Firefighters and army helicopters battled a fire that burned through old wooden houses in a fishing town in southwestern Japan.

Within days of China urging its citizens not to travel to Japan due to a diplomatic dispute, Tokyo-based tour operator East Japan International Travel Service had lost 80% of its bookings for the remainder of the year.

Tension between Japan and China has escalated over the new Japanese leader's suggestion Tokyo could intervene militarily if Beijing attacks Taiwan.

Yields on the benchmark 10-year bonds, which move inversely to price, climbed 2 basis points to 1.765 per cent on Wednesday — the highest level since June 2008 and the global financial crisis. The sell-off extended to longer-dated notes. Yields on 40-year JGBs rose to a record high of 3.695 per cent.

A fire ripped through more than 170 buildings and killed one person in a southern Japanese coastal city on Wednesday, with military and firefighting helicopters scrambling to extinguish the country's largest urban blaze in almost half a century.

Bear sightings and attacks have increased in parts of Japan, especially in municipalities close to or adjacent to populated zones,” the U.S. Embassy said in a wildlife alert.

In the west, we tend to treat socks as an afterthought. Most of the time when we are out and about, they are covered by trousers. Women are accustomed to not wearing socks with leather shoes, and loafers without socks have been a menswear staple since the mid-20th century.

Japan's Norinchukin Bank, hit hard by mammoth losses last year, logged a small profit for a second straight quarter and said that it has begun increasing its investments in securities. But the bank, one of the world's largest investors in collateralised loan obligations (CLOs),

Firefighters and army helicopters are battling a fire that has burned through a neighborhood in southwestern Japan and forced more than 170 people to evacuate.

The US government plans to buy and own as many as 10 large nuclear reactors, projects that could be paid for by a $550 billion pledged investment fund being offered by Japan.The new details of the unusual arrangement were outlined Wednesday by Carl Coe,