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BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

Miyazawa urged to lead G7 effort to help poor nations

The nongovernment coalition Jubilee 2000 Japan urged Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Thursday to take the initiative at the upcoming meeting of the Group of Seven economic powers to solve the serious debt problems of the world's poorest countries.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

Japan accepts U.S. demand for 41% NTT fee cut by '02

Kyodo News The government plans to cut interconnection fees charged by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. by 41.1 percent by the end of 2002, a move Tokyo hopes will resolve a bitter trade row with the United States before this month's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2000

Miyazawa open to IT-aimed supplementary budget

The government should draw up, if necessary, an extra budget focused on information technology and new public projects later this year, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Wednesday.
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
Jul 6, 2000

Art and design meet status and money

Ignore the rainy season and dream that you are sweating by the sea rather than on the subway. Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, magazines . . . You probably already protect your skin with Clarins, shield your eyes with Gucci sunglasses, flaunt your bits in a Ralph Lauren bikini, but would you shell out over...
OLYMPICS
Jul 6, 2000

Sydney to fall short of eliminating drugs from Games

Australia vowed to run drugs off the road to the Olympics when it won the right to host the Games in Sydney this September, but the wheels of sports bureaucracy do not spin fast enough to outpace performance-enhanced athletes.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2000

Mori Cabinet not necessarily his own

In an effort to assert his leadership and bolster his sagging political fortunes, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori elected for a mix of the old and new in Tuesday's Cabinet reshuffle.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2000

A step toward financial stability

The Financial Agency, which was launched Saturday in a major move to integrate the operating and planning roles of financial policymaking bodies, started actual operations on Monday. The new financial-watchdog body combines the Financial Supervisory Agency and the Finance Ministry's Financial Planning...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Bacteria outbreak at Osaka hospital claims lives of seven elderly patients

OSAKA -- Seven elderly patients at a hospital in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, died between May 7 and Saturday after contracting serratia bacteria -- apparently inside the facility, officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

20% in Diet received pensions in 1999

One in five Diet members received pensions from their earlier jobs, on top of their 24.03 million yen basic salary as legislators, according to the report on lawmakers' 1999 income released Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Expert predicts Mori Cabinet will be short-lived

A leading political commentator has predicted that the new Cabinet to be launched by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori today will be short-lived, and that drastic political realignments are in the offing.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Japan looks to cleaner sources of energy

Tokai disaster prompts nation to take a new look at alternative power Staff writer
COMMUNITY
Jul 2, 2000

Noh master calling U.K. college alumni

There was some initial confusion when Naohiko Umewaka requested help in finding graduates of Royal Holloway. What was he talking about? The only Holloway known to this Londoner is the district north of the River Thames best known for the prison of the same name. Now here was a story! Japan's best known...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2000

G8 participants to receive i-mode

NTT DoCoMo Inc. will loan out for free a total of 600 i-mode Net-capable mobile phones and beepers to journalists and delegates participating in the July 21-23 Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, the company said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2000

Japan offers compromise in NTT dispute

Posts minister now suggests that 22.5% cut in less than three years possible Japan on Friday offered a compromise in the long-standing dispute with the United States over telephone connection rates, bringing the two nations closer to resolving the bilateral trade row before the upcoming Group of Eight...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2000

Medical group probes endoscope defects

A national association of medical and dental practitioners has begun questioning its members about defects in endoscopes and manufacturers' responses to complaints, according to a group bulletin made available Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2000

Mori scrambles to assign key Cabinet positions

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and top aides on Wednesday stepped up efforts to make key placements ahead of next week's Cabinet reshuffle, with coalition partner New Komeito likely to receive the health and welfare portfolio.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2000

Car firms' exports rose 1.9% in May

Japan's 11 automakers exported 314,602 cars, trucks and buses in May, up 1.9 percent from the same month the previous year, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2000

Making home a school away from school

A typical day at school for 12-year-old Sophie Kimura could be a social studies lesson which involves finding out what life is like in Illinois where her "e-pal" Dawn lives.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2000

A Chinese teenager's dream of a better life ends in tragedy in the back of a truck

CHANGLE, Fujian -- Smartly dressed in a Calvin Klein T-shirt, jeans and white trainers, the teenager props up a motorbike in Changle, a city in the southern Chinese province of Fujian. His hair flopping over sunglasses, he flashes a shy grin at the camera. Jin Xicai hardly resembles the stereotype refugee,...
JAPAN / History
Jun 28, 2000

China's Korean War POWs find you can't go home again

BEIJING — In a hotel room in the Yangtze River port of Wuhan, a dozen elderly Chinese men fight back tears to sing a song written almost 50 years ago in a U.S. prisoner-of-war camp in South Korea. At the end of the song, their tears flow freely, for friends lost in the conflict and for their own harsh...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2000

ACCJ calls for easier rules on domain registration

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan said Tuesday that it has handed over a report to the Japan Network Information Center requesting a relaxation of rules for registering domain names -- the addresses for accessing pages on the Internet.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 28, 2000

Online education

A high school graduate who wants to wait a year before going home for her university education was invited to attend the University of Maryland University College graduation in April. There she heard reference to a program that provides online courses at a global university. She wonders if she could...
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2000

MITI plans minor reshuffle ahead of G8, trade talks

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry will announce Friday a reshuffle of its staff, with fewer major personnel changes than a year ago in view of pending trade issues and the regrouping of government offices scheduled in January, ministry officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2000

G7 to agree on reform of IMF lending process

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven economic powers are likely to agree on a set of reforms to International Monetary Fund lending mechanisms at their talks in Japan in July, a source in international finance said Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2000

Execs, 'sokaiya' held over extortion

Police arrested a professional "sokaiya" and two businessmen Monday for allegedly attempting to extort 50 million yen from a Fujitsu Ltd. subsidiary.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji