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JAPAN
Jan 31, 1997

Confessions, cooperation helped Aum evade antisubversive law

The Public Security Commission's decision Jan. 31 not to invoke the Antisubversive Activities Law against Aum Shinrikyo reflects tremendous changes the cult has gone through in the past few years, including the arrests of its key figures and fugitives and its declaration of bankruptcy.When the Public...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 1997

JR, rescuers hold underground drills

OSAKA -- About 250 railway workers, police officers and firefighters took part in a fire drill Jan. 31 at the JR Tozai Line's underground Mitejima Station, which will open March 8 to link Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and Osaka's Kyobashi district.Because a 10.2 km length of the 12.5 km train line will...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Suit filed over site of ticket office

A group of citizens who oppose the planned construction of a bike-racing ticket office in the Shimbashi district of Tokyo's Minato Ward filed lawsuits Jan. 29, demanding that the project's promoters and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry suspend the plan.Four suits, two against the builders...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Three airlines OK'd for Korea runs

Japan and South Korea agreed Jan. 30 during their three-day civil aviation talks to add three Japanese airlines to the bilateral aviation market, Transport Ministry officials said.The two governments also agreed to allow airlines of both nations to open new routes between three South Korean cities --...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Seibu puts store in woman's hands

Seibu Department Stores, Ltd. is promoting a 38-year-old division manager to head of its popular Yurakucho branch -- and she's a woman.Yoshino Tominaga, chief of sales training at the firm's head office, will be the first-ever woman head of a department store in Japan, according to the firm. She will...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Britain still in running for investment, Toyota head assures

Hiroshi Okuda, president of Toyota Motor Corp., said his company has made no decision on future investment in Europe and Britain remains one of many possible options.In a statement issued Jan. 30, Okuda said, "The Toyota Motor Corp. position regarding future investment in Europe is now under study and...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Euro debut will not upset currency markets, EU official says

The 1999 introduction of a single currency in the European Union will not have a destabilizing effect on international currency markets, according to a senior EU official on monetary issues.Herve Carre, director for monetary matters at the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Auto exports log 11th annual fall in '96

Continuing on its 11-year downward spiral, Japan exported 3.71 million automobiles in 1996, or roughly half the number it exported in 1985, an industry association reported Jan. 30.Exports of passenger cars, trucks and buses in 1996 dropped 2.1 percent from the previous year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

PC shipments continue upswing

Global shipments of personal computers grew 21.7 percent in 1996 from the previous year to 72.2 million units, paced by purchases in the U.S. by corporate buyers, a major Japanese think tank reported Jan. 30.Nomura Research Institute, affiliated with Nomura Securities Co., predicts that global PC shipments...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1997

Flights may go all night at Haneda

The Transport Ministry is looking at turning Tokyo's Haneda airport into a 24-hour-a-day operation, ministry officials said Jan. 30.International charter flights would be allowed once the hours of operation are extended, they said. Currently, the airport operates between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.According...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Tomobe arrested for fraud as Diet strips him of immunity

Tatsuo Tomobe, an Upper House Diet member and the main figure in an alleged mutual fund fraud, was arrested on Jan. 29 after the Diet revoked his immunity by unanimous vote earlier the same day.Metropolitan Police Department investigators arrested Tomobe, a 68-year-old former Shinshinto member who is...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Group forms to cut carbon dioxide emissions

An international group of local governments was launched Jan. 29 in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in a bid to cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent to help prevent global warming.The group, named "20 Percent Club for Sustainable Cities," was founded by 27 local governments here and 22 overseas. Members...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Internet provider to enter long-distance phone foray

Internet access provider Rimnet Corp. will join the heated competition among common Japanese carriers by launching long-distance telephone services via the Internet on April 21.Unlike other Internet phone services, Rimnet will not require users to have personal computers and application software to...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Murderer's appeal quashed by top court

A man who has spent 27 years in jail after being convicted of poisoning his wife, mistress and three others in Mie Prefecture had his fifth appeal for a retrial rejected by the Supreme Court on Jan. 29.The court rejected the special appeal filed by Masaru Okunishi, 71, ruling that the defense had not...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Industrial output rose in December

