But Yoshino Shigeo takes scant pleasure in his green rice fields and neat rows of tomato plants.

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Voters in Tokushima, on the island of Shikoku, are fighting construction-ministry bureaucrats over a new dam for the nearby Yoshino river.

ECONOMIST: Japan

Societe General Asset Management senior economist Akio Yoshino said the new development "casts uncertainty over the prospects for the investment stance of foreign investors who had already turned active sellers".

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"I meant to work here until my retirement, " says Masahiro Yoshino, 48, riding a bus from the Nissan plant that makes hatchbacks in the Tokyo suburb of Murayama, one of the factories Nissan plans to shutter.

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Mr. Yoshino said if the BOJ gobbles up JGBs for two or three more years, the market will suffer as either confidence in fiscal management erodes or investors start to speculate about an end to the easing.

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Set in the dense forests of the Kii Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean, three sacred sites - Yoshino and Omine, Kumano Sanzan, Koyasan - linked by pilgrimage routes to the ancient capital cities of Nara and Kyoto, reflect the fusion of Shinto, rooted in the ancient tradition of nature worship in Japan, and Buddhism, which was introduced from China and the Korean Peninsula.

UNESCO: Culture