The recent dust-up between China and Japan suggested how neighbours can have incompatible interests. But in business, things are often rather different. In one example, China's emergence as a producer of sophisticated technology is helping strengthen one of the few big microchip businesses left in Japan.

Japan's export-led recovery has been constrained by the strong yen, which makes goods sold abroad more expensive and reduces the value of profits repatriated.

Japan's Sanyo Electric will close two of its domestic semiconductor plants by 2012, and move production to another plant along with about 1,000 workers, according to the Nikkei business daily.

The world's major industrial economies can't all export their way to prosperity.

The central bank stepped in to sell yen and buy dollars, a day after the yen hit a 15-year high against the dollar. It is the first time in six years that the Bank of Japan has intervened.

But analysts called the measures too timid in the face of the problems plaguing Japan's export-oriented economy.

"Targets will be companies that have technologies that Fujitsu doesn't have or that have customers that Fujitsu has never been able to reach so far," company president Masami Yamamoto said in an interview. "We would like to get engaged very actively in M&A activities."

After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world's second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures. The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China's ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

Kyocera is ramping up its annual production to 600MW this year - an increase of 50% over the previous year - to meet growing demand in countries such as Japan, US, Germany, France and Italy, the company says.

Japan's Sharp is investing almost 4 billion yen (US$46 million) at a plant in Britain to double production of solar cell modules to meet growing demand across Europe.

The greenback fell as much as 0.83% against the Japanese yen to 84.73 yen on August 11, before paring back some of those losses to trade around 85.37 yen.

Automobile demand in Japan and elsewhere has outpaced chip supplies from STMicroelectronics, a Hitachi spokesman said, adding that Nissan had not asked Hitachi for compensation for the disruption.

Exporters have eyed Europe cautiously, with the safe-haven yen soaring in recent months on European debt worries, which if sustained will dent exporters' repatriated profits and make their goods more expensive overseas.

The race is now on between Italy, Czech Republic, United States, and potentially even Japan, to become just the third country member of the elite club to install 1GW of PV in a single year.

Japan's Sanyo Electricis in talks with several suppliers, including a Taiwanese firm, to procure solar cells

Spansion CEO John Kispert also said he could not confirm a recent Nikkei report indicating Texas Instruments was in final talks to buy two plants owned by Spansion Japan, as Spansion Japan is now a separate entity from Spansion.

Defying skeptics, iPhone sales tripled in the most recent quarter

The factory will be Toshiba's fifth at its manufacturing base in Yokkaichi in western Japan. It will initially be used to produce conventional NAND flash chips, but Toshiba plans to expand this to new types of 3D memory where chips and components are stacked vertically.

President Ma Ying-jeou argued Taiwan had no option but to sign the pact with China. Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the opposition DPP, insisted Taiwan would do better to negotiate with China slowly through existing WTO structures. Tsai also accused Ma of upsetting the regional balance of power, alarming Japan and South Korea...

Anhui Jianghuai Automobile and Changan Automobile aim to poach the talent nurtured by Japan's top automakers.

Monthly Japanese shipments held steady in March 2010 in a sign that global demand, particularly from Asia, is still expanding, lending support to the country's export-dependent economy.

Toshiba, one of Japan's largest electronics companies, has said it expects net losses of 20 billion yen (US$215 million) for the fiscal year ending March 2010. That's down from its previous estimtae of 50 billion yen.

Japan's exports in February jumped 45.3% from a year earlier, fueled by robust global demand for cars and electronics, according to the finance ministry.

China's Alibaba is in talks with one of its investors, Japan's Softbank, to form a tie-up to help merchants from their online marketplaces sell into each others' markets, according to a source familiar with the situation.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 jolted northern Japan on Sunday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo some 240km (150 miles) away. Fujitsu has said operations at its semiconductor plant in Fukushima prefecture, northeast Japan, were not affected by the quake.

Japan's unemployment rate fell below 5% for the first time in a year in January 2010, as strong exports fed into a strengthening economic recovery.

Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric has announced it plans to almost triple production of solar cells in two years to meet demand for renewable energy. The company last month finished construction of a 24,000 square meter (258,000 square feet) plant in northern Japan that may begin operating this fall.

Japan enjoyed its biggest on-year increase in exports in almost 30 years last month. The value of exports rose 40.9% in January 2010 from a year earlier, the fastest pace since February 1980.