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JAPAN
Jul 11, 1997

Financier-reduction plan shot down by experts

Experts criticized a set of proposals July 11 announced by the Liberal Democratic Party for cutting government-affiliated financial institutions because they lack meaningful principles on which such downsizing can be based.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 1997

New MITI vice minister calls for change

As the global community enters an age of overwhelming competition, Japan must increase its efforts to revamp economic structures and create a new system with greater efficiency, according to Osamu Watanabe, who on July 11 was appointed vice minister for international trade and industry.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 1997

Request for disaster relief

The Japan Emergency Team, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization specializing in disaster relief, is preparing to send members to the site of a landslide that killed 19 people in Kagoshima Prefecture on July 10, the team said July 10.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 1997

Sapporo to host U.N. arms symposium

A U.N.-sponsored international conference on disarmament will be held July 22 to 25 in Sapporo to promote international cooperation in arms reduction, Foreign Ministry officials said July 8.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 1997

Chugoku Focus: Islanders, firms lament costly Seto bridge

KOJIMA, Okayama Pref. -- At 8 a.m. every weekday, several high school students await their trains here at JR Kojima Station for an unusual trip -- a 20-km commute across the Seto Onland Sea to their school in Shikoku.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 1997

Peru to get loans of 42.6 billion yen

Japan promised some 42.6 billion yen July 3 in fresh economic aid to Peru, while Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori brushed aside concerns over terrorism and urged Japanese firms to invest further in his country.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1997

U.N.'s Akashi urges nation to aid North Korea

U.N. Undersecretary General Yasushi Akashi urged Japan on July 2 to extend humanitarian emergency food aid to North Korea to ease its severe food shortage.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1997

Dutch juror throws support behind war claimants

During his teaching stint at a Dutch naval cadet school in the 1950s and '60s, Frits Kalshoven taught aspiring officers about how to fight a war as humanely as possible.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1997

Dialogue seen as key to Russian row

Building confidence and stepping up cooperation with Russia through high-level dialogue are the keys to resolving the long-standing territorial row over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, according to Shunji Yanai, newly appointed foreign vice minister.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 1997

Japan-Nordic summit ends with focus on environment, welfare

BERGEN, Norway -- The leaders of Japan and the Nordic countries ended their first-ever summit June 26 with a call to work together on the environment and share expertise on social welfare programs.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 1997

The Asahara Trial: Hayashi admits to subway gas attack

Former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Yasuo Hayashi admitted in court June 26 that he released nerve gas in a Tokyo subway car in March 1995, saying he could not refuse orders he believed were issued by cult founder Shoko Asahara.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 1997

Consultant offers tips on narrowing cultural gap

To achieve cross-cultural understanding, people living in a foreign land should first become fully aware of the cultural differences they face, then learn to respect them and finally attempt to reconcile the differences using their own culture's framework.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1997

NPA chief says foreigners, terrorism wrecking public safety

The head of the National Police Agency said June 24 that Japanese are becoming increasingly fearful for their safety due to a series of recent terrorist acts here and abroad, as well as an increasing number of crimes committed by foreigners living in Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1997

Court rules firm can withhold toxic water leak data

The Tokyo High Court reversed on June 24 a 1995 lower court decision ordering a public entity to publish data on the possible leakage of polluted water from a waste dumping site in Hinode, western Tokyo
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1997

Film fans bid farewell to Shintaro Katsu

Hundreds bid a final farewell June 24 to actor Shintaro Katsu, star of the "Blind Swordsman" film series, at Tsukiji Honganji Temple in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, where his funeral service was held. Katsu died of cancer June 21 at the age of 65.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 1997

Latin American center opens in Kyushu

FUKUOKA -- Tiempo Iberoamericano, Kyushu's first Latin American cultural center, opened here recently in response to the growing needs of the Latin American community and the increasing interest of Japanese.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 1997

Father tells police his son killed friend

The body of a slain 19-year-old youth was found June 18 beside the Tama River in western Tokyo after a man called police to say his son and some friends had killed another of their friends, officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 1997

Organ donors' rights become key issue

Now that the Diet has passed a legislator-proposed bill to allow organ transplants from brain-dead donors, some patients may have a chance in the near future to receive organs in this country. The new law ends a 30-year self-imposed ban on such transplants by the medical profession.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 1997

Analysis: Health system reform falls short

With the Diet's approval of a revision to the Health Insurance Law, many observers are frustrated with the less-than-anticipated results of well over half a year of heated and repeated discussions.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 1997

Upper House passes bill to double medical fees

A much-debated bill that will more than double medical costs for the public from Sept. 1 cleared the Upper House on June 13, supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 1997

Ambassadors issue call to ban land mines

Japan should join with the 100-plus nations that have agreed to back a Canadian initiative to ban antipersonnel land mines, the ambassadors to Tokyo from Canada, Belgium, Austria, Norway and the Philippines said in a joint news conference June 12.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 1997

Posts ministry fights panel's privatization plan

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry repeatedly stressed the need June 11 to keep postal, postal savings and insurance services in the hands of the state, saying that privatization would strip rural, unprofitable areas of their basic postal services.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1997

Language teachers' union testifies before Tokyo labor panel

The Labor Commission of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a hearing June 10 on complaints from a labor union representing foreign-language instructors working for Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1997

Keidanren suspends DKB, Nomura over 'sokaiya' outlays

The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) will suspend Nomura Securities Co. and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank from participation in its activities for a year due to their recent involvement in dubious activities, the federation's chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, said June 9.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1997

Medical bills about to double

A bill to revise the Medical Insurance Law is now expected to be enacted within the current Diet session because top officials of the House of Councilors agreed June 9 to quickly put the measure to a vote.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 1997

Aoki praises Japan's handling of hostage crisis

The Japanese government's commitment to peacefully resolving the Lima hostage crisis probably saved many hostages' lives during the daring rescue mission, former Ambassador Morihisa Aoki said in an interview June 6.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 1997

The Asahara Trial: Scientist recounts sarin deaths

The people who were killed in the Tokyo subway nerve gas attack were poisoned by high-density sarin, a National Police Agency scientist reiterated June 5 in the trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1997

Nonprofit groups step closer to corporate status

A bill giving corporate status to volunteer and other citizens groups and recognizing them as official nonprofit organizations is expected to clear the Lower House Committee on the Cabinet June 5.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1997

Postal ministry pounds privatization plan

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, as expected, came out June 4 against the idea of privatizing postal services , postal deposits and insurance in its response to the government's blue-ribbon panel on administrative reform.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1997

War memorial will not replace earthquake hall

Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials on June 2 withdrew plans to raze the major part of an earthquake memorial hall in Sumida Ward that architects praise as a historic structure, after receiving harsh protests from experts and the media over efforts to build a war memorial hall.

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