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JAPAN
Jan 31, 2001

Scope of embezzlement probe widens

Tokyo police investigating the alleged embezzlement of government VIP travel funds broadened their inquiry and questioned a senior Foreign Ministry official who was once based at the Cabinet secretariat and involved in the fund's operation, sources close to the investigation said.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2001

Dead hero's dad slams sale of beer at train stations

The bereaved family of South Korean student Lee Su Hyon left Japan with his ashes Tuesday, as the 26-year-old's fatal attempt to save another man's life continued to reverberate across both countries.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2001

The view from Davos

The pompous and the powerful are wrapping up their annual get-together in Davos, the Swiss alpine village made famous in recent years by the World Economic Forum. This year, there were as many police and security officials as attendees, an indication of the real dangers that threaten the global economy....
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Funeral rites held for men killed in failed station rescue

Funeral rites were held for two men who were killed by a train Friday night when trying to rescue a drunken man who had fallen off the platform onto the tracks at JR Shin-Okubo Station on Tokyo's Yamanote Line.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Ajinomoto to dissolve investment unit in Singapore

Ajinomoto Co. said Monday it will dissolve A.I.F. Investment Pte. Ltd., its wholly owned Singaporean subsidiary, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / TAKING STOCK
Jan 30, 2001

Stocks' correction may be near an end

Tokyo stock prices are likely to stay weak and stage only moderate, occasional rallies, amid concerns that the U.S economy could be facing a possible hard landing and amid uncertainty surrounding the domestic economy and corporate earnings.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Kamei pressured to testify on KSD

Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, demanded on Monday that Liberal Democratic Party executive Shizuka Kamei testify in the Diet on his suspected link to scandal-hit mutual aid foundation KSD.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Japan more spacious, crowded

Japan's landmass continued to expand in 2000, a trend that began decades ago with the advent of reclamation projects.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Ishihara keeps Yokota return hopes alive

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, recently heard boasting of having personal connections to the newly empowered Republicans in Washington, appears energized toward achieving his campaign pledge of getting Yokota Air Base back from U.S. control.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

BOJ refuses to further ease monetary policy

Despite calls from politicians for the Bank of Japan to further ease its grip on monetary policy, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami reiterated Monday morning that the central bank will continue its present easy monetary stance and remain vigilant to downward pressures on the economy.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Mycal to unload health club stake

OSAKA -- Mycal Corp. supermarket chain and game software developer Konami Co. said Monday they have agreed on the sale of a majority stake in People Co., a major health club chain belonging to the Mycal group, by late February.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Red Army fugitives' families seek visas to Japan

A group that supports the families of Red Army Faction fugitives who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet in 1970 and ordered it flown to North Korea has released to the media photos taken in December of five of the hijackers' relatives in Pyongyang.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Gifu, Yamagata retain incumbents

Yamagata Gov. Kazuo Takahashi won his third four-year term Sunday, while Gifu Gov. Taku Kajiwara won his fourth.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Matsuo fund scam puts accountants in spotlight

Police investigators reckon that a former senior Foreign Ministry official who allegedly embezzled hundreds of millions of yen from the government's VIP travel expense fund may have taken advantage of the lack of scrutiny by official accountants, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Japan sends medical team to aid India's quake victims

The Japanese government decided Monday to dispatch a medical team to India to provide emergency aid to victims of last week's earthquake, the Foreign Ministry said.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

NEC in chip deal with U.S. firms

NEC Corp. said Monday it has agreed with three U.S. semiconductor manufacturers to jointly develop Quad Data Rate static random access memories, high-speed memory chips for network equipment.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2001

Otaku loose in a noirish world

Dark future movies are, by now, as established an SF subgenre as creature features or space operas. Their world view is usually a cross between an Orwellian nightmare and a Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show: grim, oppressive and dangerous but sexy, radical and cool. In other words, you wouldn't mind visiting,...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Expressway tollgates to go cashless

The so-called Electric Toll Collection system will begin full-scale operation on March 30 at 600 expressway gates in Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Okinawa prefectures, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry announced Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Embezzling intolerable: Hashimoto

Administrative reform minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Monday voiced regret over the alleged embezzlement of diplomacy funds by a former senior official at the Foreign Ministry, saying such wrongdoing should not be tolerated.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

People facing retirement seen increasingly looking overseas

More middle-aged and elderly Japanese are going abroad for long stays or permanent residence to seek a new life after mandatory or early retirement.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Mayors want end to night landing exercises

Mayors of cities hosting military bases where the U.S. Navy practices night landings gathered Monday in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, and agreed that they will jointly call for an end to the exercises on mainland Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Tokyo's panda to mate in Mexico

Ling Ling, a 15-year-old giant panda who left its home in a Tokyo zoo on Monday, will spend three months in a famed Mexico City zoo in the hope of a successful mating, zoo officials said.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 30, 2001

Anna set to sparkle at Toray Pan Pacific

Now that the Super Bowl is over, are you ready for some tennis?
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Indefinite term upheld for man, 20, in '99 killing

The Tokyo High Court on Monday upheld a lower court-imposed indefinite prison term handed to a 20-year-old man for his role in the strangling of a 19-year-old male in Tochigi Prefecture in 1999.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Differences arise over bank reform

Financial Services Agency Commissioner Shoji Mori on Monday appeared to contradict LDP policymaker Shizuka Kamei, who one day earlier declared that another postponement of the limited deposit protection may become necessary.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Universal Studios theme park opening to coincide with start of spring break

OSAKA -- Universal Studios Japan, a theme park under construction on Osaka's waterfront, will open March 31, USJ Co. President Akira Sakata announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Foreign firms to get i-mode, PlayStation

NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Monday that they and six foreign companies will jointly develop new mobile communications network services that combine DoCoMo's i-mode technology with SCEI's PlayStation video game technology.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2001

Industrial activity on the decline

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry downgraded its assessment of the nation's industrial activity Monday for the first time since September 1998, despite modest growth seen in the October-December quarter.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb