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COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2000

Awaiting Diet dissolution

Despite widespread anxieties about potential Y2K disasters, the world greeted the new millennium without trouble. Volatility in the New York and Tokyo stock markets since the beginning of the year should not cause undue concern about the economic future at home and abroad.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Anti-Aum rightists get free, loud ride

Staff writer YOKOHAMA -- Military marching songs and yells blasting out of rightists' black loudspeaker trucks broke the holiday silence here Monday morning, which was Coming-of-Age Day. Since Fumihiro Joyu, former spokesman for Aum Shinrikyo, moved into the cult's Yokohama branch Dec. 29 after his...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 14, 2000

Valentine wants 'authentic' W. Series

New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine longs for the day when the World Series will truly be a global event.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Current account surplus drops 31% to 809 billion yen

Japan's current account surplus in November plunged 31 percent from a year earlier to 809.7 billion yen, marking the 10th consecutive month of year-on-year decline, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report released Thursday. Exports rose for the first time in 14 months, but imports grew more...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Embezzlement case ends Asia exchange

The Foreign and Education ministries have ordered a government-affiliated body in charge of promoting student exchange programs with other Asian nations to shut down because of an alleged embezzlement incident. The two ministries terminated Wednesday the "establishment permission" issued in 1981 for...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Japan plans conference to help Middle East peace

Staff writerIn a move that apparently reflects a strong desire to contribute to the revived Middle East peace process, Japan plans to convene an international conference on the region's environmental issues in Tunisia in late February, government sources said Friday. The sources said that Japan has...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Monitoring body included in Japan's gas-reduction plan

Staff writer Japan will formally propose later this month the creation of a new body to monitor industrialized countries' compliance with the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, government sources said Friday. The establishment of the compliance body will be included in Japanese proposals...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

'Uncensored information' blamed for rise in truancy

The number of elementary and junior high school children who were frequently truant during the 1998-99 school year jumped by more than 20 percent from the previous year, according to a government report on juvenile problems released Friday. The report by the Management and Coordination Agency says the...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Warm weather leaves slopes dry

Japan has had an unseasonably warm winter so far this year, with the national average temperature equal to that normally observed in March or April, the Meteorological Agency said Friday. In the city of Akita, the temperature has yet to fall below the freezing point since the new year began. According...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

DLJdirect users to buy and sell by voice via Net

Online broker DLJdirect SFG Securities Inc. has announced that it will begin a stock trading service in April to accept orders by voice over the Internet, in cooperation with IBM Japan Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. Tokyo-based DLJdirect said Thursday it hopes to attract keyboard-shy potential online investors,...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Peers rate Ishihara as not 'approachable'

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara revealed discomposure Friday when questioned about the low rating he received in a survey of 400 metropolitan government employees. "It doesn't show anything," the governor retorted in a regular news conference. Ishihara received an average score of 60 out of 100 in the...
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2000

New Year yen fall forecast proved accurate

My predictions have come true. The yen has stumbled into 2000, giving up much of its recent gains as anticipated.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2000

Planned new visa procedures to open doors to tourist groups from China

Japan is ready to open the door to groups of Chinese tourists beginning this spring by improving visa-issuing procedures, Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2000

The next Internet revolution

The America Online-Time Warner merger is an eye-opener, and not just because it will create a $350 million corporate behemoth. The real significance of the deal, which must be approved by U.S. regulators, is that it promises to transform media in the United States and will trigger change in the rest...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 13, 2000

Things that make you go PING

If I asked my mother how I could get more out of my golf clubs, she would probably reply: "Buy bigger ones so you can hit the ball easier" or "Ooh! Those orange ones look nice."
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Romania envoy senses trust

Romanian Ambassador Eugen Dijmarescu is leaving Saturday with a sense of accomplishment that trust has been established in Tokyo-Bucharest relations after his five-year assignment in Tokyo. Dijmarescu said during his visit to The Japan Times on Wednesday that he is grateful for Japanese assistance in...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Yakult paid off gangsters: sources

