Japanese shares fell 0.34 per cent on Thursday as expectations of a positive outlook for automakers were offset by the US Central Bank’s downbeat assessment of the world’s number one economy, dealers said.

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Japan on Saturday, seismologists said, rattling one of the areas hardest hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami disasters.

The quake hit at 8:31pm (1131 GMT)

Japanese whale hunters have found traces of radioactive caesium in two of the ocean giants recently harpooned off its shores in the Pacific Ocean, a fisheries agency official said on Wednesday.

Two m

Shares in Tokyo Electric Power Co. Closed limit up on Wednesday, gaining 32.12 per cent in Tokyo trade with sentiment buoyed after the Japanese Government put forward a support bill, analysts said.

Tokyo shares fell 0.70 per cent on Monday following a slump on Wall Street, the yen’s strength against the euro and a weaker than expected earnings forecast from Toyota, brokers said.

Japan on Saturday marked three months since its massive quake-tsunami and resulting nuclear crisis, amid simmering public frustration over the government's slow response to the catastrophe.

Prime Min

High levels of radioactive cesium has been detected in tea produced at a factory in Japan located 300 km from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The tea factory is situated in Shizuoka ci

Shares in Japan’s Tepco hit a new closing low on Thursday, ending the session down 4.0 per cent at 192 yen on uncertainty over the fate of the beleaguered company due to the crisis at its nuclear plant.

Robert Fortune was a scientist, a botanist and, in some ways, an industrial spy. But he is best known as the man who stole tea from deep within China and took it to India in the mid-1800s, changing history.

Japan’s embattled centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan has pledged to step down once the March 11 quake and tsunami recovery is well underway, setting off speculation on who will replace him.