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JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Opposition pledges to overthrow bloc

Leaders of the three major opposition parties pledged Friday after their boycott of the day's plenary sessions in both Diet houses to maintain a united front and overthrow the coalition government led by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. The Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Residency awarded to lucky dozen

Twelve foreigners who have overstayed their visas will be allowed to stay in Japan after applying for residents' status in September, Justice Minister Hideo Usui said Friday. The 12 are part of a group of 21 who publicly approached immigration authorities in September. It is the first time the government...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Softbank unit, Lehman form online bond-trading venture

Softbank Finance Corp. and Lehman Brothers announced on Thursday the establishment of a joint venture tasked with operating Japan's first online bond-trading system. Named E-Bond Securities Co., the new brokerage will operate a proprietary trading system to deal mostly in municipal bonds, bank debentures...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2000

Restore time-honored electoral system

There are a number of things wrong with the Japanese political system. One is the combination of the single-seat constituency and proportional representation systems to elect the members of the House of Representatives. I also believe that the present system of electing the members of the House of Councilors...
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2000

Russia's mystery man

Far more is asserted about Russia's acting president, Mr. Vladimir Putin, than is known. He rose through the state security apparatus, where his steely eye and no-nonsense demeanor impressed President Boris Yeltsin, who named him acting prime minister in August last year. Upon Mr. Yeltsin's surprise...
BUSINESS
Jan 25, 2000

Think before giving nonbankers licenses, JBA chief urges

The relationship banks will have with nonfinanciers trying to enter the industry should be clarified before authorities decide to grant them banking licenses, Katsuyuki Sugita, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2000

Japan's 'railway diplomacy' rolls forward

Plans for a Japanese consortium to construct a shinkansen link between Taiwan's two biggest cities will showcase Tokyo's technology and "railway diplomacy." Both have been running virtually nonstop and on schedule since 1872, when the first line connecting Tokyo's Shimbashi station to Yokohama opened....
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2000

How to build a career on no satisfaction

Whining, I was once told a long time ago, will get you nowhere, but in our current "culture of complaint" everybody thinks they have the right to air their grievances. That doesn't mean everybody has to listen to them, but in such an environment some people have elevated whining to an art form.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

French back weaker yen

French Finance Minister Christian Sautter on Friday said he still shares Japan's concern over the yen's appreciation.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Tokyo cuts welfare, wages to trim budget

The financially strapped Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday unveiled an austere 5.98 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2000, a decrease of 4.9 percent from the current year and its smallest in 12 years. The belt-tightening was made possible after slashing social welfare expenditures, city employee...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2000

Gradual regional improvement cited

The chiefs of the Finance Ministry's local finance bureaus reported Wednesday a gradual improvement in the nation's regional economies since they last met in September.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 19, 2000

Down the Ayeyarwady River to the sea

The steamer docked at the sun-soaked Yangon pier could have just sailed in on a river of ink straight from Kipling's pen.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2000

Declaring war against AIDS

It is reckoned that the AIDS scourge began about 20 years ago. In the two decades since then, it has claimed more than 16 million lives. The World Health Organization estimates that 33.6 million people, 1.2 million of them children, live with the HIV infection that is the disease's precursor. The speed...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2000

Yachiyo Bank to take over failed Kokumin

Yachiyo Bank and state-appointed administrators of Kokumin Bank announced Tuesday that the two parties have reached a basic agreement to have Yachiyo take over the failed second-tier regional bank. Of the five second-tier regional banks that went under after the financial reconstruction law took effect...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2000

How to level the business playing field

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY IN A CHANGING JAPAN, by William R. Farrell, with a foreward by Walter F. Mondale. Westport/London: Quorum Books, 1999, 275 pp., $60 (cloth). It's the Black Ships, round II. JETRO reports that foreign direct investment into Japan leaped 89.4 percent last year, topping $10 billion...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2000

Ex-MITI councilor to stand in Osaka poll

OSAKA -- Ota, formerly a senior trade ministry official, announced Monday that she will run in the Osaka gubernatorial election with the backing of several parties. The election, to be held Feb. 6, is to fill the post left vacant by Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama, who resigned after being indicted for sexually...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

LDP junior quits over gifts to voters

SENDAI -- A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker elected from Miyagi Prefecture announced Thursday that he will resign to take responsibility for illegal distribution of gifts to voters.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2000

Japan's cultural underground exposed in edgy new guide

The slow days of winter are upon us, making an evening on the couch with a good book or tune more enticing than the sweaty confines of a live house or club. As folks slowly stream back into town from the New Year's holidays, there isn't a lot happening in the first few weeks of January anyway, so kick...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Seven-Eleven ties up with seven firms for e-mart

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said it will set up a joint venture with seven firms in February to operate an e-commerce market that will offer products ranging from books to cars.
JAPAN / Media
Jan 6, 2000

New Year's TV specials -- impersonating entertainment

The suicide rate goes up at the end of the year, an increase that's usually attributed to depression in the face of what is perceived as everybody else's high holiday spirits. In Japan, there's another reason for despair. That's the prospect of being stuck in the company of relatives you hate eating...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

Seven-Eleven to open e-market with seven firms

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said Thursday it will set up a joint venture with seven firms in February to operate an e-commerce market that will offer products ranging from books to cars. The new company, 7 dream.com, will open its Web site in June to provide online services and introduce multimedia terminals...
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2000

Chuma puts candidacy for Osaka race in Mori's hands

Koki Chuma, chairman of the Osaka chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party, met with LDP Secretary General Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday to discuss the Feb. 6 Osaka gubernatorial by-election, and left it to Mori to decide whom the LDP will back in the election, sources said. During the meeting, however,...
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2000

Opposition parties headed for breakthrough

Staff writer Cashing in on the unpopularity of the "gigantic" ruling coalition, opposition parties are optimistic of making a big leap forward in the next general election -- and forecasts by political analysts suggest they have a favorable wind behind them. But it is not clear if the opposition forces,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 1999

Japan's 'darkness at noon' Korean policy

U.S. diplomat William Perry has a policy of "cautious realism" regarding North Korea, and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is identified with his positive "sunshine policy" vis-a-vis Pyongyang. It would be generous and accurate to characterize Japan's policy toward the North Korean regime of Kim Jong...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1999

Obuchi rings in the new year with old pledge for recovery

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi greeted the New Year with a pledge to keep striving for full-scale economic recovery and to create a society in which all generations can live in harmony. "In 2000, I want to push ahead with the 'economic renaissance' policy for real economic recovery," Obuchi said during...
JAPAN
Dec 29, 1999

Writer, artist unite to portray Okinawa's problems

Staff writer OSAKA -- When artist Seitaro Kuroda was videotaping a series of war stories for children written by prize-winning author Akiyuki Nosaka, he noticed something was missing. The stories, which first appeared in a magazine in 1971, described the hardship brought upon children and animals by...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Ex-Yakult exec indicted second time

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday again indicted former Yakult Honsha Co. Vice President Naoki Kumagai, this time for allegedly violating the Commercial Code through aggravated breach of trust and by putting company assets in danger. The 69-year-old Kumagai has already been indicted...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Tokyo approves heliport relocation; time limit unresolved

The government Tuesday formally gave the green light to a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps heliport now at the Futenma Air Station to the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture. Endorsing the project at a Cabinet meeting, the government adopted a basic policy on the relocation, including...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Full-time jobs still on the decline

The nation's unemployment rate improved in November to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent in October, though the number of people holding full-time jobs fell for the 23rd consecutive month. Data released Tuesday by the Management and Coordination Agency showed the full-time picture is being obscured by the...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 28, 1999

Flying first class around the globe

Since this is my last column of the year, I'll look back instead of forward.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight