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JAPAN
Dec 30, 1999

Japan urged to consider free-trade pacts

Staff writer Japan should keep its commitment to trade liberalization under the World Trade Organization, but this must not prevent it from seeking free-trade agreements with its trading partners, according to Noboru Hatakeyama, chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization. Earlier this month,...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 29, 1999

An open ethOS

The latest tale of cyber-riches involves the Linux crowd. A recent string of IPOs earned shareholders obscene amounts of money. Red Hat, a distributor of the Linux operating system, is worth about $15 billion. VA Linux, a company that sells computers that use Linux, made history: Its shares leaped 700...
JAPAN
Dec 28, 1999

Joyu might disband Aum in order duck new law: expert

Staff writer After he is freed today from a Hiroshima prison, senior Aum Shinrikyo member Fumihiro Joyu will probably announce the voluntary dissolution of the cult, according to a freelance journalist who has extensively covered the sect. It would be a move to avoid a new law designed to curb the cult's...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 1999

Aum officer faces death sentence

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty Friday for Aum Shinrikyo's former intelligence chief for conspiring in the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which killed 12 people and injured thousands. Yoshihiro Inoue, 29, also stands accused of being involved in nine other criminal cases,...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Carmakers jockey for inroads in slow-growing China market

Staff writer GUANGZHOU, China -- Browsing through glossy catalogs, a couple of men chat with dealers over the counter of a spacious car showroom. Beside them sit three brand-new cars. What appears to be an ordinary scene at any roadside dealership, however, is not run-of-the-mill; one of the cars --...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

IOC says Osaka must not push Olympic bid abroad

OSAKA -- This city's 2008 Olympic bid will undergo a preliminary review by the International OlympicCommittee sometime between March and September, during which time it must not promote the bid internationally, IOC officials have told Osaka. "Under the new guidelines, cities wishing to bid for the 2008...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Nago approves relocation of U.S. Marines' heliport

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- The Nago Municipal Assembly adopted a resolution Thursday that supports the relocation of a key U.S. Marine Corps heliport to the city, setting the stage for Mayor Tateo Kishimoto to officially accept the project as early as Monday. The resolution, submitted by members of the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 1999

The Kremlin wins, for now

Russia's parliamentary elections, held last weekend, were a victory for the government. Pro-Kremlin parties appear -- and the qualifier is important -- to have won a commanding share of seats in the 450-member Duma. The immediate benefactors of the vote are President Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister,...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Walking Queen contestants take pride in stride

Staff writer Chest out, stomach in! Forget that chic Private Label suit, the 20-cm platform boots, cowgirl hat or bleached hair. If you want to truly express yourself, take pride in how you regulate your gait. That was the message sent out at the '99 International Walking Contest held last Sunday at...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Kidnapped girl freed without payment of ransom

OSAKA -- An 8-year-old girl was safely reunited with her parents Wednesday morning, 42 hours after she was apparently kidnapped while on her way home from school. Sayaka Teranishi had been held for a 42 million yen ransom, but was reunited with her parents outside a convenience store near her home in...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Judicial Reform: Change vital to elite training process

Last of three parts Staff writer The push for judicial reform in Japan is prompting universities and bar associations to consider introducing postgraduate programs that will not only increase the number of legal professionals but also improve their skills. Unlike the United States, Japan does not have...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

'Knock' undone by calling victim a liar

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game is finally up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Yokoyama announced his resignation Tuesday morning, just hours before prosecutors indicted him over a criminal complaint filed by a 21-year-old university student, accusing Yokoyama of groping her inside a campaign van in...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Citizens tout proof U.S. base in mid-Tokyo is trespassing

Citizens demanding the return of a U.S. base in central Tokyo cited a written agreement Monday that they claim proves the heliport section of the compound is trespassing on Japanese soil. The Executive Committee for the Removal of the Azabu Heliport released a statement on an accord regarding the 4,300-sq.-meter...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

High court nixes redress suit

Korean conscripts' demand for compensation denied b The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit by 189 Koreans demanding that the government officially apologize and pay each of them between 30 million yen and 50 million yen in damages for their suffering after...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

No-redress rulings upheld

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld lower court rulings that dismissed claims made by former Koreans imprisoned for war crimes after World War II and a relative of a Korean member executed after the war. The former members of the Imperial Japanese Army were tried by the Allied powers and classified as...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Citizens tout proof that U.S. base is trespassing

Citizens demanding the return of a U.S. base in central Tokyo cited a written agreement Monday that they claim proves the heliport section of the compound is trespassing on Japanese soil. The Executive Committee for the Removal of the Azabu Heliport released a statement on an agreement regarding the...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Time running out for 'Knock' as opinion turns against him

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game may finally be up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Monday's search of his offices by the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office in connection with a criminal complaint filed against the governor by a 21-year-old female university student, who accused Yokoyama of groping...
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 1999

The need for policing the police

It is a sad commentary on the times when the nation's police forces, which must rely on the public's trust to be effective, find themselves under a cloud of suspicion over repeated incidents of questionable, even criminal, behavior by their members. Yet that is the situation confronting Japan's law-enforcement...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Justice Ministry confirms two death-row executions

Two death-row inmates, including one who was seeking a retrial, were executed Friday morning, the Justice Ministry said The ministry, as usual in such cases, did not release the names in its brief press release, but judiciary sources identified the two as Teruo Ono, 62, and Kazuo Sagawa, 48. The two...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1999

Netherlands to mark 400 years with Japan

When the world ushers in the last year of the millennium on Jan. 1, the Netherlands and Japan will be celebrating another historic landmark. 2000 marks 400 years since the Dutch trading ship Liefde landed on the shores of Oita Prefecture. To mark the occasion, more than 400 events will be held in Japan...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 14, 1999

The Worldwide Music Expo embraces roots and Internet

For anyone involved in any aspect of world music, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) has become an essential date on the calendar. After a few years of internal wrangling, at the end of October, WOMEX returned to its original home at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany, where from now on it will...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Taiwanese tourism still paralyzed by earthquake fears

Staff writer TAIPEI -- More than two months after a deadly earthquake struck Taiwan on Sept. 21, a well-paved road running through Taroko Canyon, one of the island's more popular tourist destinations, still drew little vehicle traffic. "This area didn't suffer any damage, but the occupancy rate of our...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Lower House approves political donations bill

After lengthy negotiations between the ruling and opposition camps, a Lower House special committee gave its unanimous approval Tuesday to a bill that would ban corporate donations to individual politicians starting Jan. 1.At the same time, the special political reform committee began deliberating a...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

New travel agency serves Tokyo's gays

Staff writer During his trip to the west coast of Australia in January, Shigenobu Umeki, a 40-year-old magazine editor, stayed at so-called gay accommodations, run by gay owners and staffed by gay workers. "I am always conscious of my sexual orientation when talking to people out of fear that they are...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

NPA bill to grant NPSC power in internal probe

The National Police Agency has drawn up a bill to reform the Police Law that would, if enacted, authorize the National Public Safety Commission to instruct the head of the NPA to investigate questionable police conduct, police sources said Monday. Under the proposed reform measures, each prefectural...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Public funds mulled for insurance-sector bailout

The Life Insurance Policyholders Protection Corp., an insurance industry safety net, formally asked the government Friday to take "necessary measures" to beef up the safety net in case more life insurers go bankrupt. The corporation, set up a year ago with funding from the nation's 47 life insurers,...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Surnames bill submitted to Diet

A bill to revise the Civil Code to allow spouses to use separate surnames was submitted Friday to both houses of the Diet by members of the opposition camp. The bill was submitted by a group of 19 lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

Prosecutors seek death sentence for Hayashi

Prosecutors on Friday demanded capital punishment for a former fugitive and Aum Shinrikyo member for the March 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured thousands more. Yasuo Hayashi, 41, also stands accused of involvement in the June 1994 sarin attack in Matsumoto,...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 1999

DPJ panel wants labor law to force holiday leave

Article 38 of the Labor Standards Law should be revised to forcibly cure the nation's workaholism by obliging all businesses to make workers take paid holidays, a policy study group of the Democratic Party of Japan said Thursday. The average Japanese worker takes only about half of the paid holidays...

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Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat