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JAPAN

Dec 14, 1999

Tokyo lifts sanctions, eyes restart of Pyongyang talks

The government announced Tuesday that it will lift the ban on food aid and restart normalization talks with North Korea, setting the stage for preparatory meetings between the two sides by the end of this year. The decision was taken because of recent developments in talks between North Korea's ruling...

JAPAN

Dec 14, 1999

Lower House approves political donations bill

After lengthy negotiations between the ruling and opposition camps, a Lower House special committee gave its unanimous approval Tuesday to a bill that would ban corporate donations to individual politicians starting Jan. 1.At the same time, the special political reform committee began deliberating a...

JAPAN

Dec 14, 1999

LDP panel OKs expanded protection for insured

A Liberal Democratic Party panel basically endorsed a plan by financial authorities Tuesday to beef up the insurance policyholder protection fund by 500 billion yen, of which 400 billion yen would be covered by public funds. The Finance Ministry and the Financial Supervisory Agency submitted to the...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

KEDO agrees to start work on Pyongyang reactor

A multilateral consortium charged with providing North Korea with two nuclear power reactors decided Monday to proceed with the construction work, paving the way for a deal to be signed with the main contractor Wednesday. The executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization agreed...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Sexual harassment costs 'Knock' 11 million yen

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama was ordered by a court Monday to pay 11 million yen in damages to a 21-year-old woman who was suing him for sexual harassment and seeking 15 million yen. The woman, a former Yokoyama campaign staffer who claimed he groped her in the back of a campaign van three days...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

New travel agency serves Tokyo's gays

By Hiroshi Matsubara

Staff writer During his trip to the west coast of Australia in January, Shigenobu Umeki, a 40-year-old magazine editor, stayed at so-called gay accommodations, run by gay owners and staffed by gay workers. "I am always conscious of my sexual orientation when talking to people out of fear that they are...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Diet enacts nuclear readiness legislation

With Monday's Upper House approval, the Diet enacted two bills aimed at preventing and better dealing with accidents at nuclear power facilities. Now that the bills, which were submitted following the Sept. 30 accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, have cleared both...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

By Junko Takahashi

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Current-account surplus shrinks for ninth month

Japan's current-account surplus in October plunged 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.08 trillion yen as exports shrank more than imports, the Finance Ministry announced Monday in a preliminary report.It was the ninth consecutive month of year-on-year decline in the surplus, and the trend is expected...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Crown Princess undergoes ultrasound pregnancy test

The Crown Princess underwent an ultrasound test Monday afternoon at the Imperial Household Agency Hospital in Tokyo to determine whether she is pregnant. The agency was to publicly announce the results later in the day, after reporting the outcome to the Emperor and Empress. If it is confirmed that...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

'Tankan' readings rise modestly across board

Businesses have become less pessimistic about their outlook over the past three months, according to the Bank of Japan's "tankan" business confidence survey. The central bank's quarterly survey for December, released Monday, shows business sentiment has improved among firms in all four main categories...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

Bills to lower 'shoko' firms' interest cap pass Diet

The Diet passed a package of bills Monday to tighten restrictions on "shoko" loan lenders by revising a law to cut the interest rate ceiling from 40.004 percent to 29.2 percent starting June 1. Shoko lenders are financial institutions who specialize in making collateral-free, guarantor-required, short-term...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.

A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan

By Hanako Lowry

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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