a 50-per-cent reduction in net and operating profits between April and September and ended up lowering its full-year earnings projections.

Tokyo - Stocks in Tokyo surged in Monday morning trading on speculation that US automakers would receive a government bail-out and on the rise of the dollar against the yen.

The developments outweighed the biggest drop in business confidence among Japan's largest manufacturers in 34 years because analysts said the drop was expected and the market had already factored it in.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 390.13 points, or 4.74 per cent, to trade at 8,626.

Tokyo  - Business confidence among Japan's largest manufacturers fell the most in 34 years, the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey revealed Monday.

An index that measures confidence among the largest makers of cars and electronics dropped to minus 24 from minus three, according to the survey. The decrease of 21 points is the largest since February 1975, but analysts said it was expected.

This indicates that many companies are likely to slash more jobs and drastically lower spending, which will push the economy into a deeper recession.

Tokyo - Mexican club Pachuca rallied from 2-0 down to beat Al Ahly of Egypt 4-2 in extra time on Saturday for a place in the Club World Cup semi-finals.

There they meet South American champions Liga de Quito of Ecuador on Wednesday.

Pachuca fell behind in the 28th minute from an own goal by Fausto Pinto and were down 2-0 on the stroke of halftime when Flavio fired high into the net on the counter in Tokyo's Olympic stadium.

But Pachuca's dominance throughout the match then showed, and they levelled matters from curling free-kicks by second-half substitute Luis Montes in the 47th and Christian Gimenez in the 73rd.

Tokyo - Japan and South Korea pledged greater cooperation to overcome the global financial crisis ahead of a summit with China in the Japanese city of Fukuoka on Saturday.

Tokyo - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a 23- trillion-yen (255-billion-dollar) assistance package for the country's economy on Friday, while warning of a sharpening of the country's recession and a possible re-emergence of deflation.

Consumer confidence in the world's second-largest economy fell to a record low in November, and unemployment is rising at its fastest rate since the "lost decade" of deflation in the 1990s.

The current series of measures is partly aimed at shoring up the status of the approximately one-third of Japanese workers with temporary or part-time contracts.