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JAPAN
Mar 12, 1998

Matsushita offers to quit for BOJ bribery scandal

Bank of Japan Gov. Yasuo Matsushita has offered to resign to take the blame for the arrest of a BOJ official who allegedly took bribes from commercial banks, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto said March 12.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1998

Police crackdown targets illegal foreign workers

The National Police Agency and the Justice and Labor ministries will crack down on foreigners working illegally in Japan amid the financial crisis in Asia, the three bodies' bureau chiefs decided at a meeting March 12.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1998

Inaba urges recovery rather than fiscal reform

Kosaku Inaba, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called on the government March 12 to give priority to economic stimulus rather than measures to rehabilitate its national finances.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 1998

Banks' wining, dining of BOJ officials said not uncommon

The Industrial Bank of Japan and several other major banks have repeatedly wined and dined executives and other high-ranking officials of the Bank of Japan, in addition to the BOJ official arrested March 11, sources said March 12.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Chief of bookbinding firm kills self

Ryutaro Kotaki, 45, president of a Tokyo bookbinding company, took his life by driving his car into the sea off a pier in the city's Minato Ward at about 7 a.m. March 9, police said.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

BOJ exec entertained by top banks

Six to seven banks spent about 7 million yen entertaining an executive of the Bank of Japan over the past five years, according to sources at the banks.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Burial mound found nearly intact

MAEBASHI, Gunma Pref. -- A circular burial mound dating back to the latter half of the fifth century has been discovered nearly intact in the village of Komochi, Gunma Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Boy Scout leader urges knife safety

The problem with today's society is not knives and guns but the people who wield them, said Jere Ratcliffe, chief scout executive of Boy Scouts of America, in a recent speech delivered to Boy Scouts of Nippon in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Bolts removed from electricity tower

HIROSHIMA -- Forty bolts anchoring a pylon for high-tension lines to a concrete base in Midori, Hiroshima Prefecture, were found to have been mysteriously removed in 1994 and 1995, the Chugoku Electric Power Co. announced March 9. Removed bolts led to a similar tower to fall last month in Kagawa Prefecture....
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

10 trillion yen stimulus eyed

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will call for an additional economic stimulus package of more than 10 trillion yen after the Diet approves the fiscal 1998 state budget in April, top officials of the LDP have indicated.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Bill to make wards municipalities

The Home Affairs Ministry plans to submit a set of bills to the Diet March 10 to revise laws to convert Tokyo's 23 wards into full-fledge municipalities in April 2000, ministry officials said March 9.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 1998

Kitora chamber reveals ancient planisphere

KASHIHARA, Nara Pref. -- A planisphere carved into a stone chamber inside a 1,300-year-old tumulus in the village of Asuka shows such important constellations as Ursa Major, Orion and Scorpio, an expert has found.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1998

Arrested Finance officials face new charges

Prosecutors charged two former Finance Ministry bank inspectors in custody Friday with taking a combined 3.8 million yen in additional bribes from four commercial banks in return for favors.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1998

Bureaucrats applying brakes threaten freedom of info act

Last in a series
JAPAN
Mar 6, 1998

New BOJ plan to cut pay of governor, executives

The annual salary for the Bank of Japan governor will be lower than that of the prime minister beginning in April.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Spend ODA strategically, forum urges

Japan should use its Official Development Assistance more strategically and in tandem with diplomatic tactics to serve its national interests, a private think tank said in a report submitted Thursday to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Camera enters Kitora burial mound to glimpse elusive art

ASUKA, Nara Pref. -- Using a tiny, high-resolution camera, archaeologists on Thursday began examining the interior of the 1,300-year-old Kitora burial mound for the first time in 15 years, hoping to get clear images of mural paintings inside the stone tomb.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Local efforts serving as wedge for disclosure

Second in a series
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

Matsunaga to issue stiff punishment if bribes prove true

Finance Minister Hikaru Matsunaga said Thursday that he is ashamed of the arrests of two more bureaucrats and promised to hand out stiff administrative punishments to them and their superiors if the allegations prove to be true.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 1998

ANA changes profit forecast to loss

All Nippon Airways Co. announced Thursday that it is revising its forecast of a 2.3 billion yen net profit in its business report for the term that ends in March 1998 into a 3.2 billion yen net loss.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 1998

Information disclosure bill seen as first step

First in a series
JAPAN
Mar 4, 1998

Vindicated gassing suspect wants Aum's Niimi to tell truth

Yoshiyuki Kono, falsely accused in connection with the June 1994 nerve gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, said Wednesday at the trial of an Aum Shinrikyo figure that he hopes the proceedings shed light on what really happened.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 1998

Financier arrested in major stock fraud

The president of a Tokyo finance company was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making 5.5 billion yen in profits through fraudulent stock transactions, police said.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

France hid medical effects of nuclear testing, activist says

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

Amnesty criticizes Cambodian peace plan

Cambodia's Second Prime Minister Hun Sen and his security forces continue to kill people for their political beliefs, casting doubt on how fair the country's upcoming July elections will be, said Rory Mungoven, program director of Amnesty International's Asia and Pacific region.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

BOJ breaks precedent, divulges minutes of policy talks

For the first time ever, the Bank of Japan disclosed Tuesday the minutes of a recent monetary policy meeting in line with recently adopted transparency rules.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

Quake-hit Kaigan Building gets new look

KOBE -- The Kaigan Building, once a symbol of Kobe's former "kyoryuchi," or foreigners' district, in Chuo Ward, has been resurrected and enlarged, after the original structure was destroyed in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 1998

Bill approved to grant groups corporate status

The Upper House Committee on Labor and Social Policies unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would, for the first time, give corporate status to volunteer groups and other citizens' groups by recognizing them as official nonprofit organizations.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 1998

Court sentences Onoue to 12 years for fraud

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Monday sentenced a woman once called Japan's largest individual stock investor to a 12-year prison term for fraud and breach of trust to the tune of about 274 billion yen.

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