>Factbox: Restrictions on Japanese food imports

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The United States became the first nation to block produce from Japan’s radiation zone, saying on Wednesday it will halt milk, vegetable and fruit imports from areas near the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant because of contamination fears.

Here are steps other countries have taken to test or block Japanese food imports:

CHINA

Monitoring food imported from Japan for signs of radiation.

HONG KONG

Authorities in Hong Kong have been checking all fresh food imports from Japan for traces of radioactive iodine and cesium since March 12.

MALAYSIA

Testing all consignments from Japan. Health Ministry is monitoring the situation daily but has no plans to ban so far.

SOUTH KOREA

Testing for signs of radiation in fresh agricultural produce, dried agricultural and processed food from Japan.

Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) said on Wednesday it would not ban Japanese food at this stage.

TAIWAN

Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency has advised local boats not to fish in Japanese waters after radiation was detected in the sea around the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The agency will check all catches on fishing boats returning from Japanese waters and destroy any catches with radioactivity exceeding permitted limits.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The United States will block imports of milk and fresh produce from areas of Japan near the crippled nuclear power plant.

All milk and milk products and fresh fruits and vegetables from four Japanese prefectures — Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma — will be stopped from entering the United States, the Food and Drug Administration said.

>Asian Shares Mostly Up; Tokyo Jumps, Yen Drops On G-7 Intervention

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A surge in Japan’s shares led most Asian stock markets higher Friday, as the Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed to a coordinated intervention to staunch the yen’s recent surge, providing some relief as the nation grapples with last week’s crippling earthquake and an ongoing nuclear crisis.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average climbed 3.0%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.3% and South Korea’s Kospi Composite was up 1.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 0.8% and China’s Shanghai Composite tacked on 0.6%.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 99 points in screen trade.

Tokyo stocks rallied on the G-7 news, on relief Japan’s key exporters won’t be hobbled by a rising yen as the nation struggles to cope with last week’s twin disasters. The dollar had touched a new all-time low of Y76.25 early on Thursday.

The yen pulled back sharply against the U.S. dollar after the G-7 statement and as Japan’s Ministry of Finance intervened in foreign exchange markets. Japanese finance minister Yoshihiko Noda said each central bank would intervene in its own timezone. This was the first agreement on joint intervention since September 2000.

“What G-7 is telling us is that they will simply not tolerate a rapid strengthening in the yen,” said Sean Callow, strategist at Westpac bank.

Credit Agricole said in a note to clients: “One could imagine that it was not difficult for Japan to garner G-7 support for joint intervention in currency markets given the terrible disaster that has hit the country.”

“Given expectations of huge repatriation flows into Japan and a possible surge in the yen Japanese and G-7 officials want to ensure currency stability and lower volatility,” it said.

The dollar surged to Y81.72, from Y78.93 late Thursday in New York, and the euro was buying Y115.05, from Y110.58, and $1.4074 against the dollar, from $1.4020.

Buying was spread across Tokyo’s market, with economically-sensitive stocks such as Asahi Glass and Fast Retailing also advancing 2.0% and 6.7% respectively. Among key exporters, Honda Motor added 1.5% and Sharp rose 2.8%.

Sony trimmed morning gains and was up 0.2%. The company said six of its Japanese manufacturing plants, including those making Blu-ray discs and batteries, remain closed and it is investigating whether a disruption in component supply will impact its ability to deliver and make electronic gadgets.

Some traders were circumspect about the Tokyo market’s rise, noting the G-7 action had been anticipated and Japanese officials still have a massive recovery and rebuilding task on hand.

“The problems at the nuclear plant are far from over, and we have a three-day weekend ahead, so it’s hard to keep buying on the weaker yen alone,” said Yumi Nishimura, deputy general manager at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets.

Japanese authorities claimed modest gains Thursday in efforts to tame a heavily damaged nuclear-power plant that has raised global fears of a full-blown nuclear disaster. But radiation levels at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant dropped on Friday, further buoying the Nikko. Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the plant, was up 18%.

In addition to the boost for regional equities from the G-7 move, energy stocks were stronger, aided by the rise in crude oil futures after the U.N. endorsed a no-fly zone in Libya and set the stage for a potential vote on a military move within a few hours.

April Nymex crude oil futures were up $1.59 at $103.01 per barrel on Globe.

In Sydney, Woodside Petroleum added 3.7%, Tokyo-listed Index and Japan Petroleum Exploration jumped 6.3% and 9.7% respectively, and Hong Kong-listed Cnooc rose 1.6%.

Bucking the sector’s gains, Sydney-listed Origin Energy dropped 3.1% after resuming trading following its plan to raise A$2.3 billion via a share issue to reduce debt associated with its A$3.26 billion purchase of electricity assets privatize by the New South Wales state government.

In Seoul, Pasco climbed 3.2% on expectations the steelmaker would benefit from quake-induced supply shortages. Tokyo’s Kobe Steel rose 4.2% and Hong Kong Shares of Monahan Iron rose 3.2%.

Among other markets, New Zealand’s NZX-50 rose 0.3%, Singapore’s Straits Times Index added 0.2%, Malaysia’s KLCI rose 0.3%, Taiwan’s Timex gained 1.3%, Indonesian shares were up 0.5%, Philippine shares tacked on 0.6% and Thailand’s SET gained 0.6%.

India’s Sensex fell 0.9% on political concerns after a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable Thursday suggested India’s ruling Congress party offered bribes to win a crucial vote in Parliament on the U.S.-India nuclear deal in 2008.

Lead June Japanese government bond futures were down 0.04 at 139.66 points, weighed by the Nikkei’s rise and the yen’s sharp fall. The yield on the 10-year cash JGB was down two basis points at 1.22%.

Spot gold was at $1,409.90 per troy ounce, up $5.90 from its New York settlement Thursday.

>U.S. Begins Airlift as Japan Battles Nuclear Reactor Leaks

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The U.S. began airlifting citizens from Japan along with military and diplomatic families as authorities struggled to contain leaks from the quake-stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

The U.S., U.K. and Australia raised their alert levels, telling nationals to keep at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the Dai-Ichi facility. Walt Disney Co. suspended operations in Tokyo, while British Airways became the latest carrier to pull crews out of the city, which lies about 135 miles to the south of the reactors.

Shortages of fuel, water and food assailed Fukushima, a city of 290,000 in the shadow of an unfolding nuclear crisis. Helicopters doused 30 metric tons of water on pools used to cool spent fuel rods yesterday. A bid to spray water onto the No. 3 reactor may have worked, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official said at a briefing. The company is also trying to connect a power cable to the plant.

“New challenges are crashing down on us one after another,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday in Tokyo. “We will overcome these difficulties through extreme effort and meet the expectations of our people, who are remaining calm.”

The magnitude-9 earthquake that hit March 11 sparked a 7- meter (23-foot) tsunami that engulfed Japan’s northeast coast and knocked out cooling systems at the Dai-Ichi plant. There were 6,406 confirmed dead, with 10,259 missing as of 11 a.m. Tokyo time, the National Police Agency said.

Hong Kong Flights

Hong Kong’s government urged its residents living in Tokyo to return home or move to southern Japan “due to the evolving situation.” The city is arranging for additional flights to leave from Tokyo’s Narita airport, its government said in a statement posted on its website yesterday evening.

The U.S. government evacuated 97 citizens, including family members of employees, to Taiwan from Japan, according to Sheila Paskman, a spokeswoman for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto embassy on the island. Another flight of evacuees will leave later today to Taiwan or Seoul, Paskman said by telephone from Taipei today.

Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, said it was assisting foreign employees and their families to leave Japan if they wished to do so, while allowing local staff to work from home or relocate. Blackstone Group LP and BNP Paribas SA were among companies that shifted operations from Tokyo.

Aftershocks, Blackouts

“There are still aftershocks, we have the rolling blackouts in our area and concern about the radiation,” Keith Cash, a preschool teacher at the U.S. Atsugi air base, said as he prepared to put his wife and four children on a plane back to the U.S. “All of those things put together have really forced us to decide that we want to have them go back.”

The Group of Seven agreed to jointly intervene in the foreign exchange market for the first time in more than a decade after Japan’s currency soared, according to a joint statement today following a conference call of the nations’ finance ministers and central bank chiefs. The quake triggered a drop in global stocks and drove the yen to a post-World War II high.

Japan’s benchmark Topix index rose 2.1 percent at 2:24 p.m., curtailing its loss since the disaster to 10 percent. In the U.S., investor speculation that Japan will contain the nuclear crisis contributed to a stock rally that broke a three-day losing streak for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund tracking 323 securities rose 4.6 percent, following a 14 percent slump over the previous five days.

Obama Assures U.S.

President Barack Obama said he’s “confident” that Japan will rebuild and recover. At the White House later in the day, Obama said that the U.S. faces no danger of “harmful levels of radiation” reaching the country or its Pacific territories and that he has ordered a “comprehensive review” of safety at domestic nuclear plants.

Power may be restored to one of the crippled reactors at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant by this afternoon, improving the odds that workers can prevent a meltdown and further radiation leaks.

In Fukushima city, the capital of the prefecture that is home to the plant, long lines formed at gas stations, most restaurants and supermarkets were shut and there was no running water. Radiation levels have declined to safe levels for workers, Japanese government spokesman Yukio Edano said.

May Take Weeks

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said yesterday there is a possibility of no water at the No. 4 reactor’s spent- fuel cooling pool. If exposed to air, the fuel rods could decay, catch fire and spew radioactive materials into the air. The plant has six reactors, three of which have been damaged by explosions following the quake.

The situation “will take some time, possibly weeks” to resolve, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told reporters in Washington yesterday. “There clearly appears to be a challenge keeping that spent fuel filled with sufficient water.” Based on the NRC’s advice, the U.S. urged Americans within a 50-mile radius of the plant to leave.

