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JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Winter, jobless chill descends upon Osaka's homeless

"As things stand now, I have no way but to die by the roadside. Even if I get a job, I'm too weak to work," said a 60-year-old former day-laborer who has been homeless for five months.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

New Cabinet security group discusses Pyongyang, Aum

Top government officials discussed North Korea and doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo on Monday at the first Cabinet Information Conference, a forum established last October to strengthen the government's gathering and analysis of intelligence regarding security.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Teen-keen priest gets suspended term for threat

A Buddhist priest was sentenced Monday to 14 months imprisonment, suspended for four years, for threatening to expose a female high school student's prostitution activities unless she told police that she was lying about his involvement in teenage prostitution.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Sick? 60% prefer to work

About 60 percent of company employees over 40 would not call in sick if they caught a cold, and three out of four would go to work even if they had fevers as high as 37.5, according to a recent survey by a major pharmaceutical firm.
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 1999

The trial of the century

On Thursday, the 100 senators of the 106th U.S. Congress were sworn in as jurors to hear the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. The legislators, who consider themselves part of "the world's greatest deliberative body," thus began the second such trial in U.S. history, 131 years after their...
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Four more step forward in sleep drug-robbery case

YOKOHAMA — Four women in their 20s have told Kanagawa Prefectural Police they were drugged by a man believed to be the same one who was arrested Thursday for allegedly drugging and robbing a Hachioji, Tokyo, college student, police said on Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 1999

Paying for our technology fetish

Most people must have heard about the so-called "Year 2000 problem," or Y2K, as the turn-of-the-millennium computer glitch is known in techno-speak. Newspaper columns are filled with warnings of pandemonium in banking systems, airport control towers and other vital public facilities, just because computers,...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 1999

Nissan to sell textile unit to Toyoda Loom

Nissan Motor Co. has reached a basic agreement with Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Ltd. to transfer its water jet textile business to the founding firm of the Toyota Motor group, the two firms announced on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 1999

'Molester friends' held in thefts

Seven men who claimed to be "molester friends" were arrested on suspicion of stealing from homes in Osaka, Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture over a period of six years, it was learned Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 1999

Century of Change: Foreign press find Japan tough to figure

In 1890, an Irish-born writer of limited success found his spiritual home after arriving upon the shores of what was then considered by the West to be the world's most exotic country.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 1999

Protests seen for Myanmar junta official

A top Myanmar military intelligence official will visit Japan later this month at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry in efforts to strengthen dialogue between Tokyo and Yangon through personnel exchanges, ministry officials said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 1999

Some crimes cannot be forgiven

The end of the Khmer Rouge, the gang of zealots who killed at least 1 million people in the four years they ruled Cambodia, was only a matter of time. Mercifully, it seems that time has finally come. Late last month, two of the three surviving leaders of the movement, Mr. Khieu Samphan and Mr. Nuon Chea,...
JAPAN
Jan 5, 1999

Century of Change: Job security feels tug of evolution

More than two decades ago — just as Japan was impressing the world by emerging from the first oil crisis with a leaner economy — Taichi Sakaiya, now head of the Economic Planning Agency, warned in a novel that the nation would face a midlife crisis before the turn of the century.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 1999

Lethal toys lift gun seizures to five-year high

The Metropolitan Police Department confiscated 281 handguns — 40 percent of which were converted from model guns — last year, marking the highest number seized in five years, officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 1999

Imperial veteran recalls Nanjing mass executions

Last of two parts
JAPAN
Jan 5, 1999

Century of Change: Society short of leaps in women's education

Michiko Kanzaki, 77, still remembers how her elementary school teachers taught her to be like "the water that complies with its container" — that is, faithful to her country, dutiful to her parents and obedient to her husband.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1998

Century of Change: Plebiscites reshape political process

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1998

Japan best brace itself for the euro

JStaff writer
JAPAN
Dec 30, 1998

TSE ends trading year on lackluster note

The Tokyo Stock Exchange ended Wednesday, the year's last trading day, on a lackluster note amid lingering worries about bleak economic prospects.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 1998

Nomura to pare overseas operations, slash jobs

Japan's leading securities house, Nomura Securities Co., will downsize its operations in the Americas and Europe by closing offices and eliminating more than 600 jobs, according to sources at Nomura.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 1998

Obuchi, Ozawa return to dialogue on coalition

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was to meet with Ichiro Ozawa, head of the Liberal Party, on Tuesday night about the establishment of a coalition government in early January, government sources said the same night.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 1998

Yearend travel nears peak

Vacationers started to crowd JR Tokyo Station and Haneda airport Tuesday bound for their hometowns for the New Year's holiday, and the yearend outbound rush will peak today, officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1998

Osaka evicts squatter camp near school

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1998

Lawyers need global outlook as borders shrink, dean says

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1998

Moody's may be misjudging firms: JCIF

Moody's Investors Service may not be correctly evaluating Japanese companies, argues a paper released Monday by the Japan Center for International Finance.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1998

Lung recipient released from hospital

OKAYAMA -- A 24-year-old woman who underwent the nation's first lung transplant operation using live donors was discharged from Okayama University Hospital Monday after two months of postoperative treatment there.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 1998

Pilot recalls '37 bombing of Panay

First of two partsStaff writer
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1998

Bribed highway exec off with suspended sentence

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday sentenced a former Japan Highway Public Corp. executive to a suspended 2 1/2-year prison term for accepting about 7.2 million yen in bribes in the form of wining and dining.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1998

LTCB in trouble over hidden loan guarantees

The nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan kept off its books 62 billion yen in loan guarantees that it promised to its affiliated moneylender, in a possible violation of the Securities and Exchange Law, financial sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1998

Tax cuts in sight, public now worried by huge budget

With a record 81.86 trillion yen budget for fiscal 1999, the government is determined to put an end to the prolonged economic slump. But both the general public and those in the business community still worry about the nation's fiscal health.

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