Until last year, Yakult Honsha Co. had paid a criminal gang 50 million yen every year for more than 20 years to keep it from disrupting general shareholders' meetings, sources said Thursday. The gang in question is affiliated with Sumiyoshi Kai, a major criminal syndicate, they said.According to the...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Kobe's recovery at 80%, but new industries still scarce

While Kobe has managed to rebuild its social infrastructure and housing facilities after the devastation of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, it must now develop new industries for its complete reconstruction, Mayor Kazutoshi Sasayama said in Tokyo Thursday. Speaking at the Japan National Press...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Protesters step up Kobe airport campaign

Staff writer KOBE -- The continuing saga of Kobe airport enters its next phase later this month as citizens opposed to the project begin a campaign to recall the mayor, and foreign firms step up pressure to be included in construction work. For nearly a year following the December 1998 rejection of...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Another firm linked to Iran exports

A Tokyo-based trading house specializing in exports to Iran may have been involved in illegal shipments of weapons parts to Tehran, for which executives of another trading firm were arrested Wednesday, police sources said Thursday. Two former executives of the defunct Tokyo-based firm Sun Beam K.K....
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 13, 2000

A winning resolution: wine tastings among friends

If you've already broken a few New Year's resolutions, welcome to the club: You belong to the majority. But don't worry; just put a positive new twist on the onerous matter of New Year resolutions. Resolve to make wine an even greater pleasure. Herewith, a few ideas:
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

India pursuing CTBT, Fernandes says

Visiting Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes brushed aside international criticism Thursday by reiterating that New Delhi is stepping up efforts to gain a national consensus on signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a global pact to prohibit nuclear testing. Speaking at the Japan National Press...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 13, 2000

Come in from out of the cold

Finally we can put behind us the Christmas leftovers and the Hogmanay hangovers (not to mention the Y2chaos that never was) and assume some semblance of normality. Don't get the wrong idea -- we certainly put away our fair share of mince pies and Gaultier-clad millennial champagne over the holidays....
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Countdown starts to citizens' poll on dam

TOKUSHIMA -- Residents of the city of Tokushima were officially notified Thursday of a Jan. 23 plebiscite on the controversial Yoshino River dam project -- the first such vote to be held on a central government-initiated major public works plan. The plebiscite will ask local voters whether they support...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2000

Dam opposition group rallies for vote in plebiscite

Staff writer TOKUSHIMA -- The group smiled and waved as they jogged through the city of Tokushima earlier this week, calling on local residents to go to the polls. Theirs is no usual campaign. The men and women on this two-day "sacred run" are part of an effort by local citizens' groups to rally residents...
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2000

Sliding toward recovery

Japan's economic prospects are improving. After a decade of stagnation, the consensus forecast is that a fragile recovery will, with careful tending, continue. The emphasis belongs on "fragile," however, not "recovery." While the future holds many unknowns, the government can do its part to minimize...
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2000

Camellias and camels on Izu Oshima

Izu Oshima has another special attraction: the camellia park. The whole park has an area of 327 hectares, including the camellia garden, a small zoo and a campground known as Umi no Furusato Mura, situated close to the Goze River, all managed by the Tokyo Parks Department.
BUSINESS
Jan 12, 2000

Sunkus plans virtual supermarket venture

Japanese convenience store operator Sunkus and Associates Inc. said Wednesday it will set up a joint venture with five other firms from Jan. 31 to operate an e-commerce supermarket.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2000

Farm official offers to resign over co-op bribes

An official of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has tendered his resignation for receiving favors from a cooperative association in Kagawa Prefecture, ministry officials said. Tsuguo Joko, an assistant division head at the Agricultural Structure Improvement Bureau, offered to quit...
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2000

Austrian ambassador aims for mature ties

Austria's new ambassador to Japan, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, said Wednesday he hopes to work for a more matured partnership between his country and Japan, which last year marked the 130th anniversary of bilateral relations. In order to expand ties, the two countries will have to develop more mutual trade...

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