Japan Really?

(Newser) - The man hand picked by Vladimir Putin to be his successor and a virtually certain victor in this Sunday's election has been portrayed in the West as the Russian president's personal puppet. But Dmitri Medvedev, who plans to appoint Putin as his prime minister, may be more independent, reform-minded and Western-oriented than some observers have suggested, reports the New York Times. More »

(Newser) - A revised Microsoft bid for Yahoo may be heavily influenced by Yahoo’s Asian interests, reports the Wall Street Journal. Microsoft execs toured Asia in December and concluded that they needed a local partner there. Yahoo holds large stakes in a Korean auction site, a major Chinese search engine, and Yahoo Japan. These footholds, while passive investments now, may be the key to success in Asia, which an analyst calls "an underdeveloped but massive market." More »

(Newser) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met today in Japan with the prime minister and other top officials and expressed regret for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US Marine stationed on Okinawa. "We just regret deeply that it happened," said Rice, who added that she hopes the "long-standing and strong alliance" between the world's two richest countries would not be damaged, Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - Proclaiming that "economic revival is our most urgent task," South Korea's new president took office today. Ex-Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak, a longtime Hyundai exec known as "the Bulldozer," won the office in a landslide but is likely to struggle implementing the reforms he has promised if his conservative party fails to win a majority in April's parliamentary elections, the Australian reports. More »

(Newser) - The LAPD is holding a Japanese businessman on suspicion of murder in the Los Angeles shooting death of his wife more than a quarter century ago, the AP reports. In the 1981 incident Kazuyoshi Miura was shot in the leg and his wife in the head; she later died. Miura blamed robbers and bemoaned the violence of American cities, stoking Japanese fears of visiting the US. More »

(Newser) - Japan today launched a satellite that, if successful, will be able to sling information across Japan and remote parts of Southeast Asia at high speeds and low cost, the AP reports. The satellite, dubbed “Kizuna,” won’t be used commercially–instead, scientists will run about 100 experiments on it, including a test HDTV broadcast. But researchers hope it will help Japan build one of the most advanced networks on the planet, Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - North Korea opened its controversial Yongbyon nuclear reactor to the foreign media yesterday, the first time the 5-megawatt plant at the core of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and the target of international disarmament talks has been seen by journalists,  ABC News reports. The visit seemed to be a sign the Communist government wants a disarmament-for-aid deal to proceed. More »

(Newser) - Japan Airlines may abandon its plan to stock up on Boeing Dreamliners because