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JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

Ramifications of the 2000 budget

Staff writer The 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 state budget, approved by the Cabinet Friday, will put the nation deeper into debt. How serious is the debt and what can be done about it? Here are some questions and answers about the new budget and government debt: Why did the government prepare an aggressive...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Nago approves relocation of U.S. Marines' heliport

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- The Nago Municipal Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday that supports the relocation of a key U.S. Marine Corps heliport to the city, setting the stage for Mayor Tateo Kishimoto to officially accept the project as early as Monday. The resolution, submitted by members of the...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Chiba told to rethink tidal flats plan

The Environment Agency is not satisfied with the anticipated environmental impact Chiba Prefecture claims its development plan for part of the Sanbanze tidal flats would have on the area's wetland, the agency head said Tuesday. "I am not sure the prefecture has adequately reviewed the project from the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 1999

Less-than-inspiring politics

The extraordinary Diet session that ended Thursday brought to the fore the simmering discord within the tripartite ruling coalition. The Liberal Party threatened to quit the coalition because a bill to slim down the Lower House, which was one of the conditions for the party's joining the coalition, was...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Tiger trade crackdown set for OK

The Cabinet is poised to approve today a revision of the Law for the Conservation of Endangered Species to ban trade in tiger parts. Under pressure from domestic and international nongovernmental organizations over the large amount of tiger- derived products in Japan, the government inked a revision...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

'Zaito' funds slashed to 42.9 trillion yen

The Cabinet approved a draft Monday for a fiscal investment and loan program for fiscal 2000 worth 42.9 trillion yen, down 18.7 percent from the current year. The decrease in the scale of the so-called zaito program is the biggest ever. The drop is in preparation for the government's plan to overhaul...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Air tankers refused for fiscal 2000

The government decided Friday not to allocate funds from the fiscal 2000 budget to bring air tankers into the Air Self-Defense Force, but left the door open for deployment in the future. The Security Council, which consists of relevant Cabinet members, made the decision apparently in consideration of...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Tokyo, Pyongyang to meet in China for normalization talks

Japan and North Korea will hold a series of meetings from Sunday to Tuesday in Beijing in an effort to resolve long-standing humanitarian concerns and resume talks for normalizing diplomatic relations, the government announced Thursday. A meeting between the two countries' Red Cross societies is scheduled...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Push vowed to pass seat-cut bill next session

The government will do its utmost to pass the controversial bill for reducing Lower House seats during the upcoming ordinary Diet session, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said Thursday.Aoki's remarks followed the renewal of an agreement reached Wednesday night between the Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 1999

Liberal Party left in limbo after abandonment of bill

Liberal Party members failed to reach a consensus over whether to leave the ruling triumvirate Wednesday night, leaving the future course of the little conservative party still unclear. Debate on the Liberal Party's future has heated up since Tuesday night, when it became clear that a bill to reduce...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Tokyo lifts sanctions, eyes restart of Pyongyang talks

The government announced Tuesday that it will lift the ban on food aid and restart normalization talks with North Korea, setting the stage for preparatory meetings between the two sides by the end of this year. The decision was taken because of recent developments in talks between North Korea's ruling...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Lower House approves political donations bill

After lengthy negotiations between the ruling and opposition camps, a Lower House special committee gave its unanimous approval Tuesday to a bill that would ban corporate donations to individual politicians starting Jan. 1.At the same time, the special political reform committee began deliberating a...
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 1999

Victims of money politics

Mr. Helmut Kohl may no longer be Germany's chancellor, a position he held for 16 years, but he continues to be one of the country's most revered statesmen. He presided over the reunification of Germany and in the process helped the country become "a normal nation." While each of his predecessors pushed...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Lawmakers urge funding for ASDF tankers

A group of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers studying national security issues adopted a resolution Friday to urge the government to earmark money in the fiscal 2000 budget to buy air tankers for the Air Self-Defense Force. The resolution, which will be submitted to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

$1 million earmarked to aid Chechnya refugees

The government announced Friday that it will extend $1 million to international humanitarian aid organizations to aid refugees who have evacuated the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya. Under the emergency aid plan, Japan will offer $500,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 1999

DPJ panel wants labor law to force holiday leave

Article 38 of the Labor Standards Law should be revised to forcibly cure the nation's workaholism by obliging all businesses to make workers take paid holidays, a policy study group of the Democratic Party of Japan said Thursday. The average Japanese worker takes only about half of the paid holidays...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 1999

Losing the battle in Seattle

Last Tuesday, a crowd in downtown Seattle assembled in front of a McDonald's restaurant. First, a French dairy farmer, defending European agricultural export subsidies, denounced the World Trade Organization. Next, a Brazilian farmer, harmed by those same European export subsidies, excoriated the WTO....
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Education White Paper emphasizes individuality

Educational reforms should put priority on respecting a child's individuality and giving local authorities more autonomy to correct "excessive equalization," according to the 1999 White Paper on Education released Tuesday. In the report, submitted to the day's Cabinet meeting, the Education Ministry...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Kono claims deal close on ending Pyongyang sanctions

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono expressed his resolve Monday to quickly work to lift remaining sanctions against North Korea and resume bilateral talks on normalizing diplomatic relations. Kono's comments came one day after Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed him to study lifting sanctions against the...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Down Under music with Asian flair

The renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe vividly recalls gifts he received as a young boy growing up in 1930s rural Tasmania, given to him by family friends on return from Japan. One gift was a much-thumbed children's version of the "Tale of Genji," the other a cardboard-cutout castle.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1999

Delegation urges resumption of talks with Pyongyang

Representatives of a nonpartisan mission that returned from a trip to North Korea on Friday urged Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to work toward a quick resumption of normalization talks with the Stalinist country. Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who headed the delegation, and two other representatives...
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 1999

Tough times again for Ozawa

While I was away from Japan on a recent overseas trip, the nation was plunged into political confusion following Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa's threat to leave the ruling three-party coalition. Ozawa suggested that his party could quit the alliance -- which also includes the Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Nago base relocation no done deal

YOKO HANI Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Inamine agrees to heliport relocation

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine made it clear Friday that he will accept the relocation of key functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to a new facility within the prefecture -- as long as the site is a joint military-civilian site that the U.S. military will be required to leave in 15 years....
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

SDF to fly supplies to Timor refugees

Self-Defense Forces aircraft will fly humanitarian aid supplies to East Timorese refugees in West Timor, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono formally announced Friday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 1999

Heading for a showdown

Nov. 9 marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to the end of the Cold War. The international situation, liberated from ideological confrontations, has changed a great deal since then.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 1999

The challenge of jobs for graduates

Students graduating from the nation's universities, two-year junior colleges and high schools next March are not likely to agree with the optimistic pronouncements being made about signs of a long-delayed recovery for Japan's battered economy. Better days may indeed be ahead for the corporate world,...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Aid bills for small businesses sail through Lower House

The Lower House plenary session passed legislation Tuesday to revise the 1963 Small and Medium Enterprise Basic Law, clearing the way for the government to shift its policy from assisting all small firms as economic underdogs to encouraging "diverse and dynamic" businesses.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 1999

New debate catches Obuchi off guard

Staff writers
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Politicians brace for one-on-one Diet debate

Staff writer

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?