GotJapan

Yasuo Fukuda receives applause in the Lower House on Tuesday after winning the chamber’s backing to become the new prime minister.

Call it cheeseburger diplomacy. Japan’s prime minister says he and
President Bush eased their way to a relaxed relationship over a meal of burgers during his first visit to the United States as premier.

“President Bush and I were able to deepen our friendship and trust — in fact, we are now on a first-name basis, calling each other ‘George’ and ‘Shinzo,’” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote Thursday in his e-mail newsletter of his April 26-27 American visit.

Abe, who is known as an ice cream fanatic, said Bush sealed the bond with a lunch of “quintessentially American fare, a large cheeseburger.” He said they also “chatted about the outstanding performance of Japanese baseball players in the Major League.”

A whirlpool forms in the Naruto Straits between Shikoku and Awaji island. The phenomenon occurs each spring and has become a major tourist attraction.

The Bank of Japan’s policy panel decided Tuesday to leave its key short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, as market participants had widely expected, after doubling the rate to 0.5% in February.

The BOJ “will encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0.5%,” the central bank said in a statement.

Shinzo Abe, a conservative who favors hardline diplomacy and traditional values, is elected the 21st president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paving the way for him to become Japan’s youngest postwar prime minister.

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