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JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

GDP expanded 1.9% in January-March quarter

The nation's economy grew 1.9 percent in the January-March quarter — an annualized rate of 7.9 percent — breaking a string of five consecutive quarters of contraction, the Economic Planning Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Coalition talks sought with New Komeito

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Liberal Party, must discuss common policies with New Komeito before the latter holds its convention in late July, when it is expected to decide whether to join the ruling bloc, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 1999

Help for battered wives is overdue

With a series of shootings apparently related to an underworld gang battle taking place in various parts of the Kanto area and a constantly rising volume of illegal stimulant drugs to deal with, Japan's police forces would seem to have a busy enough summer ahead of them. That may be why some observers...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 8, 1999

The 'nobody' who changed Japan

RYOMA: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, by Romulus Hillsborough. Ridgeback Press, San Francisco, 1999, 614 pages, $40 (cloth). Every country needs its heroes. Unfortunately, the great Japanese hero seems to have been a casualty of World War II. To this day, Japan tends to look all the way back to the Edo...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 1999

New Toho Mutual team to probe liability of execs

The newly appointed administrators of the failed Toho Mutual Life Insurance Co. said Monday they will set up an internal committee to investigate if the firm's management is liable for its collapse.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 1999

Tokyo job fair sees 10% fewer firms

A two-day job interview fair with more than 650 companies began Monday in Tokyo in an attempt to help prospective university and junior college graduates in the metro area land work.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 1999

Shares in Tokyo Sowa plunge

Tokyo Sowa Bank dropped sharply on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, reflecting investors' concerns over the financial institution's creditworthiness.
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 5, 1999

No heart of gold in Brecht's cold vision

Bertolt Brecht started considering the qualities of a good person in 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II. In all, it took him the best part of three years to come up with his finished product dealing with thistheme: "The Good Person of Setzuan," a play in which he deals with the idea that in...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

UNEP kicks off third global photo contest

The head of the U.N. Environment Program announced Friday in Tokyo the launch of the world's largest photography contest in anticipation of World Environment Day.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

Ex-LTCB execs face criminal charges

The nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan filed a criminal complaint Friday against its former top executives, accusing them of falsifying the bank's balance sheets and illegally paying dividends to shareholders without earning enough profit.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

MSDF-coast guard hotline OK'd

Cabinet ministers Friday approved government-proposed sea patrol measures that call for more communication between the nation's maritime authorities, following a failure in March to capture two suspected North Korean spy boats.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 1999

Both sides to blame for Sino-U.S. troubles

HONG KONG -- As the United States debates the security implications of the Cox report on Chinese spying in the U.S., and as China continues to deny the spying and to denounce the NATO attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, it is easy to lose sight of a basic reality: There is a remarkable symmetry...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 1999

France's Corsican question

PARIS -- "France," according to one of its best-known poets and political thinkers, Paul Valery, "is the most heterogeneous country that ever existed." The present tragedy in Kosovo makes this sound hyperbolic, yet there is an element of truth in it. The French who live on the shores of the Mediterranean,...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Competitiveness Commission to hear smaller firms' views

To reflect broader business opinions on the nation's industrial policy planning, the government will ask nonmanufacturers to participate in ongoing meetings of its joint advisory panel with the private sector, trade chief Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Sega announces new global strategies

Can Sega make a comeback? Which company will come up with the key digital home electronic appliance of the future?
JAPAN
Jun 1, 1999

Men's jobless rate hits record 5%; women fare better

The unemployment rate for men in Japan rose to a record 5 percent in April, offsetting a slight gain for women and keeping the overall figure at an all-time high of 4.8 percent for the second month in a row, the government said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Miyazawa lukewarm on taxing unprofitable firms

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa expressed ambivalence Friday toward a proposed local tax revision that would allow firms in the red to be taxed.
JAPAN
May 28, 1999

Lower House panel passes wiretap bills, snubs opposition

The Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee ignored an opposition boycott and approved a package of controversial bills Friday evening that would allow law enforcement authorities to wiretap private communications during investigations into organized crime.
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

RCC plans to purchase bad loans in June

The Resolution and Collection Corp. hopes to start buying bad loans from healthy banks in late June or July, its president said Thursday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
JAPAN
May 26, 1999

Bill on official flag, anthem still on the way: Nonaka

The government still intends to submit a bill to make the Hinomaru the official flag and "Kimigayo" the national anthem during the current Diet session, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday, denying reports that the government had given up on the bill for this session.
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Ishihara firing from hip at status quo

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 23, 1999

Break the corporate extortion habit

The report that as many as 59 leading Japanese companies were victims of extortion by "sokaiya" corporate racketeers, so-called rightist groups, organized gang members and other criminals in 1998 was treated as a major revelation by the mass media. The news came as the result of a survey conducted early...
EDITORIALS
May 22, 1999

Red alert for the Loonies

There was gloomy news last week in the sphere of international politics -- so gloomy, in fact, that had it not been for Israel's spirited rejection of its most unhelpful prime minister ever, Benjamin ("Turn-the-clock-back Bibi") Netanyahu, monitors of social progress everywhere would now be inconsolable....
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

Ishihara to visit Yokota Air Base

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Friday that he will pay a visit on June 2 to Yokota Air Base, whose return the outspoken governor has pledged.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Dollar hits 7 1/2-month high against yen

The dollar continued its upward climb against the yen Thursday with widening interest rate differentials between Japan and the United States working in its favor.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Big shots endorse plan to rejuvenate manufacturing

To help Japan's ailing manufacturing firms in their restructuring efforts, an advisory panel of government and business leaders endorsed a set of proposals Thursday that include tax cuts to dispose of excess facilities and extended benefits for the unemployed.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Miyazawa drops extra budget hint

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa hinted Wednesday that the government may prepare an extra budget to expand the government's job creation fund.
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Rising fears prompt calls to keep Aum in check

The government must respond to growing fears neighbors of Aum Shinrikyo facilities have and make efforts to restrict the cult's activities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 19, 1999

Back bayous of the Danube Delta

Adrift on a boat, with a wall of freshly leafed willows passing steadily on each side, I could not help thinking of Ratty and Mole's adventures on the river in "The Wind in the Willows." There were fresh mole hills to be found on the banks, and here and there holes in the riverbanks that might just have...

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