search

 
 
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Nonaka hints at second extra budget

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka hinted Friday that the government may need to compile a second extra budget for fiscal 1999 later this year.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Ishihara announces plan for Silicon Valley office

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Friday he will set up an office in Silicon Valley in the United States to offer information about Tokyo's small and midsize enterprises to investors and venture capitals.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

High Court rejects copper trader's appeal

The Tokyo High Court on Friday dismissed the appeal of former Sumitomo Corp. chief copper trader Yasuo Hamanaka, upholding a lower court ruling in March 1998 that sentenced him to eight years in prison for fraud and forgery.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

No quick sale forecast for LTCB

The nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan will not be able to find a buyer by the end of the month, Financial Reconstruction Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa indicated Friday.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jun 25, 1999

J rockers want free Tibet, wherever that is

"Tibet . . . hmm . . . it's a foreign country, I know that," mused one young man.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 1999

Lost opportunity of the disco daze

If there were ever a high-water mark of hedonism, it would have to have been located at some New York or L.A. disco in the late '70s. In this pre-AIDS, post-Pill era of guilt-free sex, drug use was widespread and largely tolerated, gay culture was coming out of the closet and sexual mores were loosening...
JAPAN
Jun 25, 1999

Time to hold English essay contest

Time magazine is sponsoring an English essay contest and accepting applications from students in Asia.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 1999

The storm over Tibet

Mr. James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, can sympathize with Mr. Kofi Annan. The last thing the bank needs is a politicized fight of any kind, but it faces a decision that could start a firestorm unlike any in its history.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Akashi to make visit to North Korea

Yasushi Akashi, a former United Nations undersecretary general, will make a four-day visit to North Korea beginning Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Koike's payoff man at Yamaichi avoids prison

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former managing director of the bankrupt Yamaichi Securities Co. to a suspended 10-month prison term Thursday for giving undue profits to "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike and compensating the racketeer for stock losses.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Author says Nanjing death toll politically inflated

Akira Suzuki, prize-winning author of the controversial book "Nanjing: How the World Was Fed Facts and Fakes," reasserted at a press conference Thursday that the Nanjing Massacre death toll of 300,000 cited by the Chinese government lacks credibility from a historical standpoint.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Softbank to set up capital funds for Internet ventures

The Softbank Corp. group, an Internet-related investor, announced plans Thursday to set up three venture capital funds — two in the United States and another in Japan — that together would be worth more than $1.8 billion.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Commercial sales fell 6.1% in May

Monthly commercial sales in May dipped 6.1 percent year-on-year to 42.41 trillion yen, marking a record 23 consecutive months of decline, according to a preliminary report issued Thursday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Seibu, Daimaru link up with Nordstrom

Seibu Department Stores and Daimaru Inc. will team up with Nordstrom Inc. of the United States to market Nordstrom's private-brand clothing in Japan, officials of the two companies said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Recession not sole cause of suicide

All Daisuke Tajima could think about was ending it all. One day the 49-year-old salaried worker walked out of his office in a city in northern Japan, and for weeks his family had no clue as to his whereabouts.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Toy makers join hands on e-commerce venture

Heads of the nation's top four toy makers announced Thursday that they will launch a joint venture with Softbank Corp. to sell toys over the Internet beginning in November.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Fuji fights infringement by U.S. firms

Fuji Photo Film Co. said Thursday it has filed complaints against three U.S. firms for alleged patent infringement, calling for suspension of their sales of remanufactured one-time-use cameras in the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Year's traffic deaths top 4,000

The nation's traffic death toll for the year topped the 4,000 mark Wednesday, two days behind last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

U.N. ambassador presses for UNSC role in future conflicts

Although Japan supported Western efforts to end the atrocities in Kosovo, the government wants the U.N. Security Council to authorize future actions, according to Yukio Satoh, Japan's ambassador to the United Nations.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Dad of Matsumoto victim vents anger

As the fifth anniversary of the fatal sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, approaches, a father of one of the victims voiced his disbelief Thursday that Aum Shinrikyo still exists and is even regaining momentum after all the trouble it has caused.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Ministry wants flag, anthem promoted in textbooks

Social studies textbooks must help instill respect for the Hinomaru flag and the "Kimigayo" de facto national anthem among the nation's children, according to the results of last year's textbook screening released Thursday by the Education Ministry.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

LDP group demands revised SDF law, powers

A group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers asked the government Thursday to revise the Self-Defense Force Law to expand areas the SDF can guard to beyond airspace, and to draft bills for better handling of high-level contingencies within Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 1999

The North Korean enigma

The two Koreas are talking again. Sort of. Fourteen months after talks between the two governments broke down, diplomats met in Beijing Tuesday to resume discussion about the fate of the 1 million families separated by partition after World War II and by the Korean War. The meeting was delayed one day...
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 1999

A debt to the United Nations

The agreement that ended the military campaign against Yugoslavia highlights the critical role played by the United Nations in resolving international disputes. NATO made war against Belgrade; the U.N. made the peace. Hopefully, the U.S. Congress will recognize that simple truth this week, as the Senate...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Judge hopefuls finding system less than just

KYOTO — When lawyer Masaki Kunihiro, 52, applied to become a court judge last year, he didn't fully expect to be accepted.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Ministry boasts fulfillment of ODA pledge

Japan has already fulfilled an international pledge to provide $3 billion in official development assistance over a seven-year period ending in fiscal 2000 to help developing countries address AIDS and population issues, Foreign Ministry sources said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 23, 1999

On the fringe of the fray

I had dinner with two friends last week and eventually the conversation came around to the Web (I generally try to avoid the topic in polite conversation but what can you do?). Anyone overhearing our conversation might have thought we were a trio of hopeless geeks, or digerati wannabes, but the truth...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

FRC ready to spell out conditions for controlling publicly funded banks

The Financial Reconstruction Commission will soon announce guidelines defining the circumstances under which the state might exert control over some of the banks that have received public funds, FRC Chairman Hakuo Yanagisawa said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Telecom association seeks end to U.S. pact

A national association of telecommunications equipment suppliers has asked the Japanese and U.S. governments Wednesday not to extend a bilateral pact obligating Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to procure foreign-made products.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Emergency contraception is here, but where?

A day after spending the night with her steady boyfriend, Mika roamed the area around her office in Tokyo, desperately looking for an obstetrician or gynecologist who could prescribe the medication she sought — an emergency contraceptive pill.

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