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BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

Get a grip, brokers -- this is only a first step

The introduction in October of the much-touted U.S. 401(k)-style corporate pension system in Japan will have little impact until individual investors feel more confident about the regulatory environment and the economy, said Brian Murdoch, president and CEO of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

Foreign investors maintain selling spree

Foreign investors remained net sellers of Japanese stocks for the third straight week last week.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2001

Learning the lessons hidden in victory

It was a stunning night for Labour June 7. British political geography has been permanently transformed. Yet learning the lessons of defeat is comparatively easy. British Conservatives are already starting to learn those lessons.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Environment team wins Cabinet OK

Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday won Cabinet endorsement for a team to combat global warming, including a new vice ministerial post to strengthen negotiating power in international climate-change talks.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

LDP group urges retraction

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers dealing with agricultural trade issues adopted a resolution Friday urging the government to persuade China to retract its punitive import tariffs on Japanese products.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

State approves Kanagawa tax regime

The state will approve a new taxation system by the Kanagawa Prefectural Government that targets companies enjoying tax exemptions due to cumulative deficits despite being profitable on a yearly basis, the home affairs ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

State panel to review support for A-bomb survivors

Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Friday he plans to set up a panel of legal, health and welfare experts to consider revising the law on support for survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

Top LDP panel gives nod to reform plan

The Executive Council of the Liberal Democratic Party approved the government's reform program Friday, party officials said.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

Exports by Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda fall; Toyota, Mazda buck trend

Three of Japan's five major automakers reported declines in exports last month of between 30 percent and 50 percent from a year earlier, partly due to their move to increase overseas production, according to data released Friday.
JAPAN / OF SOUND MIND
Jun 23, 2001

Crime suspects' mental state rarely checked deeply

Whenever people with psychological problems are arrested for brutal crimes, public attention focuses on whether they can be held criminally liable.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Hiranuma says China broke rules

Beijing's decision to impose 100 percent special duties on three products imported from Japan is against bilateral and multilateral trade rules, trade chief Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Task force OKs overhaul of 157 public corporations

A state task force on Friday approved a plan calling for the thorough review of 157 government-affiliated corporations in an attempt to save 1 trillion yen in government expenditures.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2001

Demobilize the children

About 800,000 children are being forced to serve as soldiers worldwide, reports the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. This is shameful. The use of child soldiers must stop. All governments should end the recruitment of children into their armed forces. Then their demands for opposition forces...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 23, 2001

Buffaloes' GM suspended by PL in sign-stealing case

The Pacific League on Thursday slapped harsh punishments on the Kintetsu Buffaloes in a suspicious case of sign stealing during Wednesday's game against the Seibu Lions. The PL suspended Kintetsu general manager Isami Okamoto for seven days and team scorer Eiji Yoda for 30 days from their jobs for violating...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Report urges capture of insulator CFCs

A system is urgently needed to prevent ozone-depleting gases contained in insulation material being released into the atmosphere, the Environment Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Chongryon head wants to reach youth, offers olive branch to Mindan

The new head of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), a pro-Pyongyang group, says the association sees the need to adapt to the demands of the younger generation and is ready to promote exchanges with the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan).
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Police forced school slaying suspect to write letter of contrition: lawyer

OSAKA — Mamoru Takuma, who was arrested in the June 8 slaying of eight schoolchildren in Osaka Prefecture, has written an apology letter but was pressured into doing so by police, his lawyer claimed Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2001

Diet enacts pension-benefits law

The Diet passed into law Friday a new defined-contribution pension bill that will go into effect Oct. 1, introducing a scheme modeled on the U.S. 401(k) plan, the benefits of which hinge on the performance of investments.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Judges may get say in fate of mentally ill

Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Friday he is considering legislation that would require judicial authorities to determine whether institutionalization is necessary for psychiatric patients who commit crimes.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

JAL near-collision report released

A near-collision involving two Japan Airlines planes on Jan. 31 was caused by a combination of communication mixups and maneuvering that contradicted orders from an automatic warning system, an investigative committee concluded Friday in an interim report.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2001

Bogus deliverymen in home shooting

Two men posing as parcel deliverymen shot and seriously wounded a 75-year-old man at his home Friday in Musashimurayama, western Tokyo, police said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 23, 2001

Blame diets for plummeting population

Today we address the problem of Japan's declining student population. If you teach at a university like I do, you are well aware that classes have gotten smaller and smaller over the years. At the women's university where I teach, the classes are half the size they were five years ago.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic