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JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Mother says she's sorry for killing friend's baby

A 36-year-old woman pleaded guilty Monday to killing a 2-year-old girl in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward last November and burying her body in Shizuoka Prefecture. She also apologized to the victim's family.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Japan to try guns-for-butter aid in Cambodia

Japan is preparing to launch a unique guns-for-butter assistance project in Cambodia to help the war-torn Southeast Asian country ensure internal security and promote economic development, especially of the poorer rural areas.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2000

A message of peace ignored

Pope John Paul II, the most traveled pontiff in history, continues his efforts to bridge the gap between faiths. It is, many admit, an almost impossible mission. As he embarked on his most recent trip, for example, violence between Muslims and Christians exploded in Nigeria. Yet the worsening religious...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Toyota to purchase 5% stake in Yamaha's motorcycle unit

In a bid to improve cooperation in the development of engines, Toyota Motor Corp. will soon purchase from Yamaha Corp. an equity stake of about 5 percent in motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor Co.
COMMUNITY
Mar 7, 2000

Town makes returns on back of boomerang boom

TOKAMACHI, Niigata Pref. -- Uninformed visitors to Tokamachi might be forgiven for thinking the small, central Niigata Prefecture city has a problem with UFOs.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Draft legislation would put a ban on human cloning

The Science and Technology Agency has compiled an outline of planned legislation that would ban human cloning and impose prison terms on violators, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Looser restrictions on foreigners eyed

Japan is planning a major shift in its stringent immigration policy that would accept foreign workers in substantially wider areas, including agriculture and nursing care services, it was learned Monday.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 7, 2000

J. League boss Kawabuchi defends format of two-stage championship

The chairman of the J. League, Saburo Kawabuchi, believes last season's dramatic penalty shootout between Jubilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse has increased the "worldwide appeal" of Japanese soccer.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Family spending drops for fifth straight month

Japan's household spending dropped an inflation-adjusted 3.2 percent in January from a year earlier for the fifth monthly decline in a row, the Management and Coordination Agency said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Five life insurers outsource asset management to cut costs

Five Japanese life insurance companies will have a common asset management administration system in place by the end of fiscal 2001, company sources said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2000

E-nough of this e-mania

E-commerce fever has spread from the United States to Europe and Japan. New e-commerce companies are mushrooming everywhere and new issues are snapped up even if there is no prospect of profits for years. Young men and women with a bright e-commerce idea become millionaires overnight. The feverish demand...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Historical accuracy vs. public good

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. -- Celebrated Japanese novelist Yasushi Inoue once wrote: "Whatever the circumstances, the beauty of (Kanazawa's) castle walls should always be preserved."
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Shoplifting stains welcome mat

FUSHIKI MINATO, Toyama Pref. -- While the Fushiki Chamber of Commerce has stepped up efforts in recent years to improve relations with Russian visitors, a number of thefts in the town have left some residents wondering if cars, and the ruble, would be better left as rubble.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Puppets seen through the bars

THE FUNERAL OF A GIRAFFE and Other Stories, by Tomioka Taeko. Translated by Kyoko Selden and Mizuta Noriko. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 182 pp., $21.95. Originally a poet, Taeko Tomioka turned to fiction later in her career, after the breakup of a long-term relationship and a return to her native Osaka....
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Tradescape.com enters Japan

In a move that could take the nation's online trading boom to another level, U.S. electronic trading broker Tradescape.com will join with Softbank Finance Corp. to launch Japan's first electronic communications network for securities trading as early as this summer.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Pyongyang abductees' kin hold sit-in

About 50 relatives and supporters of Japanese believed to have been abducted by Pyongyang agents and taken to North Korea staged a sit-in Monday in front of the Foreign Ministry to protest the government's plan to resume food aid to the Stalinist state.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Market ready to take off

The key Nikkei average is hovering around 20,000, shrugging off worries about corporate sales to unwind cross-shareholding ties.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Wanderlust and a pair of steel wheels

MOTORCYCLE VAGABONDING IN JAPAN, by Guy De La Rupelle, contributions by Owen Stinger. North Conway, New Hampshire, U.S.: Whitehorse Press, 1999; 255 pp., $19.95. With city centers in permanent gridlock and the availability of train and bus service decreasing in direct proportion to the distance from...
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Arabian Oil set to reduce Japan workforce by 45%

Arabian Oil Co., Japan's largest oil producer, announced Monday that it will cut its Japanese workforce by 45 percent as part of its operational restructuring efforts following the loss of oil drilling concessions in Saudi Arabia.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2000

Beers, cheers and sneers -- Guitar Wolf will eat you alive

Beer. Beer. Beer. And some more beer. The world of Guitar Wolf is an ocean of beer, and if there are any islands of sobriety they are small and infrequent and the chances of coming across one are slim indeed.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Child law review must consider victims

Another ingredient has been added to the ongoing debate over revising the Juvenile Law, with crime victims' families clamoring for their right to information and for an end to unfair investigations.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Colorful slivers of daily life in Thailand

GULFS OF THAILAND: A Collection of Short Stories, by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 1999, 136 pp. (paper). This is the second collection of Thai stories by Michael Smithies. The first, "Bright of Bangkok," was published, also by Silkworm Books, in 1993. Smithies has spent many...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Ruble's demise dents used-car trade

TAKAOKA, Toyama Pref. -- The significance of this month's presidential elections in Russia and their effect on the ruble's value are not lost on Kaneo Sato.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2000

Aiming at a million

It had to happen. The slick but savvy TV quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?," which first took Britain by storm and then went on to conquer America, is poised to invade Japan. Fuji Television announced last month that it will begin airing a tailored-for-Japan version of the show -- to be called...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

U.S. left its mark on Japanese education

HONOLULU -- Japanese-U.S. cultural relations are filled with ironies. Perhaps the greatest is that many of the thousands of foreigners hired by the Japanese government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) are far better known in Japan than they are in their own countries. A second fascinating irony is that...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

High time Japan said 'No'

More than a decade ago, the current governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, and the late Sony Chairman Akio Morita wrote a best-seller urging their fellow Japanese to just say "No" to the Americans. This was in the context of a wide-ranging trade dispute in which the U.S. was pressuring Japan to curb its...

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