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JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

LDP finalizes record 9.3 trillion yen tax cut plan

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party finalized a large package of tax revisions Wednesday allowing for a record 9.3 trillion yen in tax cuts for fiscal 1999.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

Government wary of sales tax welfare role

The government Tax Commission, in a set of recommendations to the prime minister finalized Wednesday, called for cautious discussions about limiting the use of consumption tax revenues for welfare purposes.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

Billiards stages comeback in hard times

OSAKA -- Billiards, a game in which Japan made off with gold, silver and bronze medals in this year's Asian Games, seems to be making a resurgence in popularity.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1998

Government nationalizes Nippon Credit Bank

The government has effectively placed Nippon Credit Bank under temporary state control, concluding the bad loan-laden institution had a capital deficit of 94.4 billion yen at the end of March.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1998

Environment Agency targets diesel emissions

An advisory council under the Environment Agency proposed Monday a set of stricter emissions guidelines for diesel automobiles that would lower the upper exhaust limits of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter by more than one-fourth by 2004.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

Auto auctioneer way ahead of information highway

23rd in a series of occasional articles about venture businesses
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

KEDO deal may collapse, Komura warns

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura expressed concern Friday that the agreement to provide North Korea with two light-water reactors may collapse unless Pyongyang cooperates to resolve suspicions about its missile and nuclear activities.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

Hormone disrupter meeting attracts 1,100 participants

Staff writerKYOTO -- In an attempt to exchange the latest research on one of the most critical environmental issues today, more than 1,100 scientists and government officials from eight countries gathered Friday in Kyoto for a three-day symposium on endocrine disrupters.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1998

Tokyo-Pyongyang tensions elicit more Defense disclosure

Five-year-old tensions between the U.S. and North Korea are intensifying, and Japan is growing increasingly nervous about the prospects of another missile launch from its reclusive neighbor.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1998

Economy mired but beginning to move: EPA

Though the economy remains in in contraction with continuing weakness in corporate investment, the Economic Planning Agency said in its monthly economic report Tuesday that "there is a whiff of change in the air."
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1998

Kogi River most polluted in nation

The Kogi River in Osaka Prefecture has the worst water quality of any river in Japan, while the Yoichi River in Hokkaido has the purest, according to an Environment Agency study released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

Students' Global Society opens forum for development issues

HIROSHIMA -- A group of students and scholars at Hiroshima University have formed Global Society, which they hope will be one of Japan's leading international research bodies for overseas development activities.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

Ailing Chubu localities won't say where cash went

OKAYAMA -- Nationally and internationally, Japan's banking mess has received a lot of press coverage and is generally considered by politicians, media pundits and business leaders to be the nation's most urgent problem.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

MOX assured safe for use in Fukui nuclear reactors

A planned project by Kansai Electric Power Co. to use recycled plutonium to fuel nuclear reactors in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, assures nuclear safety, a government panel on nuclear safety concluded Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

Recovery signs flickering amid gloom: Obuchi

Although many economic index figures still are troublesome, signs of economic recovery are appearing, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi reckoned Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

Miyazawa urges speedy Diet approval of budget

The 5.677 trillion yen third supplementary budget for fiscal 1998 was submitted Friday to the extraordinary Diet session, and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa called for a swift passage in his policy speech.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

Ailing Osaka to raise high school entry fee eightfold

OSAKA -- The financially stricken Osaka Prefectural Government will submit a bill to the prefectural assembly to raise the entrance fee to prefecture-run high schools more than eightfold from the current 5,500 yen to 45,000 yen, officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

Izui claims oil firm chief asked him to lobby MITI

Junichi Izui, an Osaka-based oil dealer convicted of bribery and tax evasion, has told the judges in a civil suit that he had been directly asked by the former chairman of Mitsubishi Oil Co. to serve as a mediator between the firm and Ministry of International Trade and Industry officials to promote...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

WHC can list sites, but can it really protect them?

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 4, 1998

LDP-Liberal Party rift grows

Staff writers
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

WTO talks should end by 2003, EU says

The World Trade Organization should be able to wrap up its next round of multilateral liberalization talks within three years of its 2000 start, a senior European Union official said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

Menem urges increase in investment

Argentine President Carlos Menem urged business leaders Thursday to promote investment in the republic to help correct a trade imbalance between the two countries.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

LDP backs Liberal Party Diet reforms

The government hopes to submit bills to the next ordinary Diet session to abolish the current system of having bureaucrats, instead of state ministers, answer lawmakers' questions during Diet deliberations, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

Seeking Refuge: Arbitary policy shutters window to asylum

Last of a three-part series on Japan's refugee policy
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

Detention house ordered to pay ex-inmate for injuries

-- The Chiba District Court ordered the national government to pay 150,000 yen in damages to a 33-year-old American for an injury inflicted by guards at the Tokyo Detention House, where he had been held.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

Economy shrinks 0.7% in quarter for fourth straight decline

The economy shrank 0.7 percent in real terms during the July-September quarter compared with the previous three months, marking its fourth consecutive contraction, the longest ever in the postwar years, the Economic Planning Agency announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1998

Kids today tuckered out by TV, not sports

It doesn't take much to exhaust today's Japanese kids, who are too busy watching TV, playing video games or reading comic books to play outdoors, according to an Education Ministry survey released Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1998

Aborigines protest Osaka utility's uranium mine link

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1998

Nara sites added to World Heritage List

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1998

Seeking Refuge: Process not worth it, chosen one says

Second in a three-part series on Japan's refugee policy

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’