Search - time

 
 
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1998

Obuchi, ex-India leader hold arms talks

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Thursday urged India to cooperate with international efforts to promote nuclear nonproliferation.During talks in Tokyo with former Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Obuchi also acknowledged India's positive stance toward signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1998

Canada backs APEC on Japan's forestry, fishery tariffs

Canada on Thursday joined the APEC chorus in calling on Japan to further reduce tariffs on forestry and fishery products during a high-level meeting in Tokyo, Foreign Ministry officials said.At two-day vice ministerial talks ended Thursday, the Canadian side expressed dissatisfaction with Japan's failure...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1998

Ministry suggests refresher courses for teachers

Not only students but also teachers will be encouraged to study harder in the next century -- to brush up their teaching and guiding abilities to meet the changing needs of kids, according to an advisory panel to the education minister.In its final report released Thursday, the Educational Personnel...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1998

Banks again asked to take public funds

OSAKA -- For the second time this week, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Thursday urged Japanese banks to quickly apply for public funds to accelerate their bad-loan writeoffs.In his keynote speech at the 24th ASEAN-Japan Business Meeting here, he said that Japanese financial institutions, facing...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1998

LDP tax panel prepares to dig up more tax cuts

A tax panel of the Liberal Democratic Party is set to begin work to overhaul the nation's tax system in an attempt to help generate lasting economic growth.Attention is focused on how much more the LDP's Tax System Research Commission, chaired by former Finance Minister Yoshiro Hayashi, can add to planned...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Tsukiji to reveal fish market's inner sanctum

The Tsukiji Market in Tokyo's Chuo Ward will fully open to the public for the first time ever during a two-day event offering fish and produce at bargain prices.The event, to take place on Nov. 6 and 7 from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., will provide the public with a rare chance to enter the inner market, which...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Tax panel debates deduction of housing loan interest

The government Tax Commission on Tuesday debated the idea of deducting housing loan interest.At a general meeting of the advisory panel to the prime minister, six of some 30 panel members voiced pros and cons about the idea while broadly discussing tax reductions to stimulate the moribund economy as...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Seafood exec held over tainted salmon roe sales

SAPPORO -- The former president of a fish processing firm in Hokkaido was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of having knowingly sold salmon roe tainted with E. coli bacteria, which sickened dozens of people nationwide, police officials said.The arrest reportedly marks the first time a food company manager...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Ratio of job offers to seekers hits new low

The number of job offers to job seekers hit a postwar low in September, dropping to 0.49 from 0.50 in August, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday.With only 49 job offers for every 100 people looking for work, the seasonally adjusted ratio gauging labor demand continues a steady decline that began when the...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1998

Toshiba, Hitachi report huge midterm losses

Plagued by the prolonged economic slump and falling semiconductor prices worldwide, electronics giants Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. on Tuesday reported their first midterm net losses in decades.And they were huge. Hitachi Ltd. posted an unconsolidated net loss of 124.7 billion yen -- the first midterm...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 1998

'Air Do' gets go-ahead for Sapporo-to-Tokyo flights

Hokkaido International Airlines obtained a license Monday from the Transport Ministry to operate regular passenger flights between Sapporo and Tokyo, thus becoming the second new carrier to enter the domestic airline market under ongoing deregulation efforts.The Sapporo-based firm, better known as "Air...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

FSA declares LTCB insolvent

The Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan's latent losses exceeded its net worth as of Sept. 30, indicating that it effectively is insolvent, the Financial Supervisory Agency said Friday.The LTCB was solvent in March but became effectively insolvent partly because the bank had not made sufficient provisions...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

NEC posts first midterm loss in five years

Struggling with the domestic economic slump and falling prices in the semiconductor market, NEC Corp. suffered a consolidated net mid-term earnings loss for the first time in five years, company officials said Friday.The net loss for the April-September period was 19.7 billion yen, with the operating...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

'93 Rodong may have flown over Japan, agency admits

The Defense Agency has been informed by U.S. sources that the Rodong missile North Korea test fired in May 1993 might have flown over Japan, Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga said Friday.The single-stage missile possibly flew some 1,300 km and landed in the Pacific, Nukaga quoted the U.S. sources...
JAPAN
Oct 23, 1998

Death sentence 'a matter of course,' court says

Staff writerFriday's ruling that sentenced to death former Aum Shinrikyo senior figure Kazuaki Okazaki is widely viewed by legal experts as "a matter of course," considering the heinous nature of the crimes.Explaining the reasons for capital punishment, presiding Judge Megumi Yamamuro at the Tokyo District...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1998

The Aum Trials: Cultist denies killing defector

Toshiyasu Ouchi, a former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive charged with murder in connection with the 1989 slaying of a cultist, denied being a party to the killing Thursday at his first trial hearing before the Tokyo District Court.Ouchi, 46, who at one time headed the cult's Russian branch, was deported from...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

Bank shares help Nikkei close over 14,000

Tokyo share prices forged ahead strongly Wednesday, with the 225-issue Nikkei average recovering the 14,000 level for the first time in a month.The key market gauge, a 240.85-point gainer the previous day, ended 408.28 points, or 2.96 percent, higher at 14,216.33.Banking issues continued their upward...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

Annan hears Obuchi action program pledge

Japan will assist Africa by implementing the action program adopted at the second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-II), Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Wednesday, according to Foreign Ministry officials.Obuchi told Annan, a participant in...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Six DKB execs freed for paying 'sokaiya'

The Tokyo District Court handed down suspended prison sentences Monday to six former Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank executives in connection with the bank's illicit payments to "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike.Presiding Judge Kiyoshi Kimura sentenced former DKB Senior Managing Director Kenji Tanaka,...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Small firms slow to face Y2K bug

Not even a third of Japan's small and medium-size firms have begun to face the millennium bug problem out of a lack money or knowledge, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency said Monday.The agency sent out surveys to about 10,000 small and medium-size companies in September, to which 2,026 companies...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 1998

Resolution expected to be Nukaga's ouster

Defense Agency director general Fukushiro Nukaga is widely expected to be forced to step down to take responsibility for an ongoing procurement scandal after Upper House passage Friday of a nonbinding resolution calling for his immediate resignation.Although the defense chief reiterated Friday evening...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 1998

Not-so-sweet potato vendor torches truck at Obuchi house

A sweet potato vendor was arrested Friday after setting fire to his truck in front of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's private residence in Tokyo's Kita Ward, police said.Yasushi Maeda, 47, reportedly told police that he wanted to take out his stress from bad business on Obuchi. "I tried to create confusion,"...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 1998

Diversity urged for energy security ahead of APEC meet

Staff writerGINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- Australia must make the most of its rich natural resources and knowledge of efficient energy infrastructure to help Asia-Pacific economies meet the surging energy demands of the next century, said Warwick Parer, Australian minister for resources and energy."One...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 1998

BOJ minutes: Lone voice argued for key interest rate cut

Repeated calls by a Bank of Japan Policy Board member to strengthen the BOJ's easy monetary policy finally led to a board decision at its Sept. 9 meeting to lower a key short-term interest rate, according to minutes of the meeting released Friday.On Sept. 9, the policy board decided to further ease...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1998

Recapitalization plan on verge of becoming law

The new bank recapitalization bill is expected to be enacted today on the last day of the current Diet session.The bill, which cleared the Lower House Tuesday, is expected to be approved by the Upper House's plenary session this afternoon.At the same time, the chamber's plenary session will also approve...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1998

Expert calls for overhaul of emergency medical system

Staff writerThe nation's emergency medical system should be greatly improved before organ transplants from brain-dead donors are promoted, said one veteran doctor who specializes in emergency care.Yuichi Hamabe, director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bokuto Hospital's Life Support Emergency Center in Sumida...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1998

Bank infusions should be simultaneous, Hayami says

The nation's 19 major banks should receive capital injections not one at a time but all at once to maximize the move after a bank recapitalization bill designed to reinforce their capital bases is enacted, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday.With the injection of public funds, clear-cut disclosure...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1998

SDF to conduct first combined drill

The air, maritime and ground units of the Self-Defense Forces will join in a tripartite exercise next month for the first time in SDF history, Defense Agency officials said Thursday.The exercise will take place Nov. 15 in and around Iojima, an uninhabited island some 1,500 km south of Tokyo, they said....
JAPAN
Oct 14, 1998

DPJ's Ikeda calls new bill 'opaque,' counterproductive

Staff writer The banking sector crisis will continue because of the "opaque" bank recapitalization bill, Motohisa Ikeda, a key member of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Wednesday. The bill, expected to be enacted Friday, will not enable accurate assessment of bank assets, sufficient injection of...
JAPAN
Oct 14, 1998

Jamaican leader joins economic chorus

Staff writerJamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson urged Japan on Monday to make an early economic recovery because its weakness negatively impacts not only Jamaica but the international community as a whole."The problems which have occurred in the Japanese economy extend well beyond Japan itself....

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’