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JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

President Kim greets fellow Koreans in Kansai

After arriving in Osaka from Tokyo on Friday afternoon, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and his wife, Lee Hee Ho, met Korean residents of the Kansai region at an Osaka hotel.In front of more than 700 participants, Kim thanked Korean residents for the help they offered when the country was hard hit...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Suddenly mighty yen continues thrashing dollar

The dollar gave up further ground against the yen in Tokyo on Friday amid reports that U.S. President Bill Clinton supports a stronger yen.The dollar plunged to 115.70 yen at one point, its lowest level in 14 months in Tokyo, before settling at 117.18-22 yen at 5 p.m., down from 122.35-37 yen late Thursday.The...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Give banks in need of funds breathing space, Nonaka urges

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka voiced concern Friday about imposing excessive restrictions on banks asking for public funds.Sufficient information disclosure and clarification of management responsibility should be preconditions for infusions of public funds, the chief government spokesman told...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 1998

Tokyo applying for ISO certificate

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will apply for ISO 14001 authorization, an international standard for environmentally friendly office management, by the end of fiscal 1999, Tokyo Gov. Yukio Aoshima said Friday.A total of 1,174 organizations have obtained the authorization across the country, including...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

Yen bulks up to 114; Nikkei takes dive

The dollar continued plummeting against the yen Thursday morning in London, briefly dropping to the 114 level for the first time since July 1997 on stop-loss sales by U.S. hedge funds.While the yen's sudden muscle is a mixed blessing for Japan -- it hurts exporters but helps banks struggling to maintain...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1998

President Kim addresses Diet

Japan and South Korea must establish "future-oriented relations" while working to resolve differences in interpretation over Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said Thursday in a speech to the Diet."The time has come for the two countries to look...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1998

Housing deregulation said essential to boosting demand

Housing deregulation is critical for Japan to stimulate its stagnant domestic demand, Kent Calder, special adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, said Wednesday.Speaking at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Calder pointed to the need to improve transparency, performance-based standards and the...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Saison ties with H.I.S. in travel insurance

Saison Automobile & Fire Insurance Co., a nonlife insurance wing of the Saison group, and H.I.S. Co., a travel agency that has a strong foothold in the overseas travel market, reached a comprehensive tieup agreement Tuesday to provide new insurance services for those traveling abroad, the two companies...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Osaka faces uphill battle to host G-8

Staff writerOSAKA -- A comparative lack of local governmental interest, cool relations between the mayor and governor, and an uninspired promotional campaign have greatly dimmed Osaka's bid to host the Group of Eight summit in 2000, senior prefectural officials said recently.Osaka is one of eight cities...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Japan extends China additional flood aid

Japan will extend 250 million yen in emergency aid to China, which was hit hard by massive flooding, so the country can purchase medicine and medical equipment to deal with epidemics, Foreign Ministry officials said Tuesday.Japan already extended about 250 million yen in emergency aid to China from...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Half of arrested Wakayama duo admits keeping arsenic

WAKAYAMA -- A former Wakayama termite exterminator arrested with his wife on Sunday over alleged insurance fraud has dropped his denials and admitted to police he once kept arsenic, police sources said Tuesday.The lethal substance -- the same as that used in a fatal curry poisoning that killed four...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

EPA reverses forecast to 1.8% negative growth for '98

With amazing foresight, the Economic Planning Agency said Tuesday that the nation's economy will probably shrink by an inflation-adjusted 1.8 percent in fiscal 1998, reversing its initial projection of 1.9 percent growth for the current year.The contraction, which would be the largest one ever recorded...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

U.S. frets foot-dragging on defense guidelines

U.S. President Bill Clinton is concerned about the speed of Diet approval of legislation concerning revised Japan-U.S. defense guidelines, Rust Deming, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, told executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party Tuesday morning.In a meeting with LDP Secretary...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1998

Rebuff to lewdness sparks stabbing

OSAKA -- A woman was seriously wounded when she was stabbed by an unidentified man on a street in Fujiidera, Osaka Prefecture, early Tuesday after refusing to look at his naked bottom, police said.The assailant, after dropping his pants, approached the 21-year-old female restaurant worker on the street...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

Shareholder sues ex-Yamaichi execs

A shareholder of Yamaichi Securities Co. filed a lawsuit Monday against former executives of the firm, demanding they return about 6 billion yen to the failed brokerage.The lawsuit, filed with the Tokyo District Court, is the first legal action by shareholders against Yamaichi over its window dressing.The...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

The Kim Visit: 'Sorry' may not be enough to bridge past

Staff writerWhen South Korean President Kim Dae Jung makes his official visit this week, Japan is expected to apologize and express remorse for its past conduct toward Koreans. But complete reconciliation between the people of the two nations may not be possible until they come to a better mutual understanding...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

Lower House panel passes JNR debt bills

Bills to dispose of 27.8 trillion yen in debts left by the former Japanese National Railways were passed Monday by a Lower House special committee after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and two opposition parties reached a compromise.The bills, which are expected to be passed by a Lower House plenary...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

Investment firm puts trust in disclosure

18th in an occasional series on financial deregulationStaff writerAlliance Capital Investment Trust Management Inc. of Tokyo is attempting to calm anxious customers by fully explaining how their funds have been hurt amid global financial instability, company President Takahiro Fujino said.The severe...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 1998

Workshop to discuss development of Mekong countries

Staff writerHigh-level officials from nine countries and six international organizations will meet in Tokyo early next month to discuss ways to accelerate the development of the greater Mekong subregion despite the deep Asian economic crisis, Foreign Ministry sources said Monday.The workshop, scheduled...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Nikkei has close brush with 13,000

Tokyo share prices managed to eke out a modest gain Friday, thanks to government officials' warnings against speculative selling and buying support by public fund managers.The 225-issue Nikkei average plunged below the 13,000 level briefly for the first time in 12 years and eight months before ending...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Dioxin-tainted soil removal begins in Osaka

OSAKA -- Work started Friday to remove soil highly contaminated with dioxin from an incinerator in Nose, Osaka Prefecture, but the final destination of the soil has yet to be determined.The removal of the soil, which contains more than 1,000 picograms of dioxin per gram of soil, marks the first such...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Lower House stamps reforms in 'epoch-making' action

After weeks of intense negotiations between the Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition camp, key financial reform bills designed to fix Japan's banking sector woes cleared the Lower House Friday evening.The bills were sent immediately to the Upper House and could become law as early as next Friday.After...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Toza students, creditors may be out of luck

OSAKA -- It is highly unlikely that students of the Kansai branches of the failed English-language school Toza Gaigo Gakuin or creditors of Alles, the school's operator, will recover their tuition or loan payments, as the bankrupt firm's collected assets were far less than taxes owed, an administrator...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

New technology firms to show wares at OCCI forum

OSAKA -- The Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry is inviting companies to the Global Venture Forum '98, slated for later this month, to view new technologies created by venture businesses in Japan and other countries.At the two-day convention starting here Oct. 22, 35 venture companies from eight...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

LDP presents new recapitalization plan

Following Friday's passage of key financial reform bills in the Lower House, the Liberal Democratic Party presented its plan to recapitalize financial institutions to four opposition parties.Negotiations between the LDP and the opposition camp over the measures, which would replace the current bank...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

ODA reduction requires greater efficiency: white paper

Reform of Japan's official development assistance is needed to achieve efficient and effective ways of extending foreign aid, an ODA white paper released Friday says."Japan's ODA in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 1999, has been cut by 10.4 percent. ... Therefore, efficiency and effectiveness...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 1998

Conductor oversleeps, delays commuters

OSAKA -- An early morning train run was canceled between Hineno and Otori stations on West Japan Railway's Hanwa Line at 6:04 a.m. after a 34-year-old conductor overslept, officials at Hineno Station said.The conductor, who was not named, finished his duties the previous day around midnight and went...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1998

NGOs urged to play role in fighting human rights abuses

KOBE -- Nongovernmental organizations can play an important role in preventing human rights abuses of refugees by providing care and necessary materials and influencing the international community, an officer with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said Thursday.Milton Moreno, an external...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1998

DKB, J.P. Morgan form investment trust venture

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and J.P. Morgan and Co. of the United States has sealed a tieup agreement to sell investment trust products in Japan through DKB's sales channels, the two companies announced Thursday.The move is an attempt to gain a competitive edge over established alliances between rival financial...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 1998

Endocrine disrupters causing alarm

Staff writerA team of scientists in Tokyo announced last weekend that it has found eggs in the spermaries of three out of 20 male flounder caught in the sea near the Kanto region.The scientists said the abnormality may have been caused by suspected endocrine disrupters, chemicals believed to disrupt...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji