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JAPAN
Nov 9, 1998

BT slates start of corporate telecom services

BT Communications Services Inc., an affiliate of British Telecommunications PLC, will launch new international services for corporate users beginning in February, officials of the BT group announced on Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1998

International groups to hold joint job forum in Tokyo

Fifteen international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Trade Organization will hold a special forum in Tokyo on Nov. 10 to inform job-seekers of recruitment opportunities.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1998

LDP, New Komeito strike deal on coupons

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito reached a final agreement Tuesday to distribute on a limited basis merchandise coupons worth about 700 billion yen.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1998

Obuchi at odds with Keidanren over APEC stance

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed his Cabinet members Tuesday to maintain Japan's opposition to early market-opening of forestry and fishery products during upcoming meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Malaysia.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1998

Annual Kyoto Prizes awarded

KYOTO -- A Swiss scientist, a Japanese mathematician, and an American artist were awarded the 1998 Kyoto Prizes Tuesday at a special ceremony in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

Government nationalizes Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan

The government placed the troubled Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan under state control Friday after the bank reported it may have to suspend repayments of deposits and other obligations.A report released by the Financial Supervisory Agency on the same day said the LTCB is insolvent, with liabilities...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1998

NTT to pay 5,000 yen share bonus; DoCoMo debuts

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. will offer a special dividend of 5,000 yen per share next year in addition to a regular dividend of 2,500 yen after profits made from releasing a part of its shares of NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., the carrier announced Thursday.NTT had held 95 percent...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Sickly students schooled in food, exercise in Izu

ITO, Shizuoka Pref. -- On a recent sunny Sunday morning, loud cheers filled a school playground, encouraging elementary students as they ran toward the finish line of a 1-km race."I made it!" a 10-year-old boy cried just after crossing the line. "My shoes almost came off when I was running, but I finished!"...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Small firms get tips on coping with credit crunch

Managers from about 250 small and medium-size companies based in Tokyo gathered Monday for advice on coping with the worsening credit crunch.The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce hosted the seminar as many smaller firms are finding it difficult to obtain loans from Japanese financial institutions. Participants...
JAPAN
Oct 14, 1998

DPJ's Ikeda calls new bill 'opaque,' counterproductive

Staff writer The banking sector crisis will continue because of the "opaque" bank recapitalization bill, Motohisa Ikeda, a key member of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Wednesday. The bill, expected to be enacted Friday, will not enable accurate assessment of bank assets, sufficient injection of...
JAPAN
Oct 14, 1998

Push banks to accept public funds, council urges

The government should take the initiative to quickly inject tens of trillions of yen in public money into the nation's major banks to boost their capital bases and ease the credit crunch, a special advisory panel to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi proposed Wednesday.The Strategic Economic Council, headed...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1998

Bank bill clears Lower House; enactment seen Friday

The new bank recapitalization bill designed to keep capital-short banks afloat cleared the Lower House Tuesday and was immediately sent to the Upper House, which is expected to enact the measure Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1998

Crime soars to postwar record

The number of reported Penal Code violations in 1997 hit another postwar record of 2.518 million, up some 52,600 from the year before, according to an annual government report on crime released Tuesday.The 1998 crime white paper, which includes an overview of last year's general criminal trends and...
JAPAN
Oct 12, 1998

Upper House enacts finance resuscitation laws

The Diet enacted financial reform laws Monday afternoon that mandate creation of a "financial resuscitation committee" to handle failed and failing banks as well as a public institution to buy bad loans from them.The government and Liberal Democratic Party now turn their attention to a bank recapitalization...
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

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...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Lower House stamps reforms in 'epoch-making' action

After weeks of intense negotiations between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition camp, key financial reform bills designed to fix Japan's banking sector woes cleared the Lower House Friday evening.The bills were sent immediately to the Upper House and could become law as early as next Friday.After...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1998

Latest bank-bailing strategy may focus on capital ratios

The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have outlined a new plan to inject public funds into ailing banks to replace the bank-recapitalization law that will be scrapped, government and LDP officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 1998

North Korea launch was aimed at U.S. negotiators, expert claims

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1998

LDP offers to dump public funds use laws

In an attempt to strike a deal with the opposition camp, the Liberal Democratic Party offered Monday to scrap two financial stabilization laws that allow the injection of public funds into troubled banks.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1998

Highway card firm asks for dismissal of lawsuit

OSAKA -- K.S. Planning Co., a distributor of prepaid highway toll cards, asked the court Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a toll card manufacturer over an unpaid debt, saying it had been fooled into a contract by one of its executives.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 1998

Too much, too little, too late?

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed his Cabinet ministers Friday to work out measures that will double people's living, business and recreational space within five years, and create some 500,000 new jobs through economic structural reform within the next two years.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1998

First international charter in 20 years to leave Haneda

A chartered All Nippon Airways jetliner will depart Tokyo's Haneda airport today for Hawaii, becoming the first international chartered flight to depart from the airport in 20 years.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1998

Compromise sounds heard from LDP

The Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition camp continued negotiations Thursday over financial system stabilization bills, with the LDP showing signs it may compromise further.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1998

JNR debt-sharing proposal gains support

A plan to allocate the debt left behind by the former Japanese National Railways among the seven JR group companies received backing by economic experts during a Lower House committee meeting Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 1998

Miyazawa denies U.S. asked for hike in bank-bailing funds

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Monday denied media reports that the United States has asked Japan to increase the amount of public money it has set aside to aid troubled financial institutions.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 1998

Kurosawa to receive special award

Film director Akira Kurosawa, who died Sunday, will posthumously receive the People's Honor Award in recognition of his lifetime work, the top government spokesman said Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 1998

Opposition finance bills set stage for showdown

Three opposition parties on Thursday submitted their prescription for the nation's ailing financial system, setting the stage for a showdown with the LDP.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 1998

DPJ demands disclosure as LTCB stance softens

Top opposition leader Naoto Kan hinted Wednesday that his Democratic Party of Japan may accept the planned injection of public money for the ailing Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan under certain conditions, such as full disclosure of the bank's management information and clarification of the responsibility...
JAPAN
Sep 2, 1998

Telephone boasts e-mail, Internet functions

Sharp Corp. on Wednesday unveiled a multimedia phone that boasts e-mail and Internet browsing functions in addition to standard telephone and fax functions.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past