Yamada Denki to buy out Best Denki

Yamada Denki to buy out Best Denki

TOKYO, Japan - File photo taken in October 2009 shows LABI1, a huge store of home electronics retailer Yamada Denki Co., in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district. Yamada Denki will buy out its competitor Best Denki Co. in a bid to secure its foothold as the top home electronics retailer in Japan by creating a group with sales of over 2 trillion yen, industry sources said July 12, 2012.

Ehime fish breeder successfully farms prized 'fugu' blowfish

Ehime fish breeder successfully farms prized 'fugu' blowfish

MATSUYAMA, Japan - Toshiyasu Yoshimura, president of Optima Foods Corp., holds a cultured ''torafugu'' blowfish at his firm in Ainan, Ehime Prefecture, on July 12, 2009.

Sea urchin and anemone fish

Sea urchin and anemone fish

FUKUOKA, Japan - Diadema setosum, belonging to the sea urchin family, are seen near an anemone fish off the coast of Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan on July 12, 2009.

Table corals grow on seafloor

Table corals grow on seafloor

FUKUOKA, Japan - Table corals are seen growing in layers off the coast of Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on July 12, 2009. The city is trying to preserve table corals along with the seaweed, whose populations have been depleted after being eaten by sea urchins.

'Forest' of seaweed grows undersea

'Forest' of seaweed grows undersea

FUKUOKA, Japan - A variety of seaweed is seen forming a ''sea forest'' at around 6 meters deep in the sea off the coast of Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on July 12, 2009. The seaweed colony is on the verge of shrinking as sea urchins eat the plant more hungrily than in the past in the jeopardized marine ecosystem.