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JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Obuchi, Schroeder affirm cooperation for G8

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Gerhard Schroeder, the visiting German Chancellor, reaffirmed Monday that Japan and Germany will cooperate closely in preparations for the Group of Eight summit meeting next year in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

CPA jailed for falsifying Mita's earnings

OSAKA -- A certified public accountant was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 30 million yen Monday for accepting bribes and conspiring in window-dressing at the failed major photocopier maker Mita Industrial Co.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Fukutoku execs deepened hole to save bank

OSAKA -- Two former executives of the now-defunct Fukutoku Bank, who allegedly extended illicit loans to cover up the true amount of the bank's nonperforming loans, said Monday in their first court hearing that the loans were meant to help resuscitate the ailing bank.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Child pornographers vanish as law takes effect

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Tokyo bans 'legal drug' products

The Tokyo metropolitan government's Public Health Bureau on Monday ordered retailers in Minato Ward and Chiyoda Ward to halt sales of 10 products -- so-called "legal drugs" -- sold at adult-goods stores and through the Internet, because they contain unlawful compounds.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Yokoyama stays mute in sex suit

OSAKA -- Lawyers for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama on Monday again remained silent in court over sexual harassment charges against their client, effectively accepting defeat in the 15 million yen damages suit brought by a 21-year-old female university student.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Child abuse cases surge 30% over '97

A total 6,932 cases of child abuse were brought before the nation's juvenile counseling offices in fiscal 1998, up roughly 30 percent from the previous year, the Health Ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Tax revenues likely to fall short by 1 trillion yen

State tax revenue for the current fiscal year is likely to fall short of the initial estimate by more than 1 trillion yen, a Finance Ministry official said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 1999

Ending the Balkan tragedy

LONDON -- Economics and business trends are bringing the world together, but politics continue to tear it apart.
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 1999

The end of a movie era

In this multimedia age, when new electronic entertainment devices for use in the privacy of one's home -- or anywhere -- proliferate endlessly, it can seem hopelessly old-fashioned to trendsetters to sit in a darkened movie theater watching stars emote in heart-tugging dramas, daredevil adventure stories...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Oct 31, 1999

When there's a need

What is KEEP? a reader asks. Friends in the United States want to know about its activities before making a donation.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 31, 1999

Jed and Ted's spine-tingling fishing adventure

In Japan, the heat of the summer is the time for telling ghost stories. In the United States, we wait for Halloween. One of the most famous ghost stories is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a story by Washington Irving that tells the tale of the headless horseman who rides his horse through the night.
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 1999

Leaving the scene

An odd thing has happened in the wake of the disaster in London three weeks ago in which two commuter trains collided, killing as many as 100 -- or was it only 30? -- people. The tally has dropped sharply since the accident, as police find many of those who were initially presumed dead turning up alive...
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

On the cutting edge of Edo tech

A Japanese doll with a tray in its hands walks silently step by step toward the guests of a tea room. After a guest removes a tea bowl from the tray, the doll waits until it is returned to the tray, and then turns around and walks back to where it came from.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 1999

New angles on contemporary art

One of the foremost exhibitions of contemporary art in Japan, the International Contemporary Art Festival, will be held at the Tokyo International Forum Nov. 3-7.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 30, 1999

Pianist not forcing the feeling

When considering the performance of musicians in regard to taste, it is generally agreed that a player should not intrude his individual personality on the music.
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to one's personal worth

Staff writer Reiko Ishikawa feels worthless, but it has nothing to do with having no boyfriend, disliking her job, or misplacing her Prada handbag.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 30, 1999

Two billion light years of poetry

SHUNTARO TANKIAWA SELECTED POEMS, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura. Manchester: Carcanet, 1998, 115 pp. + preface, 12.95 British pounds In early November 1998, Shuntaro Tanikawa and his translators took part in Britain's Poetry International. Among the bards contributing with Tanikawa...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 1999

Lessons unlearned in Chechnya

Mr. Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, has embarked on a high-stakes gamble. After a series of mysterious bomb blasts in Russia and armed incursions into the Russian republic of Dagestan, Mr. Putin has declared war on Islamic extremists who, he claimed, were being sheltered by the Muslim government...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to personal worth

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Groups urge protection of Expo forest

Two international wildlife conservation groups have requested that steps be taken to protect the Kaisho Forest in Seto, Aichi Prefecture -- site of the 2005 World Exposition -- from development, representatives of the group's Japan offices said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Rites kick off megaproject in Namba

OSAKA -- About 140 people gathered Friday at the former site of Osaka Stadium in the Namba district here for a Shinto rite to mark the launch of a 105 billion yen area redevelopment project.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Banks urged to curb loans to 'shoko'

Financial Reconstruction Commission Chairman Michio Ochi said Friday that he has urged Katsuyuki Sugita, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association, to restrain bank lending to "shoko" commercial loan companies.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Four hormone disrupter suspects tagged for study

The Environment Agency said Friday it will put priority on studying four chemicals believed to disrupt the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife after a survey found them in concentrations that could affect living organisms.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Violence tears Brazilian community

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

JAS earnings climb in first half; JAL's dive

Two of the nation's major airlines watched their unconsolidated earnings travel in opposite directions during the first half of fiscal 1999, with industry leader Japan Airlines Co.'s falling and Japan Air System Co.'s increasing, reports released Friday showed.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Public urged to stockpile food ahead of Y2K

The government recommended Friday that the public stockpile several days' worth of food and water at the year's end as a precaution against the Year 2000 computer problem.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Third Kabutoyama figure cleared -- after 21 years

OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court acquitted an ex-nursery school teacher of perjury Friday in the trial concerning the alibi of former colleague Etsuko Yamada, 48, who had been charged with killing a 12-year-old boy in 1974 but was cleared three times.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Aid groups call for Belarus' help

Japanese nongovernmental organizations on Friday called on the government of Belarus to make further efforts to facilitate their aid activities in the former Soviet republic, where millions still suffer from aftereffects of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in neighboring Ukraine.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Auto insurers to offer premium rebates

Staff writer

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals