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JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Give banks in need of funds breathing space, Nonaka urges

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka voiced concern Friday about imposing excessive restrictions on banks asking for public funds.Sufficient information disclosure and clarification of management responsibility should be preconditions for infusions of public funds, the chief government spokesman told...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Asian energy talks get under way in Okinawa

Staff writerGINOWAN, Okinawa, Pref. -- Ministerial-level officials from 18 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum gathered here Friday for two days of meetings in a joint effort to promote energy efficiency and market competitiveness in the region.The Third APEC Energy Ministers...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Tokyo applying for ISO certificate

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will apply for ISO 14001 authorization, an international standard for environmentally friendly office management, by the end of fiscal 1999, Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima said Friday.A total of 1,174 organizations have obtained the authorization across the country, including...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

LDP may bend on recapitalization plans

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party appeared ready Friday to accept some ideas proposed by the Democratic Party of Japan on a bank recapitalization bill.DPJ Secretary General Tsutomu Hata met with his LDP counterpart Yoshiro Mori and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka in the afternoon...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Kim prods Japan to lead Asia's recovery

Liberalization of the Japanese market and expansion of domestic demand in Japan are critically important to resuscitate the Asian economy, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung stressed Thursday in Tokyo."Now is the time for Japan to take the initiative to revive the Asian economy," which is in the midst...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

LTCB merger now 'option' for Sumitomo Trust

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. President Atsushi Takahashi hinted Thursday the bank's planned merger with the troubled Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan was effectively dead, saying the LTCB is now "one of the options" among the bank's alliance strategies.Takahashi, however, said it is too early to make...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Highlights of Kim-Obuchi declaration

The following are highlights of the joint declaration announced Thursday by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung:1) Obuchi and Kim expressed their shared determination to build a new partnership toward the 21st century.2) Obuchi expressed keen remorse and apologized for...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Japan, South Korea ink new tax pact

Japan and South Korea signed a new taxation convention Thursday that will treat South Korea as a developed country by removing preferential measures and effectively increase Japan's tax revenue.The agreement, to be applied from 2000 subject to parliamentary approval, promotes business activity taxation...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Manufacturers in losing battle with lifetime employment

Staff writerFinancial institutions are not the only Japanese companies suffering from the moribund economy.Major electronics firms and automakers, which once basked in the strong growth of the famed Japanese economic miracle, have revised their projected earnings downward for the first half of the current...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Kidnapping in Japan not discussed

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung sidestepped Kim's 1973 Tokyo abduction during their two-hour summit Thursday, but Kim later called for an inquiry into the truth of the case."I have said I would not raise the issue in any form to the governments of both countries,"...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Leaders sign wide-ranging action plan

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung signed during their summit meeting Thursday a 43-point joint action plan aimed at enhancing ties toward the next century.The paper covered a wide range of topics for the two countries to pursue together and covered five major areas...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Gift coupons government's latest demand strategy

Providing consumers with merchandise coupons in an effort to stimulate personal consumption will be studied as a possible measure for the second fiscal 1998 supplementary budget, government officials said Thursday.Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka confirmed during a morning news conference that...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

The Kim Visit: Leaders look ahead, vow cooperative ties

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and visiting South Korean President Kim Dae Jung put the past behind them Thursday, with Japan apologizing for its past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and both pledging to establish a new partnership in a variety of fields for the 21st century.Obuchi said at a joint...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Guilty bureaucrat fined, freed over Big Four bribes

A former Finance Ministry official received a two-year suspended sentence and was fined more than 5 million yen by the Tokyo District Court Thursday for accepting bribes from four securities companies.Toshio Miyano, 51, a former senior official at the ministry's Securities Bureau, was found guilty of...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Yen bulks up to 114; Nikkei takes dive

The dollar continued plummeting against the yen Thursday morning in London, briefly dropping to the 114 level for the first time since July 1997 on stop-loss sales by U.S. hedge funds.While the yen's sudden muscle is a mixed blessing for Japan -- it hurts exporters but helps banks struggling to maintain...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

President Kim addresses Diet

Japan and South Korea must establish "future-oriented relations" while working to resolve differences in interpretation over Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said Thursday in a speech to the Diet."The time has come for the two countries to look...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

September wholesale prices down 2%

Domestic wholesale prices dropped 2 percent in September compared with the same month last year, down for the seventh consecutive month, the Bank of Japan said Thursday.Compared with August's showing, the domestic wholesale price index stayed flat at 97.4 against the 1995 base of 100, the central bank...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Public funds the best medicine, U.S. chamber says

Staff writerIf you cut your arm and blood was flowing like a river, the first thing you would have to do is stop the bleeding, the head of the world's largest business organization in the United States said.In the same manner, Japan must expeditiously inject public funds into its ailing banking sector...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Bank recapitalization bill awaits passage

The Diet will soon pass a bill for injecting public funds into ailing banks to cure a financial system swamped with bad loans, now that two opposition groups have dropped their objections, according to ruling and opposition officials.The bill to establish a new bank recapitalization mechanism, submitted...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Public funds for banks, stimulus get panel's nod

The government should inject a substantial amount of public funds into financial institutions and implement large-scale fiscal stimulus measures to prop up the economy, members of an advisory body to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Wednesday.During the day's discussions of the Strategic Economic Council,...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

LTCB declared open to any buyer

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. may not be the sole buyer of the troubled Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday."We had initially hoped for smooth realization of the planned merger between the two banks," he said. "But the LTCB is now expected to be put under...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

'Microcreditor' not for privileged

Staff writer Muhammad Yunus is not your typical banker. You won't catch him traipsing around in designer suits or marching briefcase in hand through the corporate halls looking for new clients.No, this simply dressed Bangladeshi banker marches to a different beat: he strives to lend money to the poor...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

NEC, Toyo raided over illegal equipment deals

Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office raided the head offices of NEC Corp. and Toyo Communications Corp., both in Tokyo's Minato Ward, on Wednesday to collect evidence to substantiate charges against four officials at Defense Agency contractors who were arrested Tuesday.The...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Justice minister urges swift probe into bank execs

Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura called Wednesday on senior public prosecutors from across Japan for swift and rigid action in any criminal liability cases against executives of failed financial institutions.Speedy and strict investigation is also needed for those who obstruct the collection of loans...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Housing deregulation said essential to boosting demand

Housing deregulation is critical for Japan to stimulate its stagnant domestic demand, Kent Calder, special adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, said Wednesday.Speaking at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Calder pointed to the need to improve transparency, performance-based standards and the...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Saison ties with H.I.S. in travel insurance

Saison Automobile & Fire Insurance Co., a nonlife insurance wing of the Saison group, and H.I.S. Co., a travel agency that has a strong foothold in the overseas travel market, reached a comprehensive tieup agreement Tuesday to provide new insurance services for those traveling abroad, the two companies...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Osaka faces uphill battle to host G-8

Staff writerOSAKA -- A comparative lack of local governmental interest, cool relations between the mayor and governor, and an uninspired promotional campaign have greatly dimmed Osaka's bid to host the Group of Eight summit in 2000, senior prefectural officials said recently.Osaka is one of eight cities...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Japan extends China additional flood aid

Japan will extend 250 million yen in emergency aid to China, which was hit hard by massive flooding, so the country can purchase medicine and medical equipment to deal with epidemics, Foreign Ministry officials said Tuesday.Japan already extended about 250 million yen in emergency aid to China from...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Discrimination case against jewelry store owner begins

HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka Pref. -- Japanese should not discriminate against foreigners just because they're different, a Brazilian woman suing a jewelry store owner here for alleged racial bias told reporters Tuesday."Japanese society will have to coexist with an even greater variety of people in the future....
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Daihatsu unveils new minicar lineup

Daihatsu Motor Co. announced the launch of its fully redesigned Mira, Move, and Terios Kid minicar models Tuesday in line with new Japanese regulations for minicars implemented at the beginning of the month.Daihatsu, a major minicar manufacturer based in Osaka, hopes to raise its current 25 percent...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji