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JAPAN
May 20, 2000

Usu community relocation eyed

The government is considering relocating the entire community of the Lake Toya hot spring resort area, which lies at the foot of the erupting Mount Usu in southwestern Hokkaido, Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

Banks return to winning circle

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Sanwa Bank both returned to profitability in fiscal 1999, due largely to fewer bad-loan writeoffs than in fiscal 1998, according to the two major banks' earnings reports, released Friday.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

Nonlife insurance firms hit fork in road

Polarization between winners and losers became apparent Friday when the nation's major and second-tier nonlife insurance companies released their earning reports for fiscal 1999.
CULTURE / Art
May 20, 2000

Hanae Mori at Art Tower Mito

Mito City in Ibaraki Prefecture hardly seems the place to stage an international fashion exhibition, but Art Tower Mito (ATM), in celebration of its 10th anniversary, has done just that.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2000

The limits of peacekeeping

There is a troubling sense of deja vu in the tragedy befalling the U.N. peacekeeping effort in Sierra Leone (it is really peace enforcement, a euphemism for getting sucked into someone else's war). And more than just putting at risk future U.N. operations, recent events pose vexing questions about how...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2000

SpeedNet boss to take blame

The board of directors at SpeedNet Inc. was expected to endorse the resignation of President Yutaka Shinto at its extraordinary meeting Friday, company sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2000

Sri Lanka's violence threatens India

For a number of years after it achieved independence, Sri Lanka was viewed as the most promising country in South Asia. It had the highest literacy rate, the highest GNP per capita and was the most favorable destination in the region for tourists and investors alike. That all ended with an upsurge of...
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2000

Bigger isn't always better

The failure of the proposed merger between Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank ought to have signaled the end of the merger mania among the world's major banks and to have cautioned banks and other enterprises that big does not mean best. But the message does not seem to have seeped through to some people...
CULTURE / Stage
May 20, 2000

Still shining after all these years

May is the month of the Dankikusai (Danjuro-Kikugoro Festival) at the Kabukiza in Tokyo's Ginza, commemorating the outstanding achievements of Danjuro Ichikawa IX and Kikugoro Onoe V, the two giants of kabuki theater in the Meiji Era.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2000

The Fed walks the tightrope

Alarmed by signs that the U.S. economy is overheating, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board this week raised U.S. interest rates by half a percentage point. The move reflects a shift in sentiment at the U.S. central bank. While the bank's top officials appear to have accepted the idea that information technologies...
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Juveniles face tougher terms

A Liberal Democratic Party panel has proposed revising the Juvenile Law to increase the minimum prison time for juveniles found guilty of crimes that would carry the death penalty for adults, it announced Thursday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Licensing guidelines drafted

The financial standing of companies must be examined before and after their subsidiary banks receive banking licenses, according to a set of draft guidelines released Thursday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Panel wants public involved in court

A judicial reform panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party called Thursday for the introduction of "mixed courts," a system adopted in a number of European countries to promote public participation in legal proceedings.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Bamboo buildings get support of ZERI as eco-friendly option

OTSU, Shiga Pref. -- One of the pavilions at World Expo 2000, slated to run from June to October in Hannover, Germany, is made mostly of bamboo.
COMMUNITY
May 19, 2000

Peace, abode of poetry, abode of peace

In this world, it remains most difficult to establish lasting peace. Aggrandizement of power continues to deface nations; blind and violent talons never cease shaking and shattering fledgling roots of peace.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Yakult exec pleads not guilty over Princeton bonds fraud

The former vice president of Yakult Honsha Co. pleaded not guilty Thursday to aggravated breach of trust in connection with illicit transactions of so-called Princeton bonds that caused 530 million yen worth of damage to the firm.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Japan National Oil closes five exploration firms

Japan National Oil Corp. on Thursday approved the closure of five of its oil and gas resource exploration companies that are either insolvent or unprofitable.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

25% Mitsui profit dip laid to loan-loss provisions

Trading house Mitsui & Co. said Thursday that its group pretax profits plunged 24.7 percent to 52.61 billion yen in fiscal 1999 on sales of 13.20 trillion yen, down 5.6 percent.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Nikkeiren, Keidanren join drive for greater efficiency

The call for organizational reform that is leading many Japanese companies and even government agencies to struggle to streamline operations is finally reaching the nation's business groups.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Bill for child allowance receives OK

The Upper House Health and Welfare Committee approved a bill Thursday that will make state-paid child allowance available to households with children under age 6.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

U.S. group takes over Kofuku Bank

OSAKA -- The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Thursday approved the sale of the nationalized Kofuku Bank to U.S.-based WL Ross & Co. LLC, which signed a basic agreement with the government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Electronics firms emerging from the red

Helped by restructuring efforts and the recovering semiconductor sector, Japan's major electronic appliance and computer chip manufacturers have reported earnings improvements for the past business year.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Coalition agrees to hold general election June 25

The Lower House election will be held on June 25 and campaigning will officially start on June 13, leaders of the three ruling parties confirmed Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

GMO-free trade opens

The Tokyo Grain Exchange launched futures trading Thursday in U.S. soybeans containing no genetically modified organisms, making it the world's pioneer in GMO-free grain futures trading.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Firms agree to tie up on real estate

The planned Mizuho Financial Group will team up with real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan Co. in securitizing their real estate holdings, officials close to the deal said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

New law targets stalkers with prison time or fine

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed and enacted an anti-stalking bill that incorporates maximum punishments of one-year imprisonment or a fine of 1 million yen.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2000

The right leader for Japan?

Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi died last Sunday, 42 days after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma. He was 62.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports