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JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

JNR Settlements' era ends without a bang

JNR Settlements Corp.'s 11-year history ended at midnight Wednesday as new laws to more effectively dispose of 28.3 trillion yen in debt left behind by the defunct Japanese National Railways took effect.The semigovernmental body was created in 1987 to tame debt of 22.6 trillion yen accumulated by JNR,...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

Japan inks KEDO cost-sharing deal

Japan has lifted its freeze on financial contributions to an international project to build light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea.Terusuke Terada, Japan's ambassador to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), signed the cost-sharing agreement Wednesday with other KEDO board...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

R.I. Japan volunteers card sales for refugees

R.I. Japan, a Tokyo volunteer organization assisting refugees in countries that include Rwanda and Myanmar, is again selling Christmas cards to raise funds, an activity it has been engaged in since 1980.The organization is selling seven types of Christmas cards, including those bearing copies of paintings...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

Annan hears Obuchi action program pledge

Japan will assist Africa by implementing the action program adopted at the second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-II), Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Wednesday, according to Foreign Ministry officials.Obuchi told Annan, a participant in...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

JAS to throw overseas flights to Harlequin

Japan Air System plans to transfer all international flight operations to its wholly owned subsidiary Harlequin Air by fiscal 2000 to allow JAS to focus on domestic flights, industrial sources said Wednesday.JAS decided to transfer its international flight services to the more cost-competitive subsidiary...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

Saudi Arabia calls for more private-sector investment

Saudi Arabia wants Japan to increase its investment, which currently stands below expectations, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud told Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi."There is room for further improvement in relations between Saudi Arabia and Japan," Crown Prince Abdullah was quoted...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1998

DDI begins international telecom service

DDI Corp., the country's second-largest telecommunications carrier, will launch an international telephone service today, and its low-rate approach is expected to intensify price competition among carriers.DDI, which offers international service to 235 destinations, sets its international rates for a...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

FSA to pressure banks to apply for money

The Financial Supervisory Agency will strongly urge banks to apply for capital injection under the new bank recapitalization law, FSA Commissioner Masaharu Hino said Tuesday.The FSA will use various measures, including meeting unofficially with a group of banks, to talk them into accepting public funds,...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Pension premium hike in April may be shelved

The government is considering scrapping a scheduled April premium hike in the national pension plan for self-employed people, to keep from further dampening consumer spending, Health and Welfare Minister Sohei Miyashita said Tuesday.At a news conference following a Cabinet meeting, Miyashita revealed...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

The Aum Trials: Appeal rejected for sarin-truck maker

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a senior member of Aum Shinrikyo, upholding a lower court decision that sentenced him to eight years in prison for modifying a van so it could be used for spraying sarin and building a plant to produce the deadly nerve gas.Wakashio Togasi, 38, was...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Jiang to visit Japan on Nov. 25

Chinese President Jiang Zemin will visit Japan from Nov. 25 to the end of the month, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday.Jiang's visit was originally scheduled for early September but was postponed in August due to massive flood damage in central and northeastern China. A Cabinet decision on...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Standards urged for 'barrier-free' goods

Staff writerImagine an Othello game designed so that its black and white pieces can be distinguished by touch, enabling visually impaired people to play.This is one proposed "barrier-free" product, an item that facilitates the lives of people with disabilities.Beer cans with tiny protrusions on their...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Good governance urged for Africa

Democratization and good governance in Africa are essential to promoting economic development, participants in a three-day international conference on African development agreed Tuesday, according to Foreign Ministry officials.The agreement was reached on the second day of the second Tokyo International...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Ninth Nissan Sunny makes debut

Nissan Motor Co. on Tuesday unveiled the ninth-generation models of its popular Sunny series, constructed on a platform that is to be shared by a number of cars to substantially cut development costs.Nissan, which has been plagued by dwindling profits and weak consumer spending, plans to reduce the number...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Seoul set to lift ban on most Japanese films, comics, videos

SEOUL -- South Korea announced on Tuesday that it will remove a decades-old ban so that international prize-winning Japanese films and others jointly produced by the two countries can legally be shown in the country.In announcing the decision to lift the longtime ban on Japanese cultural items, Shin...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

LDP slates November Diet session over stimuli

Another extraordinary Diet session is expected to be convened as early as the end of next month to deal with a supplementary budget to revive the nation's economy, senior officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday.While some LDP officials had been reluctant to hold another extraordinary...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1998

Sakakibara backs Mahathir on currency controls

Sharing Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's concerns over capitalism, Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs supported Malaysia's foreign exchange controls Tuesday.At a Tokyo symposium, Eisuke Sakakibara said global capitalism backed by "market fundamentalism," or the belief...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Japan commits to African development

Japan, despite its economic difficulties, will continue to support development in Africa, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi pledged Monday.Addressing the opening session of the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-II), Obuchi also said Japan would take measures to push for so-called...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Smoke-billowing ship sparks toxin-leak scare

Smoke billowed from a chemical-carrying Panamanian containership berthed at a Tokyo pier Monday, raising fears of a possible leak of toxic gases and other substances, the Tokyo Fire Department said.The smoke from the 16,584-ton Uni Vital may have been caused by a chemical reaction between air and about...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Sickly students schooled in food, exercise in Izu

ITO, Shizuoka Pref. -- On a recent sunny Sunday morning, loud cheers filled a school playground, encouraging elementary students as they ran toward the finish line of a 1-km race."I made it!" a 10-year-old boy cried just after crossing the line. "My shoes almost came off when I was running, but I finished!"...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Small firms get tips on coping with credit crunch

Managers from about 250 small and medium-size companies based in Tokyo gathered Monday for advice on coping with the worsening credit crunch.The Tokyo Chamber of Commerce hosted the seminar as many smaller firms are finding it difficult to obtain loans from Japanese financial institutions. Participants...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Six DKB execs freed for paying 'sokaiya'

The Tokyo District Court handed down suspended prison sentences Monday to six former Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank executives in connection with the bank's illicit payments to "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike.Presiding Judge Kiyoshi Kimura sentenced former DKB Senior Managing Director Kenji Tanaka,...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Shiga rail crash hearings come to end

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court concluded hearings Monday in a civil suit filed by relatives of some of the 42 people killed and 614 hurt in a head-on train collision in 1991 in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture.A group of 23 plaintiffs, relatives of nine of those killed, demanded a total of 1.14 billion...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Atami's fortune no longer springs eternal

Staff writerATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- This used to be one of the most popular spa resorts in Japan, with streets packed with yukata-dressed tourists and hotel rooms fully booked for company parties.But such memories have been fading in Atami. Hard-hit by earthquakes and the recession, the city's central...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

E-money system could mean hassle-free concert tickets

To spare concertgoers the nuisance of buying tickets by phone and picking them up at the box office, major promoters have teamed up with an information technology firm to begin limited sales of tickets by use of electric money, officials said Monday.Late last month, the All-Japan Concert Tour Promoters'...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

It's definite: LTCB in capital deficit

The Financial Supervisory Agency has decided that the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan was in capital deficit as of Sept. 30, the end of the first half of this fiscal year, FSA officials said Monday.The FSA audited LTCB's books by measuring its securities and real estate assets at market value instead...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Small firms slow to face Y2K bug

Not even a third of Japan's small and medium-size firms have begun to face the millennium bug problem out of a lack money or knowledge, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency said Monday.The agency sent out surveys to about 10,000 small and medium-size companies in September, to which 2,026 companies...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

Tax cut details to be aired in December

The government will spell out by mid-December details regarding corporate and individual income tax cuts designed to stimulate sagging consumer spending, International Trade and Industry Minister Kaoru Yosano told major retailers Monday, according to a ministry official.During an hourlong meeting with...
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998

960 million yen ready for Aum claimants

About 1,200 people seeking compensation for crimes allegedly committed by Aum Shinrikyo, which has been declared bankrupt, will soon receive some 960 million yen, a group of lawyers handling the cult's bankruptcy administration said Monday.Head lawyer Saburo Abe said the distribution of the money, about...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 1998

Hyogo quake-housing tenants starve to victory

Staff writerKOBE -- A four-day hunger strike against Hyogo Prefecture's public housing policy helped survivors of the 1995 Kobe earthquake still living in temporary housing score a major victory recently when prefectural officials agreed to the protesters' major demands."Finally, officials realized they...

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