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BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

DPJ submits bill to rein in 'daily usurers'

The Democratic Party of Japan on Thursday submitted to the Lower House a bill to regulate moneylending businesses being run by so-called "daily usurers."
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

Nissan ready to launch first hybrid vehicle

Nissan Motor Co. will launch its first hybrid car, the Tino Hybrid wagon, for limited sales next month on a first-come first-served basis, the automaker said Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2000

Entry to be made easier for legal foreign workers

Japan will aim to promote smoother acceptance of legal foreign workers, while at the same time taking stronger measures to weed out illegal aliens, according to a revised edition of the Basic Plan for Immigration Control to be released today by the Justice Ministry.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2000

Diet holdout Tomobe gets 10-year sentence for fraud

Independent Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for swindling 35 people out of about 665 million yen between 1994 and 1996 in a scam involving his Orange Kyosai bogus mutual aid scheme.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 24, 2000

Teacher takes a radical route to nurturing the shamisen

Some Westerners might be surprised to learn to what extent Japanese people have little or no interest in traditional Japanese music. Many young people simply prefer to listen to contemporary pop music, but it is also not uncommon to come across those who are not even sure what traditional Japanese music...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2000

Election aftershocks rocking Taiwan

TAIPEI -- Taiwan continues to feel the aftershocks of the political earthquake that hit last Saturday, when Democratic Progressive Party leader Chen Shui-bian's presidential victory rocked the foundations of party politics on an island that has been ruled by the same party for more than half a century....
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2000

Police resisting vital reform

The Japanese police have long enjoyed a high reputation both at home and abroad, due partly to their efficiency in apprehending criminals. Today, however, the Japanese police system is suffering from a breakdown of ethics, caused in part by its insular nature.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 23, 2000

2002 World Cup tickets on the pricey side

JAWOC, the Japanese organizing committee for the 2002 World Cup of soccer, said Wednesday that top-priced tickets for the final in Yokohama will go on sale in Japan for as much as 85,000 yen each, while overseas fans will have to pay up to $750.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

11 of 47 police chiefs say NPA let officer off lightly

The heads of 11 of Japan's 47 prefectural police commissions believe the National Police Agency should have punished a top police official in connection with a scandal that rocked the Niigata Prefectural Police in late January, according to a Kyodo News survey released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Domestic slump cuts Brazil's chances of gaining funds

Brazil is turning to Japan to raise badly needed funds for a new four-year development program that is expected to go into effect this year.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Keidanren urges Asia to back yen

Japan must enlist the support of Asian governments and private sectors to promote the yen as an international currency, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) said in a recommendation Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Economic doomsayers are off the mark

The government's projection for Japanese economic growth is 0.6 percent for fiscal 1999 and 1 percent for fiscal 2000. Both are based on unrealistic assumptions about the present and future state of the economy. The projection appears to have been verified by the negative GDP growth recorded in the last...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Pension bills approved by Upper House

A package of bills designed to save the nation's financially strapped pension system cleared the Upper House on Wednesday, paving the way for the introduction of new pension measures in April.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

No more Indian idealism

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's weeklong tour of South Asia has caused an outbreak of Clinton-mania in the region, generating bloated expectations. In the Indian cities on his itinerary, streets have been cleaned, signposts washed or repainted, and tree branches cut back. The Great White Messiah...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Aid mission set to go to El Salvador

Japan promised El Salvador on Wednesday that it will dispatch a fact-finding mission to determine projects suitable for the extension of yen-denominated loans, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Tobacco-curbing target up in smoke

Up in smoke -- that is the simplest way to describe the fate of an ambitious Health and Welfare Ministry plan to drastically cut the number of smokers as well as overall tobacco consumption in Japan by 2010.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Beijing all bark and no bite? Think again

Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are palpable after China did its best to intimidate Taiwanese voters in the runup to last weekend's election. First, the Cabinet released a white paper that drew an unmistakable line -- thickened with a new condition -- regarding the limits of acceptable Taiwanese behavior...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Department stores need after-sales service

Department stores have been facing intensifying harsh conditions caused by weak consumer spending, mounting bad debts stem- ming from the bubble economy, and marketing offensives by supermarkets and discount stores.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Prosecutors indict Cresvale executive over bogus securities

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday indicted a former executive of Cresvale International Ltd. on charges of selling customers securities that turned out to be irredeemable, prosecutors said.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 23, 2000

Troussier: Will he stay or will he go?

It wasn't the greatest 0-0 draw in the world but last Wednesday's game in Kobe meant more to Japan and Japanese soccer fans than such exercises in futility as the nine-goal win over Brunei in the Asian Cup qualifiers last month.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

DaimlerChrysler to acquire controlling stake in MMC

DaimlerChrysler AG, the world's fifth-largest automaker, has agreed with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to take a controlling stake in the Japanese automaker, MMC sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Talks on NTT fees extended

Japan and the United States decided Wednesday to extend by one day their high-level deregulation talks in an effort to bridge gaps over the degree by which the interconnection fees Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. charges its competitors should be reduced, Japanese officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Monju ruling infuriates plaintiffs

OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists expressed shock and outrage Wednesday over the Fukui District Court's ruling against local residents' efforts to permanently close the Monju fast-breeder reactor, and both plaintiffs and their lawyers vowed their nearly 15-year battle was not over.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Local autonomy put to the test by new nursing care program

SENDAI -- The public nursing care insurance system, due to go into operation next month, is the first real test of local autonomy and its success depends on the performance of each municipality, according to Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Asia must speed up structural reform, panel of experts says

Asian economies, particularly Japan, must immediately implement necessary structural reforms to strengthen the nascent recovery in the region, an international panel of academic, political and business leaders warned Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2000

Scrutinize the 'sympathy budget'

Washington's request that Japan maintain its "sympathy budget," or special host-nation financial support for the U.S. forces stationed here, has drawn a cool reception from the Japanese government and the media. During his visit here last week, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen repeated that request...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?