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JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

Voice-mail dating proves to be risky proposition

Sex, drugs and violence often combine as the ingredients of a sensational crime, and voice-mail dating services can provide them all.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

New debate on surname use urged by Justice Ministry

Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura said Tuesday he has urged Liberal Democratic Party officials to restart discussions on revising the Civil Law to allow married couples to retain separate family names.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

No JR share sale planned through fiscal '98

The government will not sell shares of East Japan Railway Co. out of its holdings in fiscal 1998, which ends March 31, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

Deaths spur probe into telephone messaging business

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry will begin an investigation into the status of telephone message dating services in the country.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

Miyazawa to attend ASEM powwow

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa will depart for Frankfurt Thursday to attend a two-day meeting of finance ministers from Asia and Europe.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

JAL, American to commence global code-sharing in May

Japan Airlines Co. announced Tuesday that it will offer code-sharing operations with American Airlines on 13 international and 14 domestic routes in Japan and the United States beginning May 10.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 1999

Nikkeiren puts security of jobs ahead of wages

The Japan Federation of Employers' Association (Nikkeiren) on Tuesday publicized its annual labor report, which for the first time recommended reducing overall personnel costs through the "shunto" annual spring wage bargaining round this year.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Japan, EU to halt WTO action on 'Burma Law'

Japan and the European Union will ask the World Trade Organization to indefinitely suspend procedures to settle their row with the United States over a sanctions law against Myanmar, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Sapporo suicide cyanide, drug buyers identified

Police have tracked down all eight people who sent money to a 27-year-old Sapporo man suspected of selling them cyanide capsules and other drugs via the mail, police sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Winter, jobless chill descends upon Osaka's homeless

"As things stand now, I have no way but to die by the roadside. Even if I get a job, I'm too weak to work," said a 60-year-old former day-laborer who has been homeless for five months.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Nonaka slams Ozawa over televised criticism

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka on Monday criticized accusations lodged Sunday by Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa that the Liberal Democratic Party is not negotiating seriously enough in ongoing policy talks aimed at forming a coalition.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Machimura urges review of yen loans to Asia

State Foreign Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Monday called for a review of Japan's yen loans to other parts of Asia in a bid to implement them more effectively.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

New Cabinet security group discusses Pyongyang, Aum

Top government officials discussed North Korea and doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo on Monday at the first Cabinet Information Conference, a forum established last October to strengthen the government's gathering and analysis of intelligence regarding security.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

'20,000 yen war' bargain for weekend travelers

Travel agencies are slugging it out in what is being described as a "20,000 yen war," in which their two-day package tours should cost no more than 20,000 yen, even if the destinations are far from Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Asian-Latin American conference begins

An Asian-Latin American conference began Monday in Tokyo to discuss lessons from financial crises in emerging economies and to explore economic cooperation.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Indians invited to celebrate Republic Day

The Indian Embassy is inviting Indians in Japan to a flag-hoisting event to celebrate Indian Republic Day Jan. 26 at 8:45 a.m.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Teen-keen priest gets suspended term for threat

A Buddhist priest was sentenced Monday to 14 months imprisonment, suspended for four years, for threatening to expose a female high school student's prostitution activities unless she told police that she was lying about his involvement in teenage prostitution.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 1999

Sick? 60% prefer to work

About 60 percent of company employees over 40 would not call in sick if they caught a cold, and three out of four would go to work even if they had fevers as high as 37.5, according to a recent survey by a major pharmaceutical firm.
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 1999

Marriage, divorce and the future

In the early days of a new year, when most of the public is on holiday and many people are traveling away from home, it is all too easy for important news to be overlooked or even dismissed as nothing new. That seems to have been the case with the scant attention paid to the announcement published on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 1999

The trial of the century

On Thursday, the 100 senators of the 106th U.S. Congress were sworn in as jurors to hear the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. The legislators, who consider themselves part of "the world's greatest deliberative body," thus began the second such trial in U.S. history, 131 years after their...
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Wholesale prices dropped 1.5% during '98

Domestic wholesale prices in 1998 dropped 1.5 percent from the previous year, while those for December remained unchanged from the month before, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Four more step forward in sleep drug-robbery case

YOKOHAMA — Four women in their 20s have told Kanagawa Prefectural Police they were drugged by a man believed to be the same one who was arrested Thursday for allegedly drugging and robbing a Hachioji, Tokyo, college student, police said on Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Heavy snow pelts Sea of Japan coast

Heavy snow fell in and around the mountains along the Sea of Japan coast Friday, prompting the Meteorological Agency to warn of even larger accumulations today.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

LDP, Liberals muzzle bureaucrats

The Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party agreed during working-level talks Friday to abolish a system in which bureaucrats answer questions in Diet deliberations instead of Cabinet ministers, beginning in the 2000 regular Diet session.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Minicars secure No. 2 sales spot for Honda

Pushed down by the serious economic slump, domestic sales of new minivehicles dropped 4.1 percent to 1,551,330 units in calendar 1998, an industry group said on Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 1999

Nakai Securities ready to shut down

Nakai Securities Co. reported Friday to the Kinki Local Finance Bureau that it will voluntarily shut down.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 1999

Courting risks in Angola

Twice in the last two weeks, U.N.-chartered aircraft have crashed in central Angola. In both cases, the fate of the passengers and crew -- 24 people in total -- is unknown, as is the cause of the crashes. Neither the government nor the rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 1999

MITI minister foresees trade friction

Vice Trade Minister Osamu Watanabe expressed concern Thursday that trade friction may grow between Tokyo and Washington this year, with U.S. economic growth likely to slow after years of booming.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 1999

Coalition panels agree to alter SDF law

The Liberal Democratic Party and prospective coalition partner Liberal Party agreed at working-level talks Thursday to revise existing legislation that prevents the Self-Defense Forces from participating in U.N. peacekeeping forces.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 1999

Tokyo to snub Russia call to treat treaty, border separately

Japan plans to reject Moscow's proposal to discuss the timing and method for drawing a demarcation line between the two nations separately from the peace treaty the two nations hope to sign by 2000, government sources said Thursday.

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