The average amount of time people in Japan spend each day browsing the Internet has exceeded that spent on reading newspapers for the first time, according to survey results released Wednesday. The annual survey conducted in March by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology showed that people spend an average of 37 minutes a day using the Internet, up five minutes from the previous year, while time spent on newspapers decreased two minutes to 31 minutes.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has decided to maintain for now its ban on newspaper publishers and distributors discounting subscription fees, a senior ruling party official said Wednesday...The government commission had been reviewing the decades-old ban since last November from the viewpoint that it might have become excessive regulation that gives the industry an excuse to maintain uniform fees...Under the regulations which prohibit newspapers from diversifying fees by region or subscriber and distributors from offering discounts, uniform fees for home delivery of newspapers and similar products have been maintained across Japan.