JAPAN

Popular art often mirrors common ideas about current economic affairs and reflects the conventional wisdom guiding public opinion. This is particularly true of film.

Most of the Asian markets dropped Tuesday as investor confidence was weighed down by the intensifying tensions between China and Japan and the increasing concerns over the euro zone debt crisis.

Asian shares retreated from four-month highs Tuesday as markets paused from last week's rallies, calculating the impact on growth from the Federal Reserve's aggressive stimulus and eyeing whether Spain will request a bailout to ease its fiscal strains.

Photos from demonstrations around the world Friday through Monday, including Occupy Wall Street in New York, marches against austerity in Europe, anti-Japan demonstrations in China, and street action in the Muslim world.

The starter will remain with Texas despite having season-ending elbow surgery.

Tangible results to alleviating China's rising temper against Japan seem nowhere to be found. U.S. officials are urging for calm and peace, but the reality on the streets is that Chinese anger and frustrations are dealing increasing damage and violence to businesses carrying Japanese branded products. Meanwhile, a massive Chinese fishing fleet is soon expected to arrive in the waters off the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, worsening the prospects of a swift resolution.

GREE (TYO:3632), Japan's $4.7 billion online media giant and regional rival to U.S.-based internet companies like Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) and Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA) stepped further into America soil on Monday with another developer acquisition, this time of California-based mobile game developer App Ant Studios.

When China and the Philippines sparred over the disputed Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China) this past May, the People?s Republic canceled all outbound travel to the Philippines, dealing a direct blow to an industry vital to the nation?s economy. Substitute Japan for the Philippines and Senkaku Islands (known as Diaoyu Islands in China) for Scarborough Shoal, and you?ve got the same thing happening this September.

Freemium video games like "FarmVille 2" and "Angry Birds," the cheap and easily accessible counterpart to premium boxed copies of "Skyrim" or "Call of Duty" that run players upwards of $50 or $60 a sale, now make up more than half of the total market for video games in Europe, a new study shows.

The world's largest coffee chain has opened a tiny pop-up cafe in a fashionable Tokyo district with an odd ordering process.

In the wake of the rising tensions with Japan over a disputed set of islands in the East China Sea, China has threatened to retaliate with economic measures that would negatively impact the Sino-Japanese trade.

Most of the Asian markets dropped Monday after the rally last week when investor confidence was buoyed by the optimism that the stimulus measures announced by the central banks in the U.S. and the Europe would help revive the global economic growth momentum.

Chinese riot police forcibly broke up an anti-Japan protest in southern China Sunday as demonstrators again took to the streets in scores of cities in a long-running conflict over a group of tiny disputed islands.

Most of the Asian markets gained in the week as investor confidence was lifted following the announcement of another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve which is expected to rejuvenate the economic growth.

Super Typhoon Sanba continues to pose grave danger to the Japanese island of Okinawa and the South Korean mainland. Sanba, with peak winds as high as 178 mph, is currently moving north toward Okinawa at 13 mph.

Following the historic disaster at Fukushima nuclear power plant last year, the Japanese government is poised to completely shift its energy policy by phasing out its dependence on atomic energy by the 2030s.

Auto demand in global markets will continue its upward trend in 2012 and 2013 despite regional disparities. Nomura analysts forecast double-digit growth in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, but expect European demand to shrink 7 percent.

Asian stock markets made gains Friday as investor confidence was lifted following the announcement of another round of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve which is expected to rejuvenate the economic growth.

Asian shares rose to a four-month high Friday while the dollar remained weak against other major currencies after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced an aggressive new stimulus to drive job creation in the U.S. economy.

Two Chinese patrol ships entered Japanese territorial waters near disputed islets claimed by both Beijing and Tokyo on Friday, Japan's Coast Guard said.

Iran appears to be using a tricky system of oil shipping and transferring at the offshore port of Labuan near Malaysia in order to get its crude to Asian markets, skirting Western sanctions.