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JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Prosecutors seek death penalty for cultist in lawyer's slaying

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty Friday for Aum Shinrikyo figure Kiyohide Hayakawa over his alleged role in the November 1989 slaying of a Yokohama lawyer, the attorney's wife and their baby son. Hayakawa, 50, once one of Aum founder Shoko Asahara's closest aides, has also been charged with other...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Legendary Ray Charles shines and polishes his musical gems

It's an often-seen case: A talented musician comes in demand, and begins to tour, and tour. As time goes by, the repertoire becomes more established, and the same material gets retreaded, often going stale. Once-memorable lyrics and riffs begin to lose something from the abusive, exploitative repetition....
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Flaming Lips dampen the fire with absurdity

Though it's sad that major labels no longer have the patience to actively develop deserving artists, they at least know who's good and seem willing to allow musicians with something interesting to say to say it. How else do you explain the career of the Flaming Lips?
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Obuchi hints budget before snap elections

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Friday hinted he does not intend to dissolve the Lower House and call general elections until the budget for the next fiscal year passes the Diet in late March. His comment came amid lingering speculation about the timing for the elections, including early January, when...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Japan to host people-smuggling symposium

Japan will host the first international symposium exclusively focusing on ways to combat the increasingly serious problem of human smuggling in the Asia-Pacific region in mid-January, Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Tokyo, Seoul agree to improve mutual investment

In a further step toward the conclusion next year of a bilateral investment pact, Japan and South Korea agreed in Tokyo on Thursday to expedite joint efforts to improve investment between the two countries. The agreement was made at the second round of talks of the bilateral government and private-sector...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Crime on the rise; arrests on the wane

Police are making fewer arrests while the number of serious crimes are on the increase, a survey released Thursday by the National Police Agency shows. According to the survey, arrests for such crimes as murder, robbery, and indecent assault -- those classified by police as "serious crimes" -- decreased...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

LTCB sues former execs for 6.3 billion yen in damages

The Long-term Credit Bank of Japan decided Thursday to sue 15 former bank executives, demanding 6.3 billion yen in damages for massive losses they allegedly caused the bank, LTCB officials said. Based on a decision reached at a board meeting Thursday morning, the bank, currently under state control,...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

New subway line to be named Oedo

Tokyo's No. 12 subway line will be named the Oedo Line, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Transportation said, dumping a misnomer selected last month amid much fanfare. The previously selected name -- Tokyo Kanjo (Loop) Line -- doesn't make any sense, said Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Tokyo, Pyongyang to meet in China for normalization talks

Japan and North Korea will hold a series of meetings from Sunday to Tuesday in Beijing in an effort to resolve long-standing humanitarian concerns and resume talks for normalizing diplomatic relations, the government announced Thursday. A meeting between the two countries' Red Cross societies is scheduled...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Push vowed to pass seat-cut bill next session

The government will do its utmost to pass the controversial bill for reducing Lower House seats during the upcoming ordinary Diet session, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said Thursday.Aoki's remarks followed the renewal of an agreement reached Wednesday night between the Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

DDI, KDD and IDO merge against NTT

DDI Corp., KDD Corp. and IDO Corp. have agreed to form a three-way merger in October in an effort to create a comprehensive telecom carrier that can compete with the dominant NTT group, top officials of the three carriers announced Thursday. The merger will combine the corporate resources of the three...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Syllabus for English classes under fire

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. -- The future of English education in Japan was the subject of a heated debate earlier this month as four panelists gathered at Mito College to trade their views. Panel coordinator Yukiko Amakawa, associate professor of Mito College, was joined by Gregory Clark, president of Tama...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Education panel OKs performance-based pay

The education committee of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Thursday approved a plan that will lead to the city's public school teachers being paid according to performance, rather than experience. The scheme, to go into effect with the start of the school year in April, aims to boost teaching quality...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

GE takes Toho Mutual contracts on conditions

GE Capital Edison Life Insurance Co. has agreed to take over contracts left by the failed Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co. provided that an insurance industry group shoulder 340 billion yen of expected losses, industry sources said Thursday. The Life Insurance Association of Japan and GE Capital Edison...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Regional Special: Chubu

