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EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 1999

No victory for the security alliance

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has his "omiyage" for U.S. President Bill Clinton. Following Monday night's approval of three bills to implement the updated Japan-U.S. defense guidelines by a special Lower House committee, the full Lower House approved them Tuesday, and Mr. Obuchi will be able to tell the...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 1999

Nonaka eyes tripartite unity in Lower House polls

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday that the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party and New Komeito should consider campaign cooperation for the next Lower House elections to further cement their tripartite ties.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 1999

Second aid package set for Kosovo

The government announced a comprehensive aid package Tuesday for Kosovar refugees, featuring $200 million in humanitarian and financial support for international aid bodies, refugee-hosting countries and the future return of the refugees to Kosovo.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 1999

NTT joins with AT&T in network solutions

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and AT&T Corp. of the United States announced Tuesday that they are joining hands in global network solutions, which has become a fast-growing segment in the telecommunica tions industry as multinational companies outsource man agement of their global communications....
JAPAN
Apr 27, 1999

Construction chief links dam's fate to plebiscite

The controversial Yoshino River dam project will be scrapped if residents of Tokushima hold a plebiscite and a majority of the voters oppose it, Construction Minister Katsutsugu Sekiya said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

Daiwa group launches holding firm operations

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. kicked off operations as a holding company Monday, placing four separate firms under its wing.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

MITI defends trade practices

A senior trade ministry official said Monday that Japan has no trade practices that need to be placed on an upcoming U.S. list of items subject to unilateral trade sanctions under its "Super 301" trade law provision.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 1999

NATO steps into a quagmire

Call it the first humanitarian empire. For a moment, look beyond the horrific slaughter and the terrible plight of ethnic Albanian refugees. The immediate crisis obscures a host of profound long-term -- and largely unintended consequences -- of the current Balkan intervention that will impact U.S. foreign...
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 1999

Big hopes for small business

The latest government annual report on small enterprises bears out an important fact that is often overlooked amid news-breaking moves by big businesses: Small corporations continue to play a vital role in the Japanese economy. The report, submitted this week to the Cabinet by the Ministry of International...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Yosano criticizes auto 'green tax'

The proposed introduction of fuel-efficiency-oriented car tax is "not quite rational," Trade chief Kaoru Yosano said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

New Finance council tasked to study money flow

The Finance Ministry will launch a new advisory council today to study the changing nature of the nation's money flow from saving and investment patterns in the graying society to ongoing financial system reform, Vice Minister Koji Tanami said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Sharp-tongued Aoshima exits Tokyo tight-lipped

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Hewlett Packard chief talks of split

The chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Co. on Wednesday talked about the most difficult question his firm faced in deciding its future -- whether to keep the hard-copy unit with the computing unit.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Professor brings POW drama to stage

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Apr 20, 1999

Last gasp for political parties?

The raison d'etre of established parties is in serious doubt following their serious setbacks in the April 11 local elections. A case in point was Shintaro Ishihara's overwhelming victory in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Ishihara, a former lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, now running...
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

Ishihara's China stance throbbing headache for Japan

Japan has no intention of changing its policy toward China, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday when asked to comment on Tokyo Gov.-elect Shintaro Ishihara's series of anti-China remarks.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 1999

In with a Bang: Allstate banks on discount edge

Last in our series on financial deregulation
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

It's the (domestic) economy, stupid

Forget about export-led growth. The global economy has changed everything. Leaders of countries locked in the economic doldrums need to understand that they never experienced "miracles," nor can they count on one to resolve their problems. Quite simply, they must undertake radical restructuring of their...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

Fourteen planes, six boats and a chopper

SYDNEY -- The boat people are landing. Although still just a trickle, the mostly Chinese illegal immigrants look set to flood through the open door named Australia. Nor is it just human cargo being offloaded on these unprotected shores. Heroin from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia is also being...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Nissan to slash domestic production by 25%

In a desperate effort to accelerate its restructuring, Nissan Motor Co. will cut its annual domestic production capacity by about 25 percent to 1.5 million units over the next few years, President Yoshikazu Hanawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Government attacks USTR barrier report

The government issued a paper Friday attacking an annual trade barrier report released earlier this month by the United States Trade Representative that accuses Tokyo of carrying out unfair trade practices.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Miyazawa mum on splitting Finance

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Friday he will wait and see how the Finance Ministry is to share its policy-planning authority with the proposed Financial Agency.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 1999

Justice for all, even prosecutors

The Public Prosecutor's Office, in any country, is the arm of the law responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and seeing to it that justice is done. In Japan, where collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and business-people is not uncommon, the Public Prosecutor's Office is often the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 1999

Japanese women say single life fine — if they're financially independent

Some say that '70s feminism began its fall from grace in 1986 when a study claimed that a woman's chances of marrying sometime in her life drops to 5 percent after she passes her 35th birthday. The notion that so many nominally liberated women found this conclusion distressing gave rise to the cynical...
JAPAN
Apr 15, 1999

IDC board votes in favor of NTT's takeover offer

In a move that could trigger a trade row between Tokyo and London, the board of International Digital Communications Inc. voted Thursday in favor of a takeover bid by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. over one by Britain's Cable & Wireless PLC.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

Miyazawa shrugs off dying support for debt scheme

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Wednesday played down the eroding enthusiasm within the private sector toward a debt-for-equity scheme that would help industries out from under mountains of debt.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 1999

Bad news for party politics

What role did the nation's political parties play in the first round of the current nationwide local elections Sunday? True, the parties supported many candidates who ran for gubernatorial or mayoral posts in some prefectures or for seats in prefectural or municipal assemblies. But in most of those local...
JAPAN
Apr 13, 1999

Hayami urges new deposit insurance plan

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday that a new depositor-protection system should replace a "payoff" plan scheduled to begin in April 2001.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 11, 1999

Along the way

When we think about takeout lunches in Japan, we must go back a long way. Surely you have seen in museums the beautiful lacquer lunch boxes the nobility used when they went to the countryside on excursions. These picnics were quite elegant occasions with poetry writing and incense ceremonies. But long...
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 1999

If it could happen to Superman . . .

Founded in 1995, the Japan Spinal Cord Foundation (provisional, since members are still raising the money necessary to legalize the foundation) has just achieved a major breakthrough. For months, members had been trying to make contact with an established similar organization, the American Paralysis...

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.