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JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Diet gets fast-track bill to curb Aum

The government submitted a bill to the Diet on Tuesday that will clamp down on Aum Shinrikyo by allowing the Public Security Investigation Agency to regularly supervise and restrict the activities of the cult's followers.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Post offices fail to put part-timers on insurance system

About 300 post offices in Japan have failed to register part-time employees for the social insurance system, leading to a premium shortfall of about 500 million yen, the Board of Audit said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Nov 2, 1999

Crime victims face official insensitivity, Tokyo forum told

People victimized by crime in Japan are often traumatized by insensitive police questioning and medical examinations, panelists said during Tokyo's first official symposium for crime victims.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 1999

Kid gloves and iron fists

October was a good month for Chinese President Jiang Zemin. First, he presided over the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Chinese People's Republic. Those festivities helped him shore up his claim to stand alongside Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as the third great leader of the country. He was spared...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Panel spotlights police, doctor insensitivity to victims

Japan's crime victims and survivors are often traumatized by insensitive police questioning and medical examinations, panelists said Monday during Tokyo's first official symposium for crime victims.
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

Child pornographers vanish as law takes effect

Staff writer
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.
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 / 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...
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

Violence tears Brazilian community

Staff writer
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

Toshiba settles notebook suit for $1 billion

Toshiba Corp. has reached a settlement with personal computer users in the United States over a flaw in its notebook computers, Japan's leading computer maker announced Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 1999

Know thyself in adopting foreign ways: Egypt scholars

An Egyptian minister and three scholars on Thursday said people need to appropriately examine their own culture as well as foreign influences to gain a national identity and a global perspective in the 21st Century.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 1999

The risks of getting involved

The four Japanese mining engineers and their Kyrgyz translator who had been held hostage by Islamic rebels were released Monday after 63 days of captivity. The five men, the last of 13 hostages seized in August by the militants, were healthy and in good spirits. We extend our thanks and congratulations...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 27, 1999

Eyes on the storm

You don't have to be the wonky sort to want to keep tabs on what is going on in Northeast Asia. Yes, diplomacy can be tedious -- although North Korean rhetoric does liven things up a good bit -- but most Japan Times readers live in Japan and that puts them within range of those missiles ostensibly threatening...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1999

Obuchi says Japan can take more Thai exports

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told his Thai counterpart Wednesday that Japan -- as it continues on its recovery track -- may be able to act as a stronger engine of growth and soak up more exports from Thailand.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1999

U.S. bonds to guarantee Y2K funds

The Bank of Japan announced Wednesday that it will accept U.S. government securities as collateral from banks so it can ensure ample funds are in circulation at the end of the year and avoid cash shortages resulting from Year 2000 computer problems.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1999

Drafts for Aum control bills unveiled

The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday unveiled drafts of two bills designed to tighten control of Aum Shinrikyo and facilitate redress to its victims.
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 1999

A walk through the Kyoto antiques district

KYOTO -- Long a Mecca for fans of Japanese antiques, Kyoto is more enticing than ever these days. Unscathed by the bombs of World War II, old family storehouses continue to yield a small but steady stream of somewhat dusty delights, while a host of new shops plying the antiquity trade promises something...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it