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JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Tokyo hails visit of Pyongyang envoy

Japan welcomes North Korea's plan to dispatch a senior official to the United States next month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2000

JCP reforms in name only

The Japanese Communist Party, at the Sept. 19 general meeting of the Central Committee, proposed scrapping the preamble to the party charter that sets out basic principles for its activities and organization. The preamble contains words symbolic of the Communist Party, such as "socialist revolution,"...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Groups demand explanation of plan to help North Korea

Citizens' groups seeking the return of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s demanded Monday that Japan explain its reported plan to provide food aid to North Korea at a time when there is no visible improvement in the communist country's efforts to resolve...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Nakagawa vows to learn from Tokai

The government will continue efforts to prevent atomic disasters by learning from last year's fatal nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2000

Next up in the drug war: 'Plan Colombia'

LONDON -- It is customary, when Washington says "jump," for British governments to ask "how high?" When they don't jump at all, their failure to comply should be treated with the same alarm as when one of those old pit canaries, kept in coal mines to detect the buildup of carbon monoxide, topples quietly...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Korean to be part of college test

The government is to add Korean to the list of foreign languages that applicants can be tested in when taking entrance examinations for state-run universities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Greenhouse gas output declines

Emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases dropped 3.5 percent to the carbon equivalent of 1.336 billion tons in fiscal 1998 from the previous year, according to an Environment Agency report released Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2000

Kim Dae Jung arrives to begin three-day visit

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung arrived in Japan on Friday for a three-day visit, during which he will meet with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and other government officials.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Mori targets damage control, economic stimulus in session

During the extra Diet session convening today, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori hopes to fix the damage done to his ruling bloc by recent money scandals and boost the fragile economic recovery with a stimulus package worth more than 10 trillion yen, including 4 trillion yen in new spending.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

10 trillion yen stimulus package ordered

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday formally ordered the government to draft a 10 trillion yen economic stimulus package that will include an extra budget of nearly 4 trillion yen for the current fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2000

Economists question scale of extra budget

The announcement Wednesday of a fiscal 2000 supplementary budget, which is expected to surpass 10 trillion yen in total size and include 4 trillion yen in new government spending, has prompted some economists to wonder why a budget of that scale is needed now.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2000

Bill calls for advanced telecom network

A bill on information technology calls on Japan to build "the world's most sophisticated computerized telecommunications network" so that IT powers the nation's economic growth, government sources said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2000

Changes in crime -- and punishment

Profound changes in the way Japan dispenses criminal justice are either forthcoming or under consideration. Many people are ready to accept changes, even to welcome some of them, given the rising tide of serious crimes by minors and an apparent breakdown in police discipline. Calls to ensure the rights...
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2000

What about the foreign residents?

Japan now has a record 1.55 million registered foreign residents, representing 1.23 percent of the population. These entirely legal residents are still being given short shrift in government planning, such as disaster-prevention and relief measures. It is two weeks since the nation as a whole -- nearly...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2000

Capital relocation scheme under attack

The Liberal Democratic Party and one of its two allies, the New Conservative Party, plan to start adjusting opinions within the ruling bloc on freezing the government's plan to relocate the functions of the central government outside Tokyo, party sources said.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 16, 2000

Pointing a laser at a detached future

Marcel Duchamp, the supreme artist's artist, was often asked about his role in the making of art. The line of inquiry was inspired largely by the enigmatic Frenchman's series of "ready-mades," store-bought objects such as shovels or coat racks he exhibited under his name.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

Extra Diet session to begin Sept. 21

Senior government and ruling coalition officials have agreed to convene a 72-day extraordinary Diet session to begin on Sept. 21 and end Dec. 1, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

MSDF officer arrested, admits spying for Russia

The Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, a researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, on suspicion of violating the Self-Defense Forces Law, which prohibits SDF members from divulging classified security...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2000

LDP approves 17 billion yen loan to China

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday approved a 17.2 billion yen special loan package for China despite Japanese protests over recent Chinese naval activities near Japanese waters, LDP officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Mori, Putin make little progress

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their two-day summit in Tokyo on Tuesday, agreeing to continue peace treaty negotiations toward the yearend deadline but with a territorial dispute stuck at an impasse.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Evacuees to get new homes

The processing of evacuees from the volcanic island of Miyake is going smoothly and the first of three groups of islanders is scheduled to move into public housing today, officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2000

Russian intransigence led to U.S. missile delay

WASHINGTON -- Russia's refusal to negotiate changes in its 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the United States played a key role in President Clinton's decision to delay the initial phases of construction for a national missile defense system, leading U.S. newspapers reported Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

34 projects join those to be scrapped

The Construction Ministry listed 34 public works projects Friday for possible scrapping based on its own criteria for stopping wasteful spending.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Mori's house has odd occupants

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is less than happy about the state of his official residence, saying the many mice that scurry through the dwelling are not the aging residence's only unwanted visitors -- "Some say there are ghosts as well," he said.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

NTT remerger mulled

The government and the ruling coalition are considering urging the two regional arms of telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to merge in spring 2002 -- less than three years after they were split -- according to coalition sources.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2000

Pupils evacuated from Miyake settle in at west Tokyo school

Schoolchildren evacuated from Miyake Island arrived Wednesday afternoon at a school in western Tokyo that will be their temporary home shortly after an evacuation order was issued for all parts of the volcanic island.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Japan aims to pass U.S. in IT in five years

Japanese business leaders and Cabinet members agreed Wednesday to map out a national strategy by the end of the year to promote information technology, setting a goal of outrunning the United States as a "super-express IT power" in five years.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?