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JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Ex-Zero pilot tells Japan to avoid all war

A former Zero fighter pilot who shot down more than 60 Allied planes during World War II has called on Japan not to forget the horror of war and to make sure that it never becomes involved in a military conflict again.
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2000

Preparing to welcome foreign students

Japan could soon see the long-expected increase in the number of foreign students attending its universities and specialized schools that the government has been promoting with only limited success. In a marked departure for this country's official development assistance policy, a new program scheduled...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2000

Number of new condos for sale in Tokyo rises 17.9%

The number of new condominiums put on sale in metropolitan Tokyo rose 17.9 percent in July from a year earlier to 9,081, a private research institute said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Entry for Japanese tougher at Portland, Oregon airport

OSAKA -- Japanese travelers to the United States appear to have become targeted by U.S. immigration officials at an Oregon airport amid a crackdown on illegal immigrants from Asia, according to recent press reports from Oregon.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Young journalists cover Republican National Convention

PHILADELPHIA -- Mika Maeda, a 16-year-old high school student from Kanagawa Prefecture, made her journalistic debut last week here at the Republican National Convention.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Cases of student violence toward teachers up 11%

Incidents of students being violent toward teachers at public schools increased more than 11 percent to about 5,000 cases nationwide in the 1999 school year, according to an Education Ministry report released Friday.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2000

Japan sends economic mission to southern Lebanon

Japan will dispatch a government mission to Lebanon this month to explore the possibility of extending economic aid for the reconstruction of the former Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon, Foreign Ministry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Blasted kids need scolding, Tokyo government says

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday announced a plan to save the capital's children from "a state of moral and social decay," by calling on adults to scold children and participate in activities like "family bonding day" every third Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

Cuba's VP coming to Tokyo in fall

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage plans to visit Tokyo in early October at the Japanese government's invitation to discuss with Japanese leaders ways to strengthen hitherto estranged relations between the two countries, diplomatic sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 12, 2000

Bush makes Moscow nervous

The election year is disrupting the normally smooth, quiet summer in the United States. Newspapers replace Harry Potter books as beach reading, Republican and Democratic conventions dominate television, the two parties are finalizing platforms, the two candidates exchange mutual verbal abuse, voters...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Aug 12, 2000

Lieberman gives Gore a boost

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut is Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's choice for vice president. The choice is a masterful one. Lieberman brings several big pluses to Gore's candidacy:
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2000

BOJ votes to abandon ultraeasy money policy

The Bank of Japan on Friday defied acute political pressure and decided to abandon its "zero-interest-rate" policy.
COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2000

What are the world's options in Myanmar?

KAWTHOOLEI, Myanmar -- From a distance, the jungle looks peaceful. Dense, green growth covers hills that march endlessly onward. Primitive villages emerge in simple clearings: wood and bamboo buildings, covered by thatched roofs, sitting on stilts and open to rain, animals and mosquitoes.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 12, 2000

Bringing out the flavor of the clay

Shuroku Harada is the consummate potter. First off, this highly successful ceramist doesn't put on any proud airs; he maintains a humbleness that is important when working with the earth. He shapes the clay and the clay has shaped him, so to speak, into what he is today; mutual respect at its best.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

NPA survey finds Internet-related crime, arrests surging

The number of Internet-related criminal cases in which arrests were made totaled 201 in the first six months of this year, compared with 247 cases in all of 1999, according to a National Police Agency survey released Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Major political players plan to scatter for summer break

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will play golf in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, this week, while Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa will spend about two weeks in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, beginning next week during their summer holidays.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

Politicians know ordinary people best: Aizawa

The government will not delay again the sale of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a Softbank Corp.-led consortium on Sept. 1, despite a controversial clause in the contract, the new chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

Bridgestone forecasts loss after U.S. unit recalls tires

Bridgestone Corp. said Thursday it expects an extraordinary loss of 37.2 billion yen on a consolidated basis this business year in connection with the recall of some 6.5 million tires by its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

Diamond Power wins MITI contract

In a move to facilitate competition in the power industry, a yearlong contract with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry was awarded Thursday to Diamond Power Corp. -- an affiliate of Mitsubishi Corp. -- to supply electricity to MITI's main building and its annex in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district....
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

Sumitomo, Mitsui firms eye 401(k)

Eight companies belonging to the Sumitomo and Mitsui groups announced Thursday that they will jointly set up a company in September to handle the 401(k) type of pension plan expected to be introduced next year.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

BOJ holds cards in 'zero-rate' maneuvers

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami is likely to urge the central bank's Policy Board to terminate the nearly 18-month-old "zero-interest-rate" policy at its policy-setting meeting today, monetary sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Panel says payment ceiling must rise

Payments by the state to crime victims should be increased substantially to match current wage levels, a private advisory body to the head of the National Police Agency's secretariat said in an interim report released Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Singapore free-trade talks to open

In a significant departure from its traditional trade policy, Japan will open formal negotiations with Singapore by the end of this year on concluding a free-trade agreement between the two Asian countries, government sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Agreement signed in 'Nishi-Tokyo'

Faced with a declining birthrate and falling tax revenues, officials of the cities of Hoya and Tanashi in western Tokyo signed an agreement Thursday to launch the merger of the two municipalities.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Mount Oyama erupts again, forcing residents to flee

Miyake Island's Mount Oyama erupted Thursday morning for the fourth time in just over a month, forcing nearby residents to evacuate, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2000

Osaka's Yokoyama gets by with suspended sentence

OSAKA -- Former Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama was sentenced Thursday to an 18-month suspended prison term for molesting a 22-year-old female campaign worker during his re-election bid in April 1999.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes