NATIONAL Japan will urge citizens to carry their own chopsticks instead of using disposable ones and go shopping with their own bags instead of using plastic ones, in a bid to more than halve the garbage it produces. (1) [AP]

NATIONAL Many of Japan’s high school textbooks will get more difficult in the 2009 academic year, in line with the planned scrapping of the cram-free education policy, according to the results of textbook screening released Tuesday. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to introduce minimum attainment targets that university students should achieve before graduation in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences curriculums, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office plans to start the audio and video recording of all interrogations of suspects who have confessed to prosecutors from April in all cases that would be handled under the lay judge system to be launched next year, prosecutors said Friday. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL The Justice Ministry will allow defendants held in custody to wear a tie and shoes when appearing in court under the lay judge system to be introduced in May 2009, according to sources. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL Prince Tomohito started to get his voice back less than a week after surgery to remove throat cancer, sources close to him said. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL Japan marked the 13th anniversary Thursday of the deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, with subway workers and relatives of victims offering silent prayers and flowers at stations that were targeted. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

NATIONAL The education ministry said Friday 97.1 percent of public elementary schools nationwide, or 21,220 schools, have taught English in fiscal 2007 through March 31, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous fiscal year. [KYODO]

NATIONAL A wood sculpture attributed to Kamakura Period sculptor Unkei sells for $12.8 million, setting a world record for any Japanese or Buddhist artwork. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

NATIONAL Only one out of four Japanese high schoolers can correctly locate Iraq on a world map, while one in two Japanese university students manage the same feat, according to a survey presented Wednesday by the Association of Japanese Geographers. (4)

NATIONAL Japanese households and businesses could end up paying more than $500 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent over the next decade, the trade and industry ministry said Wednesday. [AP]

NATIONAL About 60 percent of married individuals in Japan received financial support from their parents or their spouse’s parents over the past year, a survey has found. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL In a bid to drum up tips in the hunt for a fugitive, a video with information on Tatsuya Ichihashi, the suspected murderer of 22-year-old Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker, will be available for free viewing on the Internet from Wednesday noon, police said Monday. (1) [THE JAPAN TIMES]

NATIONAL Things aren’t quite so rosy these days for the yakuza. After more than six decades as a core element of Japanese society, they are facing unprecedented challenges to their authority, both from their enemies at home and, increasingly, from foreign rivals. [THE GUARDIAN]

NATIONAL Sojitz Corp. announced new steps Monday to ensure food safety after its subsidiary came under fire for importing contaminated Chinese-made gyoza dumplings that led to a recent food poisoning scare. [ASAHI]

NATIONAL A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry panel agreed Monday to introduce in April a new, broader standard for recognizing sufferers of atomic-bomb diseases, panel officials said. (1) [THE JAPAN TIMES]

NATIONAL A probe into salaries illicitly received by workers dedicated to union work has uncovered a total of about 750 million yen in illicit payments, the Japan social insurance workers labor union has announced. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL The nation’s four Internet provider organizations have agreed to forcibly cut the Internet connection of users found to repeatedly use Winny and other file-sharing programs to illegally copy gaming software and music. [YOMIURI]

NATIONAL Nongovernmental organizations on Sunday warned Japan that insistence on its carbon-capping proposal could derail the “momentum” of current U.N.-led negotiations to create a post-2012 global climate regime. [KYODO]

NATIONAL The Supreme Court on Friday denied bereaved family members a chance to clear the names of victims of the worst case of free-speech suppression in wartime Japan. [ASAHI]