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JAPAN
May 12, 2001

Foreign Ministry officials begin sniping at Tanaka

With Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka flexing her muscles over the ministry's personnel affairs, bureaucrats have begun a counterattack, questioning her diplomatic judgment.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2001

New unemployment forum planned

The government will set up a new panel tasked with mapping out ways to curb unemployment that may result from the implementation of painful reforms, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Friday.
JAPAN
May 12, 2001

Tanaka gives up plan to replace vice minister

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka indicated Friday that she has given up for now plans to replace Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima, saying she "is not thinking about it."
BASEBALL / MLB
May 12, 2001

Dragons extend streak with win over Giants

The Chunichi Dragons extended their winning streak to six with a 4-1 win over the Yomiuri Giants at the Nagoya Dome Friday night.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2001

Europe's Korean venture reaps good will

SEOUL -- One of the Europeans' first concerns after their successful diplomatic mission to Pyongyang and Seoul was to dispatch emissaries to Tokyo and Washington to inform the main allies about the results of the visit. On more than one occasion, the EU delegation emphasized that what it was doing was...
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

Korean residents mingle more since summit

OSAKA -- Pro-Pyongyang and pro-Seoul Korean resident groups in Japan have been mingling more frequently since the summit in June between the leaders of North and South Korea, a Kyodo News survey shows.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2001

Sony Bank to go online June 11

Sony Bank, an Internet bank owned 80 percent by Sony Corp., said Thursday it will open for business on June 11 in hopes of luring deposits of 1 trillion yen in five years.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Tax evasion nets seafood giant

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Wednesday arrested a former senior official of Maruha Corp., Japan's seafood industry leader, on suspicion of tax evasion, prosecutors said.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Female on throne fine: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he would support a woman's ascension to Japan's Imperial Throne, throwing his weight behind a proposal within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to revise the current Imperial House Law.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Tanaka again reverses a personnel transfer

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka kicked up some more dust Wednesday by ordering the former chief of the Financial Affairs Division to return to his post despite being named minister to France earlier in the week.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Crowd-pleasing in Udine

Given the media frenzy over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Western interest in Asian cinema may be news, but it's hardly new. Back in 1998, the organizers of Udine Incontri Cinema, a small film festival in a quiet Italian town near the Austrian and Slovenian border, shifted their focus to commercial...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2001

LDP puts emergency stock-buying body on hold

Hakuo Yanagisawa, minister in charge of financial affairs, indicated Tuesday that it will be difficult to propose legislation to establish a new government body to buy banks' shareholdings during the current Diet session.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Shinmachi takes lead in sports for kids

Kyodo News Shinmachi, a small town of about 13,000 people in Gunma Prefecture, has drawn the attention of several municipalities because of its comprehensive regional sports club -- a concept common in Europe but relatively new to Japan.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2001

Ministry urges NTT to voluntarily reform

The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications on Tuesday urged Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to submit a voluntary business plan to boost competition among NTT group firms, a ministry official said.
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Koizumi vows no sanctuaries from reform

The Prime minister's main policy points (Full text) The following is the gist of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech delivered Monday in the Diet.
JAPAN
May 6, 2001

Transsexuals set to file civil lawsuits

A group of six people who have undergone sex-change operations will file civil suits May 24 seeking to have their new genders recorded on their family registrations, an activist supporting transsexuals said Saturday.
JAPAN
May 6, 2001

Major nations plan to test measures aimed at containing financial crises

The Group of Seven nations and other major economies will conduct the first joint field test of coordinated measures aimed at minimizing panic and preventing a domino effect when megabanks and huge hedge funds collapse, a Japanese government source said Saturday.
JAPAN
May 5, 2001

Pyongyang leader's 'son' expelled to China

The government on Friday morning deported to China a man claiming to be the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, along with his three companions.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2001

It's Koizumi vs. the LDP

The public-approval ratings of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's new Cabinet skyrocketed to unprecedented levels of more than 80 percent. Koizumi pledged that his Cabinet would spare no effort in implementing his drastic reform plans.
JAPAN
May 4, 2001

Son of North Korean leader detained at Narita airport

A man detained by immigration officials at Narita airport on suspicion of trying to enter Japan illegally has admitted he is the oldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Japanese public security officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 4, 2001

Constitution turns 54 as battle lines drawn up for and against reform

Groups for and against revision of the Constitution held rallies in Tokyo on Thursday to mark the 54th anniversary of the supreme law amid increasing calls for its revision from political leaders, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2001

Peace, security and missile defense

For nearly three decades, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty has been the cornerstone of international arms control. The logic of deterrence created a situation where nuclear powers held their adversaries' populations hostage; an antiballistic missile system eroded the certainty of mutually assured destruction....

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami