Google Inc. (GOOG) is expected to announce its next steps in China this week, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The details of the Internet company's plan, reached after talks with Chinese officials failed to progress, remain unclear. The person briefed on the matter said that the announcement could come as soon as Monday. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.) 

The expected announcement will likely end months of suspense over the fate of Google's business in China, which has been in jeopardy since January, when the company said it would stop censoring its search results after it was hit by a cyber attack it traced to China. Google said at the time it was increasingly troubled by China's attempts to limit free speech.

The news could clarify the fates of Google's hundreds of engineers and business personnel in China, many of whom have been receiving overtures from other Internet companies.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Google was planning to stop censoring its results on its Chinese search engine Google.cn in the coming weeks, a move that the company has acknowledged may force it to close down the site. But a person familiar with the discussions said at the time that Google is unlikely to pull out of the country entirely.
   
One possible scenario is that Google will make agreements with specific Chinese ministries about various parts of the business throughout the country, this person said. In addition to operating Google.cn, the company has sales, research, and other operations in the country, including investments in Chinese companies. Google also offers other products for Chinese Internet users besides search, like maps, and has partnerships with wireless companies to offer phones based on its Android operating system. 
   
In recent months, Google executives have spoken with some Chinese officials about whether the company could continue to operate an unfiltered search engine in the country. But Chinese ministers have shown no interest in compromise publicly, saying that Google must continue to obey Chinese law or face consequences.

China's reaction appears to be turning hotter. Over the weekend, China's state-owned Xinhua news agency published a commentary accusing Google of trying to advance its own political agenda by 'playing an active role in exporting culture, value and ideas.' The commentary also said that Google's 'ambition to change China's Internet rules and legal system will only prove to be ridiculous.'

Google representatives couldn't immediately be reached to comment on the editorial.

The number of suicides in Japan increased again amid the economic doldrums in 2009, staying above 30,000 for the 12th straight year, the National Police Agency said Tuesday in a preliminary report. À´Ô´£º¿¼ÊÔ´ó

The tally totaled 32,753 in the reporting year, the fifth largest on record and up 504 from 2008 when it fell by 844 from the year before. It has remained over 30,000 since 1998.

Men accounted for 23,406 of the total and women 9,347.

The rise apparently reflected the economic slump as the number of monthly suicides topped 3,000 from March to May in line with the tendency of people with economic problems to commit suicide around the time a business year ends. Most Japanese companies close books on March 31.

The monthly breakdown has stayed high since a double-digit surge to above 3,000 in October 2008, following the ‘‘Lehman shock’’ collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in September that year.

The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has set up an emergency task force to address the high suicide numbers. One of its measures has been to staff some of the ‘‘Hello Work’’ public job placement offices with mental health professionals since last November.

By prefecture, the 2009 figures rose by more than 100 in Saitama and Chiba, but dropped by that much in Osaka and Hokkaido, the agency said.