POLITICS Tokyo and Beijing announced Wednesday they have agreed on a plan to jointly develop gas fields in the East China Sea, shelving a thorny dispute that has plagued relations for four years. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS No medium-term goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be set at next month’s Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, leaving the key issue for future negotiations at the United Nations, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda indicated Tuesday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS The government will earmark a special budget for measures to address the shortage of doctors in fiscal 2009 with funds taken from revenues currently used specifically for road construction. [ASAHI]

POLITICS The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is considering allowing the rehiring of Social Insurance Agency officials with disciplinary records on three-year contracts at a new national pension organization, according to the ministry’s final proposals for the new organization. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Under the floor of the international media center for July’s Group of Eight summit meeting at the Lake Toya hot-spring resort in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, lies a storehouse holding about 7,000 tons of snow wrapped in thermal insulating material. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Japan appeared more cautious Tuesday in regard to its recent announcement that it would partially lift sanctions against North Korea as Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura stressed Japan will not take actions without first assessing Pyongyang is carrying out its promises, including reinvestigating past abductions of Japanese nationals. [KYODO]

POLITICS In a step toward diffusing a contentious dispute, Japan and China have agreed in principle to jointly develop the Shirakaba gas field straddling what Japan considers the border of the two nations’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs). [ASAHI]

POLITICS The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has fallen to 25. 1 percent, down 1 percentage point from the previous survey in May, according to a face-to-face interview survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun over the weekend. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Japan will use today’s opening of the Group of Eight finance ministers’ meeting in Osaka to rally support and contributions for two multilateral climate-change funds. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Democratic Party of Japan Vice President Seiji Maehara’s repeated criticism of his party’s manifesto has caused a stir within the largest opposition party. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS A stopgap bill extending a series of tax breaks until the end of May passed through the Diet Monday ensuring that a tax to fund road works ran out, meaning gas will become about 25 yen cheaper from Tuesday. (1) [MAINICHI]

POLITICS Prime Minister Fukuda attempts to break a deadlock in the Diet by offering to let revenue from road-related taxes be spent on something other than roads in fiscal 2009. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS Car owners can expect a break at the pump in the near future if the Democratic Party of Japan makes good on its threat to block a government-backed bill to extend higher rates on road-related taxes that expire March 31. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday he would push for a permanent law to enable Japan to deploy troops abroad, despite its pacifist constitution that limits its military activities. [AFP]

POLITICS The Bank of Japan’s Policy Board on Friday held its first postwar meeting without a central bank governor in attendance. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Five years ago Thursday (Japan time), U.S. bombers started pounding Iraq as part of an invasion force intended to topple Saddam Hussein, an action that would eventually embroil Japan. Yet, key questions remain unanswered over Tokyo’s decision to dispatch Self-Defense Forces to the war-torn nation. [ASAHI]

POLITICS The ruling coalition today will offer adjustments to road-specific taxes to break the Diet deadlock over the fiscal 2008 budget, but the main opposition party has already scoffed at the proposal. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday indicated he was prepared to compromise with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan on the issue of how road taxes are used, sources close to the prime minister said. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is set to punish the top defense bureaucrat, the Maritime Self-Defense Force chief and some 80 other people on Friday for a series of MSDF-related incidents since last year including a destroyer-trawler collision and the leakage of information about the Aegis radar system, ministry sources said. [KYODO]

POLITICS Trapped by the Diet’s stalemate over the next Bank of Japan governor, the ruling bloc has been unable to address a pile of government issues on its plate, leaving the political center of Nagata-cho in disarray. [THE JAPAN TIMES]