INTERNATIONAL

U.S., Japan Beginning Tough Trade Talks: The talks open today in Washington and will focus on reducing Japan’s $50-billion trade surplus with the United States, a tough task complicated by Japan’s economic slump. U.S. officials have threatened to impose their own targets for cutting Japanese imports if Tokyo does not do more to open its markets to U.S. products. Washington wants Japan to accept numerical goals for reducing the trade imbalance, but Tokyo has rejected such targets as “managed trade.”