The nation's industrial output in December rose 0.3 percent from the previous month, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said in a preliminary report released Jan. 29.The ministry reported that the nation's production activities are now "on the rise." The adverb "moderately," used in every...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Rapid decentralization of government urged

The government should swiftly move as many of its functions to local governments as possible to increase the efficiency of administrative services and reduce fiscal deficits, a business executive said Jan. 29.Ken Moroi, adviser to Chichibu Onoda Cement Corp. and head of the government advisory panel...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Extra budget clears committee vote

The 2.67 trillion yen supplementary budget for fiscal 1996 got the green light Jan. 29 from the House of Representatives Budget Committee after the main opposition parties failed to delay a vote on the plan.While the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its ally the Social Democratic Party, and 21st Century,...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

'97 budget debate heats up

With the Diet expected to approve the fiscal 1996 supplementary budget Jan. 31, the focus of legislative debate will shift to the fiscal 1997 budget, the No. 1 item on the agenda for the current session.The minority government of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and his Liberal Democratic Party hope...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Holding companies move closer

In an attempt to accelerate the process of lifting the ban on holding companies, the Fair Trade Commission on Jan. 29 presented to the ruling coalition the gist of a bill to revise the Antimonopoly Law.Representatives from the three ruling parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, the Social Democratic...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1997

Kato expresses regret over Tomobe's arrest

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Koichi Kato said Jan. 29 the arrest of Tatsuo Tomobe -- coming in the year the Upper House celebrates its 50th anniversary -- was especially regrettable. "All lawmakers should make efforts to win back the public's trust in the Diet and its members," Kato told...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Ex-EPA chief lands Matsushita post

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. has decided to appoint Shusei Tanaka, a former director general of the Economic Planning Agency, as an outside auditor.The leading Japanese maker of building materials and lighting equipment will formalize the decision Feb. 27 at a general shareholders' meeting. Tanaka,...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Minister firm on keeping public money from ailing banks

The government has not changed its stance on refusing to use public funds to help banks erase their nonperforming loans, Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka said Jan. 28.After the tremendous uproar last spring caused by the infusion of 685 billion yen in public funds to help cover losses left by seven...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Mitsubishi Motors links up with Italian firm

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Jan. 28 that it will entrust production of its new small sports utility vehicle for the European market to Industrie Pininfarina SpA, an Italian automaker, beginning in 1999.The two firms signed an eight-year agreement on the project, in which a total of 20 billion...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Keidanren urges simpler merger, acquisition rules

The procedures for corporate mergers and acquisitions should be simplified so companies can keep up with rapid changes in the global environment by reorganizing their corporate structure, according to an economic advisory group.In its report released Jan. 28, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

High court awards illegal worker lost pay

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on Jan. 28 awarded a foreigner 2.2 million yen in income it estimated he lost due to an injury sustained while working illegally in Japan. It was the first ruling by the top court concerning a claim for income lost by an illegally employed foreigner.Based on...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

NCR to give employees stock option

NCR Japan Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based NCR Corp., announced Jan. 28 that it will introduce a "stock option" incentive program for its employees, becoming the first Japanese listed firm to offer such a program.The company's 3,200 workers will be given the right to purchase 90 shares of its parent...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Panel eyes Diet approval for BOJ board members

A study panel drafting revisions to the Bank of Japan Law basically agreed Jan. 28 that appointment of central bank policy board members should be approved by the Diet.A majority of the panel's members said the three board members representing the BOJ -- including its governor and deputy governor --...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Tokyoites discuss possible capital move

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a conference with Tokyo residents and workers Jan. 27 to discuss relocating the capital outside the city.The Tokyo government restated the opinion of some that the issue should be considered very carefully and that reform and decentralization of central government...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Energy-environment turf war flares

Japan, the only industrialized nation without an environmental assessment law, is finally moving toward creating one, but an ongoing tug of war between the Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry is casting a shadow over such prospects.The dispute centers on whether power...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Sanyo to boost investment in solar battery business

Sanyo Electric Co. will invest 2.5 billion yen in its solar power battery operations in fiscal 1997 and another 10 billion yen in the following three years, Sanyo President Yasuaki Takano said Jan. 28. Takano said the strategy will make Sanyo a leader in the field in Japan by 2000.Takano predicted that...

Longform

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