Kyodo news summary

---------- Japan shows exciting increases in organic food market: report

LONDON - Consumer demand for organic products, particularly food, is growing dramatically in Japan and other parts of Asia, according to the Soil Association's global Organic Market Report 2007 launched in London on Saturday.

''The Japanese organic market is a very exciting one for the future because shoppers are increasingly wanting high quality, natural foods in keeping with the traditionally healthy diet in Japan,'' the Soil Association's Food and Farming Director Helen Browning told Kyodo News.

---------- U.S., N. Korean envoys set for talks on bilateral ties, nuke row

GENEVA - U.S. and North Korean envoys were set to begin Saturday discussing obstacles preventing them from normalizing relations, in a meeting that could prove key for the next stage in the multilateral process of denuclearizing North Korea.

The negotiations between top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, mark the second meeting of the working group that brings together the two main parties under the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programs.

---------- Quake drill held nationwide on disaster preparedness day

TOKYO - The government held a major quake drill Saturday, Japan's annual ''disaster preparedness day,'' with about 630,000 people in 37 of Japan's 47 prefectures participating.

In this year's drill, the head of the government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was among the officials to be summoned immediately after the assumed quake following damage that actually incurred to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture in a magnitude-6.8 earthquake in July.

---------- Building, ad restrictions in place in Kyoto to preserve scenery

KYOTO - The Kyoto city government put in place building height restrictions and a total rooftop and blinking advertisement ban Saturday to preserve the historic scenery of the ancient Japanese capital.

Some praise what Kyoto Mayor Yorikane Masumoto described as a ''major project looking a century ahead,'' but land prices have been falling in areas affected by the building height restrictions while the local advertising industry has complained of business being hampered.

---------- Peninsula Tokyo opens, heating up battle in luxury hotel market

TOKYO - The Peninsula Tokyo opened in the heart of the Japanese capital on Saturday, heating up competition among luxurious foreign hotel chains in Japan.

Located in the Marunouchi business district, opposite the Imperial Palace and within a few minutes' walk of the Ginza shopping district, the Peninsula Tokyo has 314 guestrooms, including 47 suites, five restaurants and such facilities as a spa, a fitness center and a wedding chapel.

---------- U.S. ready to discuss resumption of food aid to N. Korea

WASHINGTON - The United States signaled its readiness Friday to discuss with North Korea restarting food aid to help flood victims in the Asian country.

If resumed, the U.S. food aid would be the first since Washington decided in November 2005 to suspend such assistance to North Korea after Pyongyang obstructed the World Food Program's monitoring of aid delivery.