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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

Toho Life, GE Capital join forces in new insurance venture

Financially ailing Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co. and leading U.S. nonbank financial firm GE Capital Services Inc. formally announced Wednesday that they will set up a new life insurance company in Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 1998

Indonesia aid readied for G-7 talks

Japan hopes to draw up additional measures to assist embattled Indonesia by the start of Saturday's meeting of the finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven, Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said Wednesday.
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

Transport chief seeks to end officials' free plane rides

Transport Minister Takao Fujii said Tuesday that he has ordered ministry officials to consider abolishing a half-century-old practice under which Civil Aviation Bureau officials get free rides on Japanese airline firms for business trips.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 1998

Finance ministry bank inspectors given the ax

The Finance Ministry dismissed two bank inspectors who were indicted Monday on charges of receiving bribes from banks in exchange for tipoffs about the ministry's pending inspections, Vice Finance Minister Koji Tanami said at a news conference.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 1998

Inventory woes to keep economy down: BOJ

The economy is likely to remain stagnant for the time being as pressure to adjust inventory builds due to sluggish demand, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 1998

Nation's top banker refuses to resign over bribe scandal

The president of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi said Tuesday that he will not resign from his position as head of a banking industry organization despite allegations that his bank bribed Finance Ministry officials.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 1998

Lending still cautious but easing, BOJ reports

Banks now have weaker lending constraints because of rebounding stock prices, the yen's appreciation and the high expectations for the government's financial stabilization measures, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 1998

Chinese undecided on holding 2008 Games

OSAKA -- Chinese Olympic officials visiting Osaka on Monday denied earlier reports that China would not go after the 2008 Olympics, saying no final decision on the matter had been made.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 1998

Filipino wartime sex slaves reject Hashimoto's apology

Five Filipino former "comfort women" who accepted cash payments from the Japanese government-sponsored Asian Women's Fund in December have rejected Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's letter of apology, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1998

Merrill Lynch to set up second brokerage house in Japan

U.S. financial management giant Merrill Lynch & Co. announced Thursday it plans to open a new brokerage house in Japan this summer and will hire about 2,000 former employees of the failed Yamaichi Securities Co. to work in about 30 outlets across the country.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 1998

Matsunaga open to debate on pump-priming measures

Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said Tuesday he would welcome debate within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on further pump-priming measures, but added the priority is to secure Diet passage of the supplementary and fiscal 1998 budgets.
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
Jan 30, 1998

MITI authorizes lower power rates

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry on Friday authorized new power rates that will reduce monthly electricity bills for an average four-person family by some 290 yen.The nation's 10 power utilities will introduce the new rates, which are 3.27 percent to 6.70 percent lower than current rates,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

Bankers' group chairman Saeki will resign

As bribery scandals engulf Finance Ministry officials and employees of major banks, Natotaka Saeki, chairman of the Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan, announced Friday that he will resign as leader of the industry association "for the sake of the stability of the financial system."But Saeki,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

Matsunaga appointed as new finance minister

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto named Lower House Budget Committee chairman Hikaru Matsunaga as the new finance minister Friday, entrusting him with the task of cleaning up the ministry's image in the wake of a bribery scandal.The scandal, in which two ministry inspectors were arrested earlier in the...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 1998

Vice Minister Tanami wants trust in Finance restored

Newly appointed Vice Finance Minister Koji Tanami vowed Friday to put priority on regaining the public's trust in the powerful, scandal-tainted ministry.Tanami, 58, was serving as the head of the Cabinet Councilors' Office on Internal Affairs but was recalled after his predecessor, Takeshi Komura, resigned...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1998

Banks to be picked for 'jusen' lawsuits Sunday

The first group of banks the Housing Loan Administration Corp. may sue over the "jusen" mortgage-lending debacle will be decided upon Sunday, corporation President Kohei Nakabo said Thursday.The corporation's legal counsel feels that several banks are responsible for the expansion of problem loans at...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 1998

Top Finance bureaucrat resigns over bribery case

Vice Finance Minister Takeshi Komura handed in his resignation Thursday afternoon to take responsibility for the recent scandal in which two ministry inspectors were arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from major banks.Koji Tanami, a ministry official now in charge of the Cabinet Councilors' Office...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1998

Keck announces end to EU-Japan auto export restraint

Europe will not seek to extend its agreement with Japan on voluntarily restraining Japanese automobile exports, European Union Ambassador Jorn Keck said Wednesday.The departing ambassador was speaking at a farewell news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. "I don't know how to prolong...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1998

Mitsuzuka resigns over finance bribery scandal

Finance Minister Hiroshi Mitsuzuka tendered his resignation Wednesday to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to take the blame for a scandal in which two ministry bank inspectors were arrested for bribery.In accepting Mitsuzuka's resignation, Hashimoto will also hold the post of finance minister until...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 1998

Celebrity's brother held over drugs

Takayuki Kuroyanagi, 41, brother of media celebrity and UNICEF Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, was arrested in connection with drug possession and turned over to prosecutors Monday, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.A small amount of stimulants was found Sunday night in his car, which was...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1998

BOJ tells banks to restore trust, dispose of loans

Bank of Japan Gov. Yasuo Matsushita urged Japanese financial institutions Monday to expedite the disposal of their bad loans and reinforce their capital bases to regain the trust of the markets, saying financial market players are taking an increasingly severe look at their financial health.At the opening...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1998

Finance Ministry inspectors arrested over bank bribes

Two officials of the Finance Ministry's Finance Inspection Department are under arrest on suspicion of accepting bribes from banks in the form of wining and dining, the special investigative squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office announced Monday night.The two arrested were identified...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 1998

Columbia crew traces mission's success to hardships of space

Crew members of the space shuttle Columbia, which returned to Earth early last month after a successful mission, said Monday the extraordinary challenge of working in space fostered a sense of unity that overrode differences in culture.Eight members of NASA's space team -- six aboard the spacecraft...
JAPAN
Jan 23, 1998

Gas firms' rate plans under fire

Mitsuo Horiuchi, minister for international trade and industry, put explicit pressure Friday on three major gas companies to refrain from their planned gas rate hikes in April.Speaking at a regular news conference, Horiuchi expressed strong displeasure with Thursday's announcement by Tokyo Gas Co.,...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 1998

Cabinet expected to scrap fishing pact with South Korea

With diplomatic negotiations deadlocked, the Cabinet is expected to decide this morning to unilaterally scrap the 1965 fisheries agreement with South Korea.Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said Thursday morning the decision on the treaty was reached in a meeting with Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 1998

Shochiku president, son ousted

In a corporate coup d'etat, the board of directors at film and theater giant Shochiku Co. removed President Toru Okuyama and his son, Kazuyoshi, a senior managing director, from their posts Monday.Shochiku, Japan's pioneer film company, known for its "Tora-san" series, decided to name Senior Managing...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 1998

Hospitals prepared to harvest brain-dead organ donors

Most medical institutions designated to remove organs from brain-dead donors have declared they are ready to do so in the three months since a controversial law went into effect to allow such transplants from brain-dead patients.A large number of such facilities have completed manuals for carrying out...

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