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It was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Kitami Institute of Technology and the Kushiro Board of Education.

"It's appropriate at this stage to sustain monetary easing, and earnestly scrutinise wage and price developments," Tamura said a speech to business leaders in Kushiro, northern Japan.

KUSHIRO, Japan — The dance of the red-crowned cranes commenced, an impromptu pas de deux.

But thanks to a decades-long effort led by local conservators and subsidized by the Japanese government, the number of red-crowned cranes in Mr. Yamazaki’s town, Kushiro, has swelled to about 1,900.

Scientists worry that a disease outbreak in Kushiro could wipe out the heavy concentration of cranes in the area.