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COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 1999

Obuchi set for one more term

Following the Diet's enactment last week of a legislative package covering the updated guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation, the Lower House on Tuesday passed bills that will allow wiretapping in investigations into organized crime. The administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has thus...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

UNEP kicks off third global photo contest

The head of the U.N. Environment Program announced Friday in Tokyo the launch of the world's largest photography contest in anticipation of World Environment Day.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Three women die after train collides with car

Three women in a car were killed Friday in a car-train collision at a railroad crossing in Ichinomiya, Chiba Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

ASDF finishes probe into crashed Phantom

The October crash of an F-4 Phantom fighter that killed two Air Self-Defense Force pilots was most probably caused by the pilots' over-concentration on radar instruments or by the vertigo they suffered in midair, the ASDF said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Police shut down gangs after Tokyo-area shootings

Police ordered Japan's largest underworld organization, Yamaguchi-gumi, and Tokyo's Kokusui-kai syndicate to suspend the use of five of their offices in the wake of a series of shootings reported this week in Tokyo and neighboring areas, they said.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Foreign women who leave husbands have few options

Second of two parts
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Half of ESC reform proposals to be used, state says

About half of the 234 measures that the Economic Strategy Council, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, has proposed are likely to be carried out, according to a report released by the government Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

First Japanese-English dictionary on display

OSAKA — A rare first-edition copy of the first Japanese-English dictionary published in Japan has been on public display at the Mint Museum in Osaka since April.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Ex-LTCB execs face criminal charges

The nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan filed a criminal complaint Friday against its former top executives, accusing them of falsifying the bank's balance sheets and illegally paying dividends to shareholders without earning enough profit.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

MSDF-coast guard hotline OK'd

Cabinet ministers Friday approved government-proposed sea patrol measures that call for more communication between the nation's maritime authorities, following a failure in March to capture two suspected North Korean spy boats.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

19-year-old 'bosozoku' found slain

A man believed to be a "bosozoku" hot-rodder gang leader died Friday of wounds inflicted in an apparent attack by rivals.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Citizen-numbering system clears last obstacle

Policy affairs chiefs from the ruling coalition and New Komeito agreed Friday to work on new legislation to protect individual information, clearing the way for passage of a citizen-numbering system, party officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 1999

Both sides to blame for Sino-U.S. troubles

HONG KONG -- As the United States debates the security implications of the Cox report on Chinese spying in the U.S., and as China continues to deny the spying and to denounce the NATO attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, it is easy to lose sight of a basic reality: There is a remarkable symmetry...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Law paves way for re-creating JDB

A law to merge two quasigovernmental banks — Japan Development Bank and Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance Public Corp. — was enacted Friday, paving the way for creating a new developmental financial institution on Oct. 1.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 1999

Somewhere over the airwaves

Once upon a time, back in the '50s, there existed a "better" America, a wholesome utopia of crew cuts, unquestioning white-bread conformity and mom in the kitchen baking apple pies.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 1999

An audience with the Tokyo culture king

Moichi Kuwahara's office occupies a crumbing apartment building in Tokyo's Yutenji district. The warren of small rooms resembles an art squat -- packed full of editors, graphic designers, writers and other creative types who provide the artistic fodder for Club King, a company whose products, magazines,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 1999

Musician spreads jazz gospel

"Jazz is my religion," said Joe Lee Wilson in a ceremony last week at the Tokyo campus of the International School of the Sacred Heart, after completing a six-week music workshop with 600 students.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 1999

A new world for Japanese business

The latest earnings reports from Japanese corporations listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange provide a running commentary on their predicament. Reflecting a drawn-out recession, both sales and profits plunged in the year to March 1999 (fiscal 1998). On average, sales in all industries except financial services...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Annual international dinghy race not enough: sailors

YOKOHAMA — A recent officially supported international friendship dinghy race held off Yokohama saw nine nations represented in a crowded field of 17 vessels.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

31 reprimands issued over hospital's patient mixup

YOKOHAMA — The city of Yokohama decided Thursday to reprimand 31 people involved in a patient mixup at Yokohama City University Hospital in January that resulted in a lung patient undergoing heart surgery and a heart patient lung surgery.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Obuchi, Mahathir discuss crisis mission plans

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday Japan will send an economic research mission in August to six Asian countries hit by the region's currency crisis, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Immigrants: Foreign laborers attempt to organize

First of two parts
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Obuchi takes competition woes to industry leaders

Japan needs to promote joint projects between the government and the private sector to strengthen its industrial technology, government and business leaders agreed Thursday at a state panel on beefing up industrial competitiveness.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

G8 must remodel global monetary system: Mahathir

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad urged the United States and other economic powers Thursday to decide on a stable architecture for the international monetary system at the upcoming Group of Eight economic summit to prevent a recurrence of the financial turmoil in Asia.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Rainy season takes hold in most of Japan

The rainy season has started in most parts of Honshu as well as northern Kyushu and Shikoku, the Meteorological Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Liberals seek legislation to back recovery

Japan should concentrate over the next two years on achieving economic recovery and enact a basic law toward economic resuscitation, according to a basic policy draft adopted by the Liberal Party's executive council Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Estrada makes plea for direct investment

Philippine President Joseph Estrada reiterated Thursday his belief that the opportunity is ripe for direct foreign investment in his country now that his national reform program is well under way.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

MITI urges prudence on steel dumping charges

Osamu Watanabe, vice minister for international trade and industry, urged Washington Thursday to act prudently in judging U.S. steelmakers' dumping charges against cold-rolled steel imports from Japan and 11 other economies.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

U.N. investigator urges Japan to admit liability for sex slaves

Gay McDougall, a U.N. special investigator on human rights, has urged the government to admit its legal liability and provide compensation to Asian women forced into prostitution before and during World War II.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Austria envisions aid corridor for ethnic Albanians

Austria is considering establishing a corridor for transporting humanitarian aid supplies to ethnic Albanians remaining in Kosovo, visiting Austrian President Thomas Klestil told Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Thursday.

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