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JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

City hall restroom blast forces evacuation in Osaka

OSAKA -- Two explosions ripped through a first floor restroom in Osaka City Hall Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 employees for about an hour.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 6, 2001

Recruit to disband athletics team

The athletics team of Recruit Co., known for producing two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori, will be shut down in September as part of the company's cost-cutting effort, Recruit officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

SDF team to fly supplies to India quake sites

A Self-Defense Forces team will depart today for quake-hit areas in northwestern India to help erect tent cities, government officials said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

LDP exec rejects calls for sworn Diet testimony

The acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday rejected calls to its members testify under oath about ties to KSD, a scandal-ridden mutual-aid foundation already responsible for the downfall of three LDP legislators.
COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2001

Complacency fatal for Japan

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori recently traveled to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. He stayed there for only half a day, returning home immediately after delivering a speech.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

LDP exec rejects calls for sworn Diet testimony

The acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday rejected calls to its members testify under oath about ties to KSD, a scandal-ridden mutual-aid foundation already responsible for the downfall of three LDP legislators.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

Receipts on secret diplomacy funds may have been improperly scrapped

The prime minister's office may have scrapped receipts for expenses paid with secret Cabinet Secretariat funds that a former Foreign Ministry diplomat at the center of an embezzlement scandal received from the office, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

Receipts on secret diplomacy funds may have been improperly scrapped

The prime minister's office may have scrapped receipts for expenses paid with secret Cabinet Secretariat funds that a former Foreign Ministry diplomat at the center of an embezzlement scandal received from the office, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

Computer beginners more prone to virus attacks

Computer viruses are now reaching plague proportions, particularly among new users who are most vulnerable to a breed of virus that transmits through e-mail.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

CD-ROMs aid the visually impaired

KYOTO -- Yuko Shiomi, a professional narrator with the radio station KBS Kyoto, speaks into a microphone. Her role is that of "Kakuunsai," a fictional character depicting a distinguished calligrapher.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

CD-ROMs aid the visually impaired

KYOTO -- Yuko Shiomi, a professional narrator with the radio station KBS Kyoto, speaks into a microphone. Her role is that of "Kakuunsai," a fictional character depicting a distinguished calligrapher.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2001

Cosmic artist leaves a legacy of world harmony

Cosmic artist Sachiko Adachi knew intuitively that her art was powerful, so she went to great lengths to dispel any misunderstanding that she was playing with fire.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

LDP policy chief lobbied for KSD: bureaucrat

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, asked the Finance Ministry in November 1999 to grant a request by the then Labor Ministry to increase a government subsidy for a university that was being promoted by the scandal-hit industrial insurer KSD, according to a top Finance Ministry...
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Taiwan-Japan IT confab set for next week

A symposium on information technology will be held Feb. 8 and Feb. 9 in Tokyo, gathering academics and industry officials from Taiwan and Japan, the Taipei Economic and Culture Representative Office in Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Indian IT experts to get three-year visas for Japan

The government decided Friday to expand its visa issuance to Indian nationals involved in the information technology industry as a means of promoting exchanges between Japanese and Indian IT experts, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

Mori wants Japanese out of efforts to clone humans

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori instructed two Cabinet ministers Friday to ensure that Japanese doctors and researchers do not participate in an international project to clone humans, government officials said.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Panel takes up rescue of private sector

The Financial Services Agency will begin a joint liaison meeting with two other ministries in an attempt to resolve the financial sector's bad-loans and other sectors' overborrowing, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2001

Year in prison sought for accused MSDF spy

Prosecutors demanded Thursday a one-year prison term for former Maritime Self-Defense Force Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, 38, who is charged with passing defense secrets to a Russian military attache in exchange for cash.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

Dirt-cheap Internet calls stun phone firms

The information technology revolution is beginning to rock major telephone companies with the successive debut of unprecedented services such as free international phone calls and flat-rate domestic out-of-town calls.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2001

Seminar promotes Chugoku to investors

Given that it is closer to South Korea than Tokyo, the Chugoku region is the area to lead Japan's globalization drive in the 21st century, according to officials of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry at a business incentive seminar in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

Colleges brace as fewer apply

Tadataka Koide, president of Aichi Gakuin University in Nagoya, is awaiting this month's entrance exams with anticipation and anxiety.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

Mori apologizes for ministry scandal

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori opened this year's regular Diet session Wednesday by apologizing for recent scandals that have rocked his administration.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

Mori apologizes for ministry scandal

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori opened this year's regular Diet session Wednesday by apologizing for recent scandals that have rocked his administration.
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,...
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.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 30, 2001

Tokyo Stadium opening to public

The brand-new 50,000-seat Tokyo Stadium in Chofu City will be open to the general public on Feb. 10-12 ahead of its curtain-raiser with a J. League season-opening game.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2001

Koyama quits Upper House over KSD

Upper House lawmaker Takao Koyama, arrested earlier this month on suspicion of taking bribes from the mutual aid foundation KSD, tendered his resignation from the Diet Monday, a senior in the chamber from the Liberal Democratic Party said.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2001

Mori's Diet-opening remarks to touch on restoring trust

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will pledge to strive to restore public trust in politics in his policy speech to be delivered at the outset of the 150-day regular Diet session convening Wednesday, government sources said Sunday.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes