China has attracted 5.77% more foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 2012. Government figures show FDI totalled $97bn (£60.2bn) over the period. In October alone, the country attracted $8.4bn - an increase on a year earlier but down from September's figure.
MUTSUO BANBA's rice farm in Ishikawa prefecture, on the north-west coast of Japan's main island, is a mosaic of plots, many separated by land belonging to others. In the season, Mr Banba, a full-time farmer, takes care to water his rice every day. Others, he says disapprovingly, do not.