The U.S. chartered 14 buses that are en route to the Sendai area for U.S. residents and tourists who wish to leave, Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy said. Those buses will take U.S. citizens to Tokyo for flights out of Japan.

There are an estimated 350,000 U.S. citizens in Japan, including about 90,000 in the Tokyo area, Kennedy said.

Consider Departing

U.S. nationals “in Japan should consider departing,” the State Department said in an e-mailed statement.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said it has intensified efforts to detect radiation on flights arriving from Japan and has found no dangerous levels for passengers or cargo.

The U.K. government is also hiring planes to take its nationals to Hong Kong, the Foreign Office said on its website.

Australia recommended that its citizens stay away from the northern part of Honshu island and Tokyo unless their presence is essential. France, Germany and China were among countries that urged nationals to leave Japan.

In 2009, the latest data available, there were 66,876 U.S. and Canadian citizens registered with Japan’s Justice Ministry, along with 16,597 Britons and 14,179 from Australia and New Zealand. China had 680,518 residents and the Philippines 211,716.

Fear that radiation would spread through the region sparked panic-buying in China. Shoppers cleared shelves of salt, viewed as a defense against radiation exposure.

–With assistance from Takahiko Hyuga, Yukiko Hagiwara, Takashi Hirokawa and Anna Kitanaka in Tokyo, Naoko Fujimura and Makiko Kitamura in Osaka, Michael Forsythe in Beijing, Bomi Lim in Seoul, Nicholas Johnston and Roger Runningen in Washington, and Ben Richardson in Hong Kong. Editors: Chitra Somayaji, Russell Ward

>Asian markets creep higher despite nerves

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Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday, with Tokyo and Hong Kong edging higher due to an easing of oil price pressures, while traders in mainland China went into sell-off mode.

Tokyo’s Nikkei ended the session up 0.19 percent, or 20.17 points, at 10,525.19 and Sydney rose 0.21 percent, or 10.30 points, to 4,808.20, while Hong Kong was up 0.35 percent in the afternoon.

However Shanghai was down 0.15 percent after surging 1.83 percent on Monday, when Chinese officials moved to allay fears of an imminent interest rate hike.

Crude prices slipped after the United States refused to rule out tapping its oil reserves to ease the impact of high oil prices.

The Financial Times also reported that OPEC members Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria were joining Saudi Arabia in raising output to allay fears of a supply crunch.

Their efforts come as markets grow increasingly worried about the possibility that unrest across a swathe of North Africa and the Middle East could start to destabilise oil giant Saudi Arabia.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, fell 70 cents to $104.74 per barrel in Asian trade, while Brent North Sea crude for April dropped 64 cents to $114.40.

“Risk aversion is likely to be the dominant theme until there is reasonable certainty that oil prices can retreat to $90 or below,” Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, told Dow Jones Newswires.

“The threat of a permanent rise in oil prices has hit at a time when equity markets were priced on the assumption of solid earnings growth over the next 12 to 18 months.

“Oil at over $100 per barrel for any length of time is likely to lead to reduced expectations for consumer discretionary spending and corporate profitability.”

Markets got a weak lead from the United States, where the volatility in Libya and the Middle East spooked Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.66 percent, the S&P 500 index fell 0.83 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite lost 1.40 percent.

Gold prices eased slightly after hitting a new all-time record high of $1,440.32 in London on Monday.

Gold opened at $1,430.80-$1,431.80 an ounce in Hong Kong down from Monday’s close of $1,437.00-$1,438.00.

On currency markets, the dollar moved narrowly against the yen, with trading lacklustre.

The euro was supported by anticipation of a likely interest rate rise by the European Central Bank, despite renewed worries about European sovereign debt after Moody’s downgraded Greece and yields on Portugal’s 10-year bonds hit a euro-era high of 7.5 percent.

The dollar fetched 82.23 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, little changed from 82.25 yen in New York late Monday.

The euro bought $1.3986 compared with $1.3971. The single European currency was marginally higher at 115.02 yen compared to 114.82 yen.

In other markets:

— Seoul rose 0.81 percent, or 16.05 points, to 1,996.32.

— Taipei rose 0.39 percent, or 33.96 points, to 8,747.75.

Leading smartphone maker HTC was 1.38 percent higher at Tw$1,100, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co rose 0.85 percent to Tw$71.5.

— Manila rose 0.32 percent, or 12.39 points, to 3,898.87 thanks to strong corporate results.

Aboitiz Equity Ventures rose 0.71 percent to 42.75 pesos. DMCI Holdings surged 4.79 percent to 37.20 pesos. Semirara Mining jumped 5.10 percent to 214.20 pesos.

— Wellington fell 0.30 percent, or 10.28 points, to 3,419.78.

Telecom fell 2.3 percent to NZ$2.10 after a setback in its efforts to lead the country’s broadband Internet roll-out.

Mainfreight rose 2.7 percent to NZ$8.82 after it announced it would buy Netherlands-based Wim Bosman Group. Fletcher Building was unchanged at NZ$8.84.