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JAPAN
Sep 20, 1999

Cresvale's office blames parent for investor losses

The Tokyo branch of Cresvale International Ltd. said Monday it knew nothing about the losses incurred on the privately placed bonds it had marketed since 1991, blaming its parent company for the mismanagement of clients' money.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 1999

Review conditions for SDF deployment: Kan

The incumbent leader of the Democratic Party of Japan said Monday that Japan should review the five principles under which the Self-Defense Forces are dispatched to a United Nations-led peacekeeping operation.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 1999

Japan to finance peacekeeping force for East Timor

Japan will contribute a "substantial" sum to a United Nations trust fund to finance a multinational force intended to restore order in East Timor, but will not dispatch any personnel until stability has been established, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said at a press conference Thursday.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 15, 1999

Turn-of-the-century frolic shows nothing new under the sun

Postmodernism is a publisher's dream. Copy out "Don Quixote" verbatim and you get a cultural reinterpretation, joked Jorge Luis Borges; give an old book a new cover and you get a tribal reclamation, proclaim the editors of this Race in the Americas imprint.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 15, 1999

The family that surfs together ...

There is something mildly unsettling about the cyberpolice's fixation with child pornography. At the Internet Content Summit, held last week in Munich and hosted by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, kiddie porn was repeatedly denounced by participants. To judge from the general tone of the comments, it embodied...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

Airlines prove Y2K-compliance with test flights

Test flights conducted at midnight Monday proved Japan's major airlines and aviation control systems can cope with the Year 2000 computer problem, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 1999

BOJ attempts to slow yen's ascent

The yen soared to a 40-month high against the dollar Tuesday, prompting the Bank of Japan to step in to block it from advancing further.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 1999

FRC approves public funds to four banks

The Financial Reconstruction Commission formally approved plans Monday to pump 260 billion yen in public funds into the depleted capital bases of four regional banks.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 1999

Hayami warns firms to prepare for forex fluctuations

Corporations should take measures to become less vulnerable to fluctuations in the yen-dollar exchange rate, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami reiterated Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 1999

Japan welcomes Pyongyang proposal, offers talks

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka expressed willingness Monday to resume talks with Pyongyang toward normalizing relations between Japan and North Korea.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 1999

Fashion and its victims

How does one get inside a girl's head? This rueful question must have occurred to many people recently on hearing reports of the death of a 25-year-old woman in Kanagawa Prefecture after she tripped and fell while wearing sandals with 10-cm-high cork soles. To observers of the elevated-shoe fad over...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1999

BOJ steps in to stem yen's 'violent' rise

Japanese monetary authorities stepped into the Tokyo currency market Friday morning to sell yen for dollars to stem the yen's "violent" appreciation, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 1999

Analysis: Kan's fading star may reflect DPJ's fate

Staff writers
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

Experts differ over forces behind positive GDP data

Staff writers
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

GDP grew 0.2% in April-June quarter

The economy grew 0.2 percent for the April-June quarter -- an annualized rate of 0.9 percent -- marking the second straight quarter of growth, according to gross domestic product figures released Thursday by the Economic Planning Agency.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 1999

Volunteers describe carnage in East Timor

Volunteers who arrived in Tokyo from East Timor earlier this week told their stories Wednesday of pro-Indonesia militias going on rampages, disturbing the voting in an independence referendum, torching homes and shooting civilians in the violence-torn province.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 1999

Japan can intervene at any time: Miyazawa

Japan can step into the currency market on its own to sell yen for dollars without consulting the United States, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 1999

Chairman's tight control choked off Tokyo Sowa

The collapse of Tokyo Sowa Bank was caused in part by the autocratic management of former chairman Shoichi Osada, the bank's administrators concluded in their report to financial authorities Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 1999

A peace process without peace

There are very good reasons to be deeply concerned about the Northern Ireland peace process. The first reason is that it looks to be breaking down. Disputes over the decommissioning of weapons by the Irish Republican Army and the seating of Sinn Fein representatives on the executive council established...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 1999

Daiei eyes sale of Recruit stake

As a way to accelerate efforts to repay its debts, Daiei Inc., the country's leading supermarket chain operator, plans to sell its stake in publishing firm Recruit Co., top officials of the firm said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 1999

Nihonga exhibit blossoming

To be able to admire paintings by the nation's top 120 nihonga artists in the confines of a single room sounds quite remarkable. Yet when the new assembly building of Zojoji Temple in Tokyo opens its doors in the spring of 2001, the coffered ceiling of its hall will be adorned with that number of Japanese-style...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Hatoyama declares entry into DPJ presidential race

Yukio Hatoyama, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, officially declared his candidacy Thursday for the DPJ's presidential election next month, seriously clouding the prospect of incumbent leader Naoto Kan's re-election.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 1999

Kan announces bid for third term at DPJ helm

Naoto Kan, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, formally announced Tuesday that he would run for a third consecutive term as head of the nation's largest opposition party.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 1999

Business leaders say APEC must do more

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum must accelerate its efforts to liberalize trade and investment, APEC business leaders said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 1999

Bank customers detail need for new deposit safety net

A safety net is needed to protect deposits in business transaction accounts and to ensure fast refunds if banks fail after fiscal 2000, a cross section of bank customer representatives said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 1999

Cabinet names Tsuno new bureau chief

The Cabinet on Tuesday appointed Osamu Tsuno, 60, deputy director general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, as the new head of the bureau, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 1999

Vignaud urges FAO streamlining

In response to North Korea's famine issue, Argentina's ambassador to Sweden, Juan Carlos Vignaud, said on Monday in Tokyo that the Food and Agriculture Organization should go wherever it is needed.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 1999

Camping tragedy spurs safety campaign

To prevent another tragedy like the recent flash-flood fatalities on the Kurokura River in Kanagawa Prefecture, the Japan Auto Camping Federation called on campers Monday to camp only at designated campsites and pack equipment for emergency situations.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 1999

The good fight against war crimes

On Aug. 12, the world observed the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, four international agreements that set limits on the conduct of participants in armed conflicts. At first glance, the conventions seem quixotic: How can we apply the rule of law to war itself, where the goal is to bend an...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 1999

SDP proposes damage investigation for war redress

The Social Democratic Party on Friday announced a draft for legislation that would redress wartime victims claiming compensation from the government.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell