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JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Bureaucrat loses appeal of conviction for bribery

The Tokyo High Court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling sentencing former Vice Health and Welfare Minister Nobuharu Okamitsu to two years in prison for accepting about 60 million yen in bribes from a nursing home operator.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2000

Miyake pets live out evacuation in shelters

Humans are not the only ones being forced to live in an unfamiliar environment away from their homes on Miyake Island due to the continuing volcanic activity.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Rich seniors must pay more: social security panel

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori wants rich elderly people to contribute to social security again to contain the rise in costs being paid by working people, the panel's final report says.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

State hospitals in spotlight over lawsuits

Patients and next of kin filed 199 suits against state-owned hospitals between January 1995 and last August, according to a recent government reply to a parliamentary questionnaire filed by House of Representatives member Nobuto Hosaka.
COMMUNITY
Oct 12, 2000

Till bedtime do us part

At midnight every night, Shoko Ohara, a 39-year-old construction company employee, drives to the station to pick up her hard-working husband Takeshi, an engineer. The two chat during the 10-minute ride to their suburban home, and while Takeshi takes a bath, Shoko warms up his dinner in the kitchen. She...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2000

Taiwan's 'experiment in government' fails

TAIPEI -- The ground heaved and shook in Taiwan's turbulent political landscape last Tuesday, and by the time the dust had cleared after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Tang Fei, President Chen Shui-bian's 5 month-old model for government -- in his words, "a government for all the people" --...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

State files a new appeal to avoid pollution redress

OSAKA -- The government filed a request Friday with the Osaka High Court, in an effort to reopen an appeal which resulted in a lower court ruling that the state and a highway operator pay compensation to residents of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, for air polluted by vehicle exhaust emissions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2000

Celebrate the elderly when they stop saving

On Sept. 15, the country "celebrated" Respect for the Aged Day, when we honor our elders, who pass their wisdom and experience down to us so that our lives and those of our children will be happier and more fulfilling. Of course, nothing is farther from the truth. We in the industrialized world seem...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Child counselors may pitch in against crime

The Health and Welfare Ministry will ask child counselors and psychiatric experts in five cities to organize teams to deal with juvenile crimes, in a trial project starting in April, ministry officials said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2000

Is drug-price cure worse than the disease?

WASHINGTON -- Election years in the United States are good for political consultants but bad for everyone else. Especially the average citizen who bears the brunt of Washington-style "reform."
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2000

Unsold land leaves cities in debt

As many as 31 municipalities in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures are suffering from the fiscal burden of long-unsold plots of land owned by public-sector developers to which they have provided loan guarantees, according to the latest survey by Kyodo News.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2000

The right WTO strategy for the wrong reasons

U.S. President Bill Clinton's victory in getting Congress in line on the WTO question was capped by a triumphant New York Times Op-Ed piece by him about why China should be in the World Trade Organization. There are many good reasons why, but Clinton's argument that this will "save" China and make it...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Medical insurance scheme bankrupt by 2002: ministry

The government's medical insurance scheme for smaller firms, which covers nearly 20 million salaried workers, will be effectively bankrupt by the end of fiscal 2002, the Ministry of Health and Welfare revealed Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Snow Brand to cut 1,300 jobs, form alliance with Nestle

Snow Brand Milk Products Co., which was embroiled in a massive food-poisoning scandal this summer, unveiled a major restructuring plan Tuesday that includes cutting 1,300 jobs -- 20 percent of its workforce -- within 21/2 years and closing its Osaka plant.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Japan seeks biomedical boost

Japan plans to improve its competitiveness in biomedical engineering with the creation of a liaison panel involving government, medical and industry representatives, government officials revealed Saturday.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

BOJ to maintain easy money policy

The Bank of Japan will continue maintaining an easy monetary policy following the lifting of its "zero-interest-rate" policy last month, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Wealthy seniors should pay social security: panel

A private advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has proposed that the government force better-off retirees to pay into social security again to prevent the system from collapsing and to ease the growing burden on younger, working people.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2000

80% of Japanese die at medical centers

About 80 percent of Japanese died at hospitals and clinics in recent years, compared with just over 50 percent in the United States and Britain, according to a report by a think tank affiliated with the Health and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2000

Snow Brand to resume sales of milk products

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Wednesday it will resume sales of low-fat and calcium-enriched milk made at its Osaka plant, the source of a recent food-poisoning scandal.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 6, 2000

America enters the election homestretch

At long last, it is time for the U.S. presidential campaign of 2000 to begin. The Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-4) marked the unofficial end of summer, the start of school and the traditional kickoff of the political campaigns.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Analyst attacks organ transplant proposal

A leading sociologist has slammed a proposal under consideration by a government-funded study group that the current law on organ transplants be revised to allow the procurement of organs from brain-dead patients with just the written consent of family members.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2000

Taisho Life collapses amid scandal

The Financial Services Agency on Monday ordered Taisho Life Insurance Co. to suspend its operations following the arrest earlier in the day of the head of the insurer's largest shareholder, in connection with the insurer's capital-building methods.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2000

Agency bill would force polluters to clean up soil

The Environment Agency is planning to draft a bill that would oblige polluters to remove toxic chemicals and heavy metals from polluted soil, according to agency sources.

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