Today’s Japan-related news links:

• Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao basked in the success of his trip Friday, telling reporters in Tokyo that “many people” said the objectives of the “ice-melting trip” had been accomplished. [Link]
• Japan’s Fair Trade Commission is set to order some 60 companies to pay about 3 billion yen in fines for repeatedly rigging bids for public construction projects. [Link]
• goo Rankings recently published the results of statistics gathered from searches of their ecology portal site, and it would appear that people are the most concerned with extinction of animals and global warming. [Link]
• Business leaders from South Korea and Japan called Friday for their governments to resume talks and complete a free trade agreement (FTA) designed to remove trade barriers to the two Asian economic powers. [Link]
• Japanese alpinist Masatoshi Kuriaki has become the first solo climber to conquer Mt Foraker, the second highest peak in the Alaska mountain range, in winter. [Link]
• According to a Mainichi Shinbun survey, 67% of respondents like Ichiro Suzuki better than Hideki Matsui or Daisuke Matsuzaka. [Link]
• The Nintendo Wii has now sold over 2 million Wii hardware units in Japan as of April 13, Famitsu publisher Enterbrain reported yesterday. [Link]
• The long-awaited exhibition Monet–L’Art de Monet et sa posterite opened on April 6 at the new National Art Center, Tokyo, in Roppongi. This is an exhibition that gathers an unprecedented 97 paintings of perhaps the world’s best-loved painter and displays them in the Center’s large galleries with the space they deserve. [Link]