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JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Red Army may launch attack to free Shigenobu: NPA

Members of the radical Japanese Red Army may launch a terrorist attack to liberate arrested leader Fusako Shigenobu, the National Police Agency warned in a report released Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Killer drops suit against publisher

OSAKA -- A man convicted of stabbing a 5-year-old girl to death during a series of random attacks in 1998 while he was a minor has dropped his damages suit against a publisher that had identified him in one of its magazines.
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 8, 2000

Widen scope of bilateral trade talks: Hiranuma

Japan and the United States should hold regular government/private-sector meetings as part of new comprehensive discussions on economic and trade issues, International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

DPJ panel urges end to peacekeeping ban

A Democratic Party of Japan panel on Thursday called for the ban on Japanese participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations to be scrapped and for the five guidelines for Japan becoming involved in operations to be reviewed.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 8, 2000

Ogi pushes international role for Haneda

Tokyo's Haneda should be used as an international airport, and the new megaministry that will control most public works budgets should draw up a grand design for the nation's airport network, said the woman who will head the megaministry.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

Job training urged for IT revolution

An advisory panel to the labor minister said Thursday that the government should promote job training to meet the employment needs of the industrial sector as the information technology revolution blossoms.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

State to aid disaster-hit small firms

The government will reduce the interest rate on loans extended by its affiliated financial institutions to small and midsize companies suffering from recent natural disasters to 2 percent from 2.1 percent, effective next Wednesday, government officials said Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 8, 2000

Furuta brings agent to table

All-star catcher Atsuya Furuta brought an agent to contract negotiations with the Yakult Swallows on Thursday, and even though he held off signing a new pact with the club, he said the talks went "smoothly."
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2000

Europe's growing pains

European Union leaders are finding that success comes with a price. They meet today in Nice, France, for a critical summit that will modernize the EU and prepare it for new members and new responsibilities. Despite complete agreement that decision-making procedures must be changed, there is no consensus...
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

Carrefour chief takes aim at Japanese market

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- Unveiling Carrefour's first Japanese outlet to reporters Thursday, Carrefour France Chairman Daniel Bernard said the world's second-largest retailer has a good opportunity to do business in Japan, at a time when the domestic retail industry is changing.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2000

IBJ to cut long-term prime lending rate

The Industrial Bank of Japan said Thursday it will cut its long-term prime lending rate to 2.1 percent from 2.25 percent, effective today.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 8, 2000

Hanayo's gift wrapped in seductive complexity

With her mix of artifice, artistic discipline and sexual promise, no traditional figure is more ambiguous than the geisha.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

International flights at Haneda OK'd for Narita's off-hours

The Chiba Prefectural Government has approved the use of Tokyo's Haneda airport for international chartered flights, telling transport authorities that it would allow such flights on condition they are operated during the hours Narita airport is closed, it was learned Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2000

Flood of goods from China an eye-opener for Indians

NEW DELHI -- China's invasion of India in 1962 was perhaps less of a humiliation for India than Beijing's latest attempt at capturing its market.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2000

Mori's prospects remain dim

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori Tuesday inaugurated his new Cabinet, which includes two former prime ministers. Mori retained Kiichi Miyazawa as finance minister and named Ryutaro Hashimoto as special minister for administrative reform and chief of the Okinawa Development Agency. Effective Jan. 6, Hashimoto...
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 7, 2000

Miyazawa to focus on employment, spending

The state budget for fiscal 2001 to be drawn up by the government later this month is expected to be characterized by "guarded optimism," Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

Buying over Net bucks downward trend

While the downtrend in Tokyo share prices continued unabated in recent months, a growing number of individual investors stepped up purchases over the Internet.
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 7, 2000

FRC chief firm on payoff plan

Having returned to head the Financial Reconstruction Commission, Hakuo Yanagisawa on Wednesday emphatically ruled out the possibility of an extension to a controversial payoff plan.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

Economic indexes point in unison to expansion

The Economic Planning Agency said Wednesday that three economic gauges exceeded the 50 percent boom-or-bust line in October for the first time since November 1996.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Japan pledges 1.5 billion yen for Zambia's program of reforms

Japan on Wednesday pledged 1.5 billion yen in grants to Zambia to support the country's efforts to improve its economic structure and to promote sanitary and educational development programs, Foreign Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Mori appoints 22 parliamentary vice ministers

A day after reshuffling his Cabinet, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday appointed 22 parliamentary vice ministers who will assist his Cabinet ministers.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Priest on quest for schools in Cambodia

Fumio Goto never imagined that he would end up helping to build schools in Cambodia when he first accepted refugees from the country in 1981.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

Journalists debate role of English in Asia

English, as the dominant language in cyberspace, is becoming an indispensable communication tool for Asian people. And the increased use of English among nonnative speakers should make it more colorful as a world language.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

LDP panel set to extend housing loan tax breaks

The tax panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Wednesday to maintain tax breaks for housing loans for two to three years, albeit on a reduced scale, sources within the party said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2000

New Cabinet looks familiar

As expected, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has completed his Cabinet reshuffle. Yet at a time of political tumult, there is much that is familiar in the new Cabinet and LDP leadership, and the means by which they were chosen. Despite being assaulted on all sides, Mr. Mori and the Liberal Democratic Party...

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