Regional Special: Chubu>Sekigahara to mark 400th anniversary of epic battle> Staff writer SEKIGAHARA, Gifu Pref. -- For most of the world, next year is a celebration of the new millennium. For Japan, it is also the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Sekigahara -- perhaps the most famous internal battle...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Japan to send yen loans for Swaziland road

Staff writer Japan for the first time will provide official yen loans to Swaziland, a landlocked country surrounded by Mozambique to the north and South Africa to the south, government sources said Wednesday. The loans will finance a road project that will eventually link the southern African country...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Merger with Liberals an option, Obuchi says

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Wednesday acknowledged that a merger between his Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party is a possibility. "It is a fact that some members of the two parties are seeking the merger, saying that the policies of the parties are not so different," Obuchi said. "I appreciate...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Liberal Party left in limbo after abandonment of bill

Liberal Party members failed to reach a consensus over whether to leave the ruling triumvirate Wednesday night, leaving the future course of the little conservative party still unclear. Debate on the Liberal Party's future has heated up since Tuesday night, when it became clear that a bill to reduce...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 15, 1999

Follow the money

Japan's back. After nearly a decade of economic stagnation, this country is getting its act together.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

106,000 police scheduled for New Year's Eve

A total of 106,000 police officers nationwide will be on duty overnight from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 to deal with any possible problems at the turn of the millennium, the National Police Agency said Wednesday. The total is 2 1/2 times more than the usual 40,000 officers on overnight duty. A total of 105,000...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Fields takes helm of Mazda

Mazda Motor Corp. announced Wednesday that President James E. Miller has been replaced by his 38-year-old deputy, Mark Fields. Fields, who became vice president only two weeks ago, has stepped up to the top post as the youngest to do so in the firm's history. Miller, 58, resigned from the presidency...
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 1999

'Get out or die'

Russia has always talked tough. Last week, the world got a double dose of invective, however. First, residents of the Chechen capital of Grozny were told to "get out or die" before the Russian military launched an assault. A few days later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin expressed his displeasure with...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Singapore Airlines banks on new services, alliance

Staff writer Singapore Airlines hopes to increase its share of the passenger market for travel between Japan and Singapore by upgrading in-flight services and forming an alliance of multiple carriers, says T.K. Tan, general manager of the company's Japan office. "Our strategy is to emphasize our products...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Vice finance chief to attend G20 forum

Yoshimasa Hayashi, one of the two parliamentary vice finance ministers, on Wednesday will attend the first meeting of the Group of 20, a new forum on the international financial system, to be held in Berlin through Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

'Shoko' testimony goes live on TV

After a 20-year hiatus, the public eye was fully readmitted Tuesday to the drama of someone giving sworn testimony before the Diet, as the presidents of two "shoko" moneylenders under fire for heavy-handed loan collection tactics took the witness stand before the Upper House Financial Affairs Committee....
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Diet panel passes revisions on business creation

The Diet enacted a legislative package Tuesday to revise the law for facilitating the creation of new businesses. The Upper House Special Committee on Small and Medium Enterprises approved that and seven other bills aimed at revamping the operations of small and medium-size businesses. The bills are...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Majority doesn't mean easy street for coalition

Staff writer The 48-day extraordinary Diet session, scheduled to end today, appears to have exposed the weaknesses rather than strengths of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's new tripartite coalition, which controls 70 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Obuchi had hoped the combined majority of 356...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Immigration detainees often beaten: officer

A former immigration officer testified in court Tuesday that he has seen officers beating detainees on several occasions at the immigration house in Tokyo's Kita Ward. "Several times I saw two or three officers ... kick (a sitting detainee) in his chest, telling him to apologize," said Takeshi Akiyama,...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 14, 1999

The Worldwide Music Expo embraces roots and Internet

For anyone involved in any aspect of world music, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) has become an essential date on the calendar. After a few years of internal wrangling, at the end of October, WOMEX returned to its original home at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany, where from now on it will...

Longform

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How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan