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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 1999

Support, not coercion, for Indonesia

What Indonesia needs from the United States and the rest of the West is more "carrot" and less "stick." Devastated by an economic crisis not unlike the Great Depression, its principal requirement right now is leadership.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 1999

Another senseless tragedy

Tuesday, two students in an affluent suburb of Denver, entered their high school and calmly and methodically proceeded to kill 12 classmates and a teacher. After the rampage, they exchanged gunfire with the police and then killed themselves in an apparent double suicide. Our profound sympathy goes out...
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Falsified autopsy blames straitjacket

A group of doctors at the Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office falsified a forensic report on an intoxicated man who died of a heart attack in February 1997 to claim he suffocated after police put him in a straitjacket, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Ready for 2000?: ANA plugging away at 'millennium bug'

Third in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

The Asahara Trial: Guru ordered gassing, disciple claims

One-time Aum Shinrikyo biologist Seiichi Endo told the Tokyo District Court on Friday that he believes cult founder Shoko Asahara ordered the June 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, although other top cultists claimed the late cult scientist Hideo Murai ordered it.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Yosano criticizes auto 'green tax'

The proposed introduction of fuel-efficiency-oriented car tax is "not quite rational," Trade chief Kaoru Yosano said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Blue book notes '98 foreign policy 'unique'

In response to a variety of threats to international peace and security, Japan last year carried out foreign policies characterized by top-level initiatives, according to the Foreign Ministry's diplomatic blue book for 1999 released Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Women in power still few in number: white paper

Japanese women's participation in the decision-making process is still far lower than that of women in other developed nations, according to a white paper released by the government Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Vote on defense bill could come Tuesday

The Lower House Special Committee on Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation decided Friday the committee will wrap up its debate Monday and vote on the bills, committee members said.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Mom, 92, daughter, 65, found slain

A 92-year-old woman and her 65-year-old daughter were found stabbed to death in their apartment in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, police said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Miyazawa to state position on debt-relief at G7 meeting

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa will attend a Monday meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations in Washington to put forward his ideas to prevent a financial crisis in emerging market countries.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 1999

When the military says 'enough'

Going on appearances, there is little reason to compare the elections held in recent days in Algeria and Turkey. Algeria's ballot, held last week, was marked by the withdrawal of all major opposition candidates two days before the poll; not surprisingly turnout was a lackluster 60 percent, although the...
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Scholar criticizes biased slant in history textbooks

Japanese high school students are subjected to ideologically biased history lessons through their textbooks, a Santa Lucian scholar researching Japanese school textbooks said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Top court backs damages for miners

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a high court ruling that awarded 460 million yen in damages to 15 former miners suffering from pneumoconiosis and the families of seven deceased workers at the now-defunct Iojima Mine in Nagasaki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

New Finance council tasked to study money flow

The Finance Ministry will launch a new advisory council today to study the changing nature of the nation's money flow from saving and investment patterns in the graying society to ongoing financial system reform, Vice Minister Koji Tanami said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Hitachi, Siemens join on flash memory chip

Hitachi, Ltd. and a semiconductor unit of Germany's Siemens AG announced Thursday they have agreed to jointly develop and manufacture an advanced compact memory chip suitable for portable digital products.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Yunnan pins tourism hopes on expo

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

BT, AT&T to buy 30% stake in Japan Telecom

AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications have made a basic agreement with Japan Telecom Co. to buy 15 percent stakes in the firm, sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Aum biologist unfazed by cult's sarin sample

An Aum Shinrikyo biologist testified at cult founder Shoko Asahara's trial Thursday that he did not think much about the sarin produced at an Aum facility when he was first shown a sample.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Doyukai chief calls group consolidation nonsense

As the ongoing economic slump continues to plague many firms, some company leaders argue that Japan's four major business organizations, which have separately published a number of reports on similar issues, should somehow be consolidated.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Sharp-tongued Aoshima exits Tokyo tight-lipped

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 1999

MOF by any other name

The long-running debate over breaking up the Ministry of Finance has ended with a compromise that will keep the ministry more or less as it is -- the most powerful of Japan's government offices. The MOF will be renamed the "Treasury Ministry," and will be charged mainly with fiscal and budgetary affairs,...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Japan to pledge loans to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Hewlett Packard chief talks of split

The chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Co. on Wednesday talked about the most difficult question his firm faced in deciding its future -- whether to keep the hard-copy unit with the computing unit.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

JR West decides not to sue the state

West Japan Railway Co. decided Wednesday not to sue the national government over its decision to impose an additional burden on the firm related to the mounting debt left behind by the former Japanese National Railways.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 21, 1999

Under your skin

Take a second, forget about trash-can icons and QWERTY keyboards and ponder the real interface -- our future interaction with technology. How will we navigate the infosphere in 10 years? Will we use mouses or cursors controlled by biofeedback? Will our browser windows be square and scrolled or dynamically...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Five people win refugee status

The Justice Ministry granted refugee status to five people Wednesday, bringing to seven the total number of refugees recognized this year.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Professor brings POW drama to stage

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Trade surplus soared to 14 trillion yen in '98

The nation's surplus in merchandise trade in fiscal 1998 rose 23.1 percent from the year before to 14.1 trillion yen -- the second-largest figure ever after the 14.4 trillion yen surplus in fiscal 1986 -- with a decline in imports outpacing declining exports.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

'Sokaiya' Koike sentenced to the max nine months

The Tokyo District Court sentenced "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike to the maximum nine-month prison term Wednesday for extorting 12.4 billion yen in loans and payoffs from the nation's four top securities houses and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free