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JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

January account surplus jumps 72%

The nation's current account surplus in January soared 72.2 percent from a year earlier to 807.5 billion yen, the largest for January, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Doctors recommended halting transplants

OSAKA -- The nation's first organ transplants from a legally established brain-dead donor about two weeks ago were conducted strictly on the wishes of the donor and the donor's family, doctors who treated the donor said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Chiyoda, UNUM strengthen ties

Midsize insurer Chiyoda Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Maine-based disability insurance firm UNUM Corp. will strengthen business ties hoping to jointly develop and market products, the firms' officials announced Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Fukaya to keep Tokyo seat, give up by-election run

Takashi Fukaya, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's decision-making Executive Council, formally declared Monday he will not run in a House of Representatives by-election in Tokyo slated for April 11.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Spring wage hike likely lower for electronics sector

The average increase in monthly pay for workers at Japan's 17 major electronics makers resulting from this spring's wage negotiations is likely to fall below 7,000 yen, labor union sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

Transport team to explain new fuel rules to EU, U.S.

The Ministry of Transport plans to dispatch officials to the European Union and the United States later this month to explain Japan's new fuel-efficiency standards on automobiles, Vice Transport Minister Masahiko Kurono said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 1999

MITI readies pollutant tracking bill

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 1999

Safety regulations must be enforced

Pedestrians on Tokyo's sidewalks could only welcome the report last week that the Metropolitan Police Department intends to crack down on bicycle riders who violate traffic regulations. Thirteen accidents in which cyclists were killed were registered in the capital as of the end of February, an increase...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 1999

Is shorter always sweeter?

The U.S. publisher Viking recently hit on a bright idea. Biographies, always reliable sellers, were nevertheless getting too long, they thought. Lives of even minor luminaries were routinely checking in at 800 or more pages, sometimes in multiple volumes; there was no such thing as an incident trivial...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Mar 13, 1999

Eclectic pottery expands margins

Jun Kawaguchi is one of the funkiest, coolest ceramic artists I've ever met. The first time I met him I was taken aback, to say the least, by his short, spiked hair, green velvet jacket, and a pair of slacks with cartoon designs that looked like the Joker -- not your typical shibui Japanese potter.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 1999

Keeping the U.S. honest

LONDON -- Americans...Don't you just love to hate them? They preach to you about the virtues of an open trading system and then they slap a bizarre set of sanctions on trade rivals before the World Trade Organization makes its report. They lecture the world about the virtues of the rule of law and when...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 1999

Put an Irish spring in your step

KYOTO -- Need to beat those hum-drum blues? Get some spring back in your step with some great Irish dance music by Kesh Band, which kicks off its 10-day St. Patrick's week tour tonight in Kobe.
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 1999

LDP strategy hits and misses

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka, the government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are pursuing a political strategy for 1999 with these objectives:
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 1999

GOP backs off as taxpayers' champions

The Republican Party may be the majority political party, in control of Congress and the vast majority of state governorships. But U.S. President Bill Clinton controls U.S.' political agenda.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 1999

To cure Asia's ills, get the diagnosis right

On a recent whirlwind tour of Asian capitals, peripatetic U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers offered some advice on how to cure the region's economic ills. Despite his stature as an economist, he sounded more like a politician spouting protectionist platitudes. Implicit in his commentary was...
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Experts disagree on bank recapitalization impact

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Osaka resolution would let minorities vote, run for office

OSAKA -- The Osaka Prefectural Assembly adopted a resolution early Friday urging the central government to grant long-term foreign residents in the country the right to run and vote in local elections.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Soil pollution found at 39 of 44 sites

Local governments found pollution levels exceeded national soil pollution standards at 39 of 44 sites surveyed in 1997, according to an annual survey released Friday by the Environment Agency.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Diet finally takes up defense guidelines

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Friday renewed calls for "quick and smooth" passage of bills covering defense cooperation with the United States, as the Diet finally began deliberating the long-simmering issue.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Duckbilled Nozomi makes debut

With its duckbill-shaped nose, the new 700-series Nozomi (Hope) bullet train debuts on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen lines today, linking Tokyo with Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, in four hours and 57 minutes.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Teacher held in bomb attempt on principal

Police arrested a 42-year-old high school teacher Friday after he broke into Tokyo Metropolitan Mita Senior High School and placed an explosive on the principal's desk.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

GDP contracted 0.8% in third quarter

The nation's economy shrank at an annualized rate of 3.2 percent in real terms during the October-December quarter of 1998, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction, the Economic Planning Agency announced Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

The Asahara Trial: Ex-cultist didn't hate murder victim

A former Aum Shinrikyo follower convicted in 1996 of killing a fellow cultist testified Friday at the Tokyo District Court that he felt no anger or hatred toward his victim, though cult leader Shoko Asahara tried to induce those feelings in him.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

FRC approves 7.46 trillion yen bank infusion

The Financial Reconstruction Commission formally decided Friday afternoon to inject 7.46 trillion yen in public funds into 15 major banks to boost their capital bases.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Slovak ambassador praises yen loans

The new ambassador of the Slovak Republic hopes that Japan will help his country shift from a centrally planned socialist economy to a democratic, market-oriented industrial economy.
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 1999

Defensive about missile defense

China's relations with the United States are at their lowest point since the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996. Beijing has a lengthening list of grievances against Washington: harsh criticism in the State Department's annual human-rights report and the prospect of a resolution censoring Chinese behavior...
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1999

Three JR firms project falling sales for '99

Mired in gloomy economic conditions, three JR group companies projected declining sales conditions Friday for the upcoming fiscal year.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 1999

Kochi tests nation's nuclear principles

The long-standing controversy over whether U.S. warships calling at Japanese ports carry nuclear weapons is taking a new twist. The Kochi prefectural government is seeking to obtain "certificates" from the central government showing that U.S. naval vessels visiting ports in the prefecture are not nuclear-armed....
JAPAN
Mar 11, 1999

Dioxin report 'inappropriate,' TV Asahi chief tells Diet

TV Asahi President Kunio Ito apologized Thursday before the Diet for a news report aired last month that claimed high concentrations of dioxin were detected in vegetables grown in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, calling the report "inappropriate."
JAPAN
Mar 11, 1999

Defense guidelines fail to receive municipal sanction

Roughly 60 percent of the 107 municipal assemblies nationwide that have approved or adopted nonbinding statements regarding the revised Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines and related bills have called for amendments or abolition, according to results of a survey released 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