The ongoing fight between China and Japan over a chain of islands continues, and now it has Toyota is scaling back production of its luxury Lexus models because of reduced demand in China.
Today, Japanese government officials announced a bold new energy plan. The policy — which still needs approval from the cabinet — would end the use of nuclear power in Japan by 2040.
In China over the weekend, activists smashed shop windows and overturned cars in a wave of anti-Japanese protests. The protests center around a couple of uninhabited, rocky islands in the East China Sea.
New figures out this morning show Japan's economy is slowing down. It grew at a rate of 1.4 percent in the latest three month period. That's down sharply from the previous quarter.
In Japan, two big electronics companies are reporting disappointing earnings this morning. Sony is reporting a $316 million quarterly loss. And Sharp announced a $1.2 billion loss, which was much worse than expected.
In Japan, the radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident is going nowhere fast. And in many cases, it's not clear where the radiation's OK, and where it's not. That's where a group called SafeCast comes in.
A Japanese government report on the Fukushima nuclear crisis puts the blame squarely on culture — namely, a cozy relationship between politicians, regulators and the nuclear power industry. It goes so far as to suggest the accident might have occurred even without an earthquake and tsunami.
