Mr. Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old Facebook chief executive and co-founder, may be the man of the moment in the United States and much of the rest of the online world. But here in Japan, one of the globe’s most wired nations, few people have heard of him.

Could world peace be sparked by a small group of children hoping to share a little goodwill with those who are less fortunate? Japan’s Kumon Institute of Education is trying to prove just that with its annual Ambassador of World Peace program.

An array of eight famous Japanese animated films will be screened at the National Cinema Centre on January 12-16. The event is being jointly held by the Japanese Culture Department, the Japanese Cultural Exchange Centre in Viet Nam, the Cinematographic Department and the National Cinema Centre.

A survey released on Saturday shows that nearly two-thirds of Japanese believe the country should seek for deeper interdependence with China, despite rows and spats in the past year - a trend experts say reflects the realistic mindset of the Japanese people as well as the evolving geopolitical changes in East Asia.

Mr. Wood, a 25-year-old graduate of Stanford University in California, and students like him have gravitated toward the modern Japanese arts, feeling they may help them advance their careers in animation, design, computer graphics and the business of promoting them.

A Japanese-style inn opened here in mid-December that brings the legendary service and attention of Japan's world-famous Kagaya Hotel to Taiwan. In development since 2004, the Radium-Kagaya International Hotel is located in Beitou, a famed if slightly faded resort area at the foot of a sulfur-scented group of mountains known as Yangmingshan that dominates Taipei's northern skyline.

U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to increase regional military cooperation in wake of increased aggressive acts by North Korea. The top U.S. military officer says he has "a real sense of urgency" about the need for Washington, Tokyo and Seoul to enhance security cooperation to deter North Korea.

When Taiwan entered a film in the Tokyo Film Festival last month, there was no sense of an impending diplomatic incident. On the surface, relations between Taiwan and China had rarely been better, and for more than 10 years, the Japanese festival has welcomed films ''made in Taiwan''.