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JAPAN
Jul 4, 1997

Supreme court rejects Inamura appeal

The Supreme Court on July 4 rejected an appeal from a former Environment Agency director general, letting stand a lower court sentence of three years in prison and a 300 million yen fine for tax evasion.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 1997

Aichi quits Shinshinto, hits Ozawa's leadership

Kazuo Aichi, a senior Lower House member of Shinshinto, will leave the largest opposition party next week, sources said July 4.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 1997

Shinshinto panel urges end to open primaries

Shinshinto should stop using open primaries to choose its leader, a panel within the largest opposition party said in a report released July 4.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 1997

The Asahara Trial: Confessed killer of Sakamotos testifies

The defense team for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara cross-examined on July 3 a former cultist who has confessed to being involved in the murder of an anti-Aum lawyer and his family.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 1997

The Tokyo Elections: Small parties get their chance

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on July 6 is widely seen as the most important vote of the year, but it is not only a battlefield for the nation's largest parties.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 1997

Errant banks, securities firms face crackdown

Government leaders reiterated July 3 the need to toughen penalties on financial institutions due to racketeering scandals involving a leading city bank and Japan's major securities firms.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1997

Major oil spill hits Tokyo Bay

A supertanker ran aground July 2 in Tokyo Bay, dumping as much as 15,000 kiloliters of crude oil in one of the worst environmental accidents in Japanese waters, the Maritime Safety Agency said.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1997

Gender equality still elusive, white paper says

Women in Japan continue to face a wide range of difficulties in the workplace as well as in other aspects of life, according to a 1997 white paper on gender equality submitted July 1 to the Cabinet.
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

JCP member wins wiretap damages against police

The Tokyo High Court upheld on June 26 a lower court ruling and ordered the national government and Kanagawa Prefecture to pay about 4 million yen in damages to a former Japanese Communist Party official for bugging his home phone in Machida, Tokyo, in 1986.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1997

Tomobe pleads not guilty to fraud in Orange Kyosai affair

Upper House member Tatsuo Tomobe pleaded not guilty June 25 to charges of conspiring with his wife, son and political supporters to swindle depositors in a mutual aid society.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1997

Japan, China to discuss yen loans this fall

Tokyo will begin talks with Beijing as early as this autumn to determine the size of official Japanese yen loans to be extended to China in fiscal 1999 and 2000, government officials said June 24.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1997

Tokyo's strength Japan's weakness, Kankeiren says

The nation's socioeconomic system is in need of reform because information and policymaking is too concentrated in Tokyo, according to the new chief of the federation that represents industries in the Kansai region.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1997

Hashimoto throws U.N. his environment pitch...

NEW YORK -- Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on June 23 urged industrialized countries to take the initiative in combating climate change problems by creating green technologies and disseminating them to developing nations.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1997

Corporate Governance: Firms' sense of ethics said lacking

Amid the scandals involving the nation's top companies, demands for better corporate governance have been mounting not only from the public but from business circles, according to a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 1997

Web site combed for clues to Kobe boy's murder

OSAKA -- Police have obtained records from an Osaka Internet service provider in the hope of finding the killer of an 11-year-old Kobe boy, officials said June 20.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 1997

Decision on capital relocation postponed till late '98

A government panel studying the relocation of the functions of the capital outside Tokyo said June 20 that it will postpone a decision on a site for an unspecified period beyond the October 1998 deadline in line with the state's decision to delay the project.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 1997

Powerful typhoon approaches Shikoku

A large and powerful typhoon is expected to start battering Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula with winds of up to 90 kph from late June 19, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 1997

Donor states to discuss aid to Cambodia

Amid escalating tensions between the two rival parties in Cambodia's ruling coalition, Japan and other aid-donor countries and organizations will hold a two-day meeting in Paris at the beginning of next month to discuss fresh economic assistance for Phnom Penh, government officials said June 19.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 1997

NTT eyes international market as Diet approves breakup

Following the Diet's passage of three telecommunications bills to breakup Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. into three firms under the control of a single holding company, NTT President Junichiro Miyazu said on June 13 that the reorganization will globalize Japan's telecommunications industry.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 1997

Top surgeon backs brain-dead transplants

Full disclosure of information, fairness and the best efforts of those involved will be crucial when the nation resumes organ transplants from brain-dead donors, a liver transplant expert told a Diet hearing June 13.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 1997

Land Agency warns Tokyo about overpopulation problem

Overpopulation is hindering the Tokyo area from protecting itself from natural disasters and is causing other serious problems, a National Land Agency report warned June 13.
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
Jun 11, 1997

Rescued sailor resumes quest to save killer whales

Disappointed, but relieved -- that is how Michael Reppy characterizes his state of mind. Disappointed because his bid for a single-handed trans-Pacific sailing record fell short, but relieved to have survived and be in Japan working to free five killer whales captured last February.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 1997

German petition supports compensation for 'comfort women'

A representative from the German World Day of Prayer Committee presented 66,510 German signatures to the Prime Minister's Office on June 11 urging the government to pay individual reparations to former "comfort women."
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 6, 1997

Okamitsu tells Diet 60 million yen he got was a loan

Nobuharu Okamitsu, a former vice health minister now on trial on charges of taking 60 million yen in bribes from the head of a welfare business group, said in unsworn testimony June 6 at the Diet that he received the money as a temporary loan.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 1997

Nomura ex-chief denies knowledge of 'sokaiya' payoffs

Yoshihisa Tabuchi, former president of Nomura Securities Co., maintained June 5 in unsworn Diet testimony that he had nothing to do with the alleged illegal payoffs by the nation's largest brokerage to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 1997

MasterCard says Japan vulnerable to credit fraud

Japan's lack of effective legislation against credit card fraud is making the nation more attractive for counterfeiters, a senior official at MasterCard International warned June 5.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1997

Kobe killer's note said similar to 'Zodiac'

KOBE -- A message written on a note found stuffed in the mouth of 11-year-old Jun Hase's severed head last week bears a resemblance to those written by the "Zodiac" killer, who terrorized the San Francisco area in the late 1960s, investigative sources said June 4.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight