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JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

10 trillion yen stimulus eyed

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will call for an additional economic stimulus package of more than 10 trillion yen after the Diet approves the fiscal 1998 state budget in April, top officials of the LDP have indicated.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Kitora chamber reveals ancient planisphere

KASHIHARA, Nara Pref. -- A planisphere carved into a stone chamber inside a 1,300-year-old tumulus in the village of Asuka shows such important constellations as Ursa Major, Orion and Scorpio, an expert has found.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1998

PKO force commanders may get OK to order defensive fire

A 1991 Diet remark by then Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu may be standing in the way of a looser law that would allow military commanders to order defensive fire while engaged in U.N. peacekeeping operations.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1998

Bureaucrats applying brakes threaten freedom of info act

Last in a series
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Camera enters Kitora burial mound to glimpse elusive art

ASUKA, Nara Pref. -- Using a tiny, high-resolution camera, archaeologists on Thursday began examining the interior of the 1,300-year-old Kitora burial mound for the first time in 15 years, hoping to get clear images of mural paintings inside the stone tomb.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Local efforts serving as wedge for disclosure

Second in a series
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

Bill approved to grant groups corporate status

The Upper House Committee on Labor and Social Policies unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would, for the first time, give corporate status to volunteer groups and other citizens' groups by recognizing them as official nonprofit organizations.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 1998

Aum cult member gets 10 years for murder, abduction

The Tokyo District Court sentenced Aum Shinrikyo follower Makoto Goto to 10 years in prison Thursday for his involvement in the 1994 lynching of another cultist and the 1994 abduction of an innkeeper in Miyazaki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 1998

Tokyo backs last-minute deal with Iraq

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto implied Monday that the U.S. should accept the deal struck between Baghdad and the United Nations and not launch attacks against Iraq over its refusal to grant U.N. arms inspectors access to sites suspected of housing weapons of mass destruction.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 1998

Limits on stock trading by lawmakers urged

Several members of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's Cabinet and leaders of his Liberal Democratic Party suggested Friday that tighter controls should be imposed on stock trading by Diet members, while others voiced opposition to the idea.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 1998

Compromise reached with Aum over Sakamoto slaying suit

Four relatives of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, who was allegedly murdered with his wife and son by members of Aum Shinrikyo, have opted for a compromise with the cult in their 490 million yen damages suit now being deliberated by the Yokohama District Court, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 1998

Hashimoto wished Arai had cleared his name

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said Thursday evening that he had wanted lawmaker Shokei Arai, found hanged at a Tokyo hotel earlier in the day, to clear himself of suspicion of wrongdoing in court rather than take his own life.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 1998

Chief insurer distances nonlife sector from recent scandals

BR>The head of the nonlife insurance industry on Thursday tried to distance his field from the nation's banking scandal, saying nonlife insurance firms do not excessively wine and dine Finance Ministry officials.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 1998

LDP lawmaker commits suicide before imminent arrest

Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shokei Arai, who was about to be arrested for allegedly earning 29 million yen in illicit profits from Nikko Securities Co., hanged himself in a Tokyo hotel room Thursday, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 1998

Japan supports Annan's trip to Baghdad

Japan welcomes the planned visit by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to Baghdad on Friday to seek a diplomatic solution to the confrontation over Iraq's refusal to allow the U.N. to inspect its suspected weapons sites, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 1998

GOLD: Japan's ski jumpers sail away to Olympic record

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 16, 1998

Diet passes bills for publicly funded bank-bailing measures

The government of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto breathed a sigh of relief Monday after the House of Councilors approved two bills for stabilizing the financial system.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1998

Japan to fund Cambodian election with $4 million

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1998

Founding Day rekindles annual debate

Citizens' groups gathered Wednesday to protest or express support for National Founding Day, the most controversial of Japan's annual holidays.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1998

New Canadian ambassador sees expanded role for APEC

The role of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum can be expanded to deal with social and economic matters stemming from financial crises in Asia, Leonard Edwards, Canada's new ambassador to Japan, said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1998

Red Army numbers still growing, prisoners say

The political wing of the Red Army guerrilla organization has grown "very strong, bigger than before," according to four imprisoned members of the group in a recent interview in Beirut.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

Takashimaya section chief sold customer data for 500,000 yen

OSAKA -- A section chief of Takashimaya Co., Ltd., a leading department store chain operator, sold data on about 500,000 customers in July 1995 to a mail list dealer in Tokyo for 500,000 yen, company sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 1998

British torch bearer to show world land mines' cruelty

Staff writer
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

UPS counts on Olympics to help build Japanese presence

Advertisers spend millions creating it, marketing researchers spend months trying to perfect it and companies spend years living up to it.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 1998

USA Today going forward with paper and without

Is the deluge of Internet information having a negative impact on the newspaper business?
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1998

Hashimoto apologizes over Finance scandal

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto apologized to the public Thursday for the bribery scandal involving Finance Ministry bank inspectors and vowed to root out corruption in the bureaucracy and prevent its recurrence."We offer our deepest apology (to the public for the affair)," Hashimoto said during an...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 1998

Specify priority ODA sectors, panel tells Obuchi

The nation needs to specify priority sectors in extending official development assistance because its resources are under restraint due to tight fiscal policy, according to a final report released Tuesday by a 10-member private consulting body to Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi."Japan's ODA has been well...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1998

DPJ seeks to use gender-based quotas in fielding candidates

The Democratic Party of Japan, the nation's largest opposition party, announced Monday it plans to introduce a gender-based quota system for selecting candidates for national and local elections."It is the first time for a political party to introduce the system in this country, where it is widely known...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 1998

Teikyo rugby players held in gang rape

Five members of Teikyo University's rugby team were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of raping a woman in a karaoke booth in Tokyo's Chuo Ward last November, police said.About 10 team members and others were present when the alleged rape took place, and investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 1998

Hashimoto gets testy over calls to resign

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto told a Diet committee Monday that he would resign as prime minister immediately if it would help change the gloomy economic climate hanging over the nation."But things are not that easy," Hashimoto said angrily, in reply to a demand from an opposition lawmaker that Hashimoto...

Longform

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