Search - news

 
 
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2000

Mori sues over story on gangster ties

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori filed a libel suit with the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday against a magazine that published an article and photographs allegedly linking him to a rightwing gangster, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2000

Dollar no safe haven as U.S. economy ebbs

International investors rushed to safe havens such as dollar-based securities in recent years on news of finan- cial crises in the Far East and elsewhere.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2000

NEC, Toshiba to tackle space market together

NEC Corp. and Toshiba Corp. announced Wednesday that they have agreed to integrate their space business operations by establishing a joint venture in April in an effort to boost their presence in the global aerospace market.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Narita-Haneda role reversal not in offing, Ogi assures

The current rules on the roles of Haneda and Narita airports will not change in the immediate future, Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said Tuesday in an apparent effort to fend off stronger-than-expected protests from Chiba Prefecture.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Fujimori a Japanese, can stay: Kono

The government has officially confirmed that ousted Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has Japanese citizenship and that there is no problem with him staying indefinitely, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono announced Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2000

Isuzu Motors names Ida as new president

Isuzu Motors Ltd. said Tuesday it will appoint Yoshinori Ida, 57, as its new president and chief operating officer, effective Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Japan considering 3% cut in aid to developing nations

The government and the ruling coalition are considering a reduction of roughly 3 percent in Japan's official development assistance to developing countries for fiscal 2001, sources involved in ODA revision talks said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Dec 13, 2000

Techno and tea

www.thump-radio.com If Napster is a community of listeners, Thump Radio is a legal-hassle-free community of clubbers, artists and labels, all neatly pulled together by streaming audio shared by all. Lots of opportunities to check out new DJs or established DJs' new stuff, then tell your friends about...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 13, 2000

Next stop Wirelessland

A funny thing happened on the way to work . .
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Poll shows Cabinet reshuffle has done little for Mori's popularity

The approval rate for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet improved slightly after the reshuffle on Dec. 5, according to the latest Kyodo News poll released Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Mori to sue magazine over 'gangster' photos

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will file a libel suit against a magazine that printed photographs of him with a man allegedly linked to gangsters, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 10, 2000

Antlers hoist J. League crown

Think of them as champions. The Kashima Antlers earned that right before 44,665 fans at Tokyo's National Stadium on Saturday night with a 3-0 win over the Yokohama F. Marinos in the second leg of the J. League Championship final. The win gave them a 3-0 aggregate after last week's 0-0 draw in Yokohama....
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2000

Magazine to run picture of Mori, alleged rightist

In the latest potential headache for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, a weekly magazine plans to publish photographs of Mori with a man allegedly linked to a crime syndicate in an edition that will hit newsstands this week.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

U.S. presidential elections should go global

LOS ANGELES -- Americans watching events play out in Florida since Nov. 7 may feel a surreal sense of powerlessness; their president is being chosen by a handful of Palm Beach residents, it seems. In short, Americans have now gotten a taste of the way the rest of the world feels with each presidential...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Nonbinding tribunal can only sentence the nation to shame

Since three Korean women came out in 1991 and demanded government compensation for being forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, many former "comfort women" have died in despair, receiving no compensation, never seeing their rapists brought to justice and having suffered the further humiliation...
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

DDI joins hands with Hakuhodo

The nation's second-largest telecommunications carrier DDI Corp., known as KDDI, said Wednesday it has formed a joint venture with advertising agency Hakuhodo Inc. and three other firms to run ads on its mobile-phone Internet services.
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2000

FTC defends proposal on postal competition

The head of the Fair Trade Commission, the nation's anti-cartel watchdog, on Wednesday defended a proposal by an FTC panel to allow private concerns to compete with the postal service in the letter-delivery business.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2000

SMAP star finds true love, new role

When the public recently learned that 28-year-old idol Takuya Kimura was marrying singer Shizuka Kudo, who is already four months pregnant with his child, the SMAP-man's image immediately changed from sex symbol to . . . well, actually, the image still seems to be under construction.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Video shop bomber 'wanted to destroy people'

The 17-year-old boy who was arrested Monday evening after claiming responsibility for an explosion at a video shop in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward has told police that he "wanted to destroy people" at random.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2000

Local political fundraising falls 2.5%

Funds raised by local chapters of major political parties and regional political organizations in all 47 prefectures during 1999 totaled 171.7 billion yen, down 2.5 percent from the previous year, according to Kyodo News calculations based on reports submitted to prefectural election administration committees....
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Cabinet lineup nearly complete

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday continued filling the slots of a new Cabinet that he plans to form today, deciding to retain the trade and industry minister and to appoint a new farm minister, political sources said.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Lower House ranks' assets slip

House of Representatives lawmakers declared an average of 73.22 million yen in personal assets as of June, down from 87.05 million yen in their last asset reports in March 1997, according to calculations by Kyodo News.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2000

Turning a blind eye to Chinese proliferation

NEW DELHI -- It speaks volumes that just when the United States determined that China was engaged in clandestine missile trade with Pakistan and, to a lesser extent, Iran, Washington announced that it was waiving a law requiring imposition of economic sanctions in such a situation. The unmistakable message...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2000

Fujimori agrees to testify in Japan, not Peru

Deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said Saturday he is prepared to testify in Japan to answer allegations that he amassed secret funds during his tenure as Peru's leader.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2000

Britons going nowhere fast

LONDON -- Is Britain in crisis? Many people think so, after a month in which large swathes of England have been inundated by filthy flood water. Television news showed comic snippets of boats in the streets rescuing old ladies and dogs, snaps of sturdy men and women counting their blessings as the flood...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

Sides reach settlement over air pollution suit

OSAKA -- An out-of-court settlement was reached Friday in a 12-year air pollution suit filed against the state and an expressway operator by residents of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, who claim they or deceased family members developed asthma and other illnesses due to harmful substances released by motor...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 2, 2000

The new American autism

George W. Bush, Al Gore or civil war? This is the question being asked now by alarmists, especially those with a taste for theatrical overstatement.

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