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JAPAN
Oct 2, 1997

Economic turmoil won't deter South Korea, trade chief says

Staff writerDespite the current economic turmoil involving major business conglomerates and financial institutions, South Korea says it will maintain its deregulation and liberalization policies."We launched this market principle to strengthen company management, and it should help increase international...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1997

Hashimoto dodges Sato issue in Diet

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto dodged questions Oct. 1 over his responsibility in the failed Cabinet appointment of an ex-convict and instead repeated his reform pledge.During a Lower House plenary session, Kansei Nakano, chairman of opposition party Shinshinto's Diet Affairs Committee, urged Hashimoto...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1997

Hashimoto opens Diet with apology over Sato

In his policy speech before the Diet on Sept. 29, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto reiterated apologies to the public for appointing a politician once convicted of bribery to the Cabinet he formed earlier this month.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 1997

Top court strikes Unification appeal

In a first-ever ruling on religious group tactics to canvass offerings, the Supreme Court on Sept. 18 upheld a high court decision that ordered a religious organization to pay 37.6 million yen in damages to two Fukuoka women who were coerced to donate their assets.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 1997

Nation can't afford more pump-priming

There is no possibility that an economic pump-priming package will be drawn up in the latter half of this fiscal year due to financial constraints, a top Finance Ministry official said Sept. 1.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1997

87 Diet members launch opposition study group

In a move seen by many as a stepping stone toward the formation of a new opposition party, the Reform Council was launched on August 25 by 87 Diet members from four opposition parties.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 1997

Okinawa accepts heliport boring survey

The Okinawa Prefectural Government officially accepted a central government request August 1 to conduct borings at a site off Nago on the east coast of Okinawa Island as part of a survey for a sea-based U.S. military heliport facility, prefectural officials said.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 1997

Biker rights advocate speaks up instead of spinning his wheels

If you don't speak up, you will lose. This is the motto of Hideo Yoshihara, 49, a bookstore owner in Tokyo's Ota Ward, who has earned a reputation for his campaign to change the nation's motorcycle laws.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 1997

Keizai Doyukai contemplates future of Japanese business

KARUIZAWA, Nagano Pref. -- Business leaders exchanged opinions July 17 on Japan's international economic relations and the role of the private sector in the ongoing structural reforms at the 12th summer seminar of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
JAPAN
Jul 16, 1997

Ministries told to unite on climate change

Ministries need to transcend their differences and agree to a comprehensive policy to combat global climate change if Japan hopes to successfully host the third U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in December, according to an environmental bureau officer at a press conference July 16 in Tokyo....
JAPAN
Jul 10, 1997

Maritime industry, labor grapple with harbor reform

Representatives of the maritime transport industry and labor unions expressed their opinion on proposed deregulation of the port transport business in a public discussion held July 10 by the government's Administrative Reform Committee.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 1997

Textbook screening gets ministry's special treatment

Politically biased, sometimes inconsistent and ineffective, but otherwise reasonable.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 1997

U.S. education expert sees gradual diversification here

Gearing toward individual-oriented education in Japan is a worthy goal, but whether it is actually possible remains questionable, according to the only foreign member of a core advisory panel to the education minister.
JAPAN
May 26, 1997

Tokai radiation no health threat, experts say

The amount of radiation that leaked in March at the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, is too small to pose a threat to human health, four members of the Japan Radiation Research Society claimed May 26 during a news briefing.
JAPAN
May 19, 1997

Deadline for reviewing bureaucracy is set

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto instructed his advisory panel May 19 to review the civil servant system and by the end of fiscal 1998 wrap up a report detailing ways to maximize the effect of ongoing efforts to trim the central government.
JAPAN
May 16, 1997

Wakasa likely to resign over ANA reshuffle

Tokuji Wakasa, honorary chairman of All Nippon Airways, is likely to resign as a board member to take responsibility for confusion over the airline's personnel change in senior management, sources said May 16.
JAPAN
May 12, 1997

Cultist Niimi breaks silence, praises Asahara

Breaking more than six months of silence, senior Aum Shinrikyo leader Tomomitsu Niimi expressed his continuous gratitude May 12 to cult founder Shoko Asahara for leading him along "the great path."
JAPAN
May 6, 1997

Key LDP members wary of cost of 2008 Olympics

Several senior lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said May 6 they are concerned over the financial burden of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
JAPAN
May 2, 1997

Osaka unveils guideline for hiring non-Japanese

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government introduced a new guideline May 2 allowing foreigners with permanent residency to engage in virtually all municipal jobs except posts involving policymaking or unilateral decision-making in matters concerning local residents' rights.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 1997

Asahara denies guilt in gas attack, 16 other cases

In a barely intelligible statement, sometimes using English and sometimes Japanese, Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara said April 24 that he is not guilty of ordering the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system or a series of other crimes.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1997

Vote looms on legality of brain death, transplants

After years of inaction, members of the Diet must make the difficult decision of whether brain death should be stipulated as human death to pave the way for allowing organ transplants from brain-dead donors in Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1997

Criminal charges sought against PNC, officials

The Science and Technology Agency has asked police to take criminal action against Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. and some PNC officers over a series of accidents and ensuing coverup attempts at its atomic facilities, agency chief Riichiro Chikaoka said April 16.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 1997

MITI continues meddling with other ministries

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has a long-standing reputation in government circles of meddling in the turf of other ministries, and on Mar. 28 it was the posts ministry that felt its toes stepped on.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1997

English teachers say industry needs more regulation, not less

OSAKA -- The English-language conversation industry is in urgent need of reform and, unlike other sectors of the economy, needs more regulation, not less.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 1997

Execs want more power for prime minister

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) called Feb. 28 for a revision in the Cabinet Law to give more power to the prime minister, in the hope that the prime minister will take a stronger initiative in conducting administrative reform.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 1997

Osaka clears way to hire non-Japanese

OSAKA -- An interim report released by the Osaka Prefectural Government on Feb. 26 said that 53.5 percent of its workers do not exercise public authority.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 1997

Abortion rules may expand

An organization of obstetricians and gynecologists has begun a move to make abortions available in cases in which the fetus has a fatal disease or defect.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 1997

Confessions, cooperation helped Aum evade antisubversive law

The Public Security Commission's decision Jan. 31 not to invoke the Antisubversive Activities Law against Aum Shinrikyo reflects tremendous changes the cult has gone through in the past few years, including the arrests of its key figures and fugitives and its declaration of bankruptcy.When the Public...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Tokyoites discuss possible capital move

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a conference with Tokyo residents and workers Jan. 27 to discuss relocating the capital outside the city.The Tokyo government restated the opinion of some that the issue should be considered very carefully and that reform and decentralization of central government...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 1997

Energy-environment turf war flares

Japan, the only industrialized nation without an environmental assessment law, is finally moving toward creating one, but an ongoing tug of war between the Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry is casting a shadow over such prospects.The dispute centers on whether power...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past