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JAPAN
Dec 22, 1998

Tax cuts in sight, public now worried by huge budget

With a record 81.86 trillion yen budget for fiscal 1999, the government is determined to put an end to the prolonged economic slump. But both the general public and those in the business community still worry about the nation's fiscal health.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1998

Koreans' eviction from Utoro upheld

OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court dismissed an appeal Tuesday filed by 12 Korean families facing eviction from the wartime forced laborers' squatter community of Utoro in the city of Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, upholding a lower court ruling.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1998

Aid for refugees kindness well spent

Over the past 15 years, readers of The Japan Times have donated 200 million yen through the Readers' Refugees Aid Fund to help refugee relief programs through the U.N. and other official and private organizations.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1998

Obuchi to give back half of bonus

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told a regular Cabinet meeting that he plans to return half of the bonus he received earlier this month, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1998

Honda forecasts slowdown in domestic sales

Honda Motor Co. announced on Monday that it expects domestic sales to fall short of 800,000 units in both 1998 and 1999.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1998

Obuchi planning to include Ozawa in next Cabinet

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Monday he will ask Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa to join his Cabinet when it is reshuffled in January.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1998

Kabukicho squad targets foreign crime rings

In a bid to combat increasing crimes involving foreign underworld elements operating in Shinjuku's Kabukicho, a special investigative squad was inaugurated Monday at the Metropolitan Police Department.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1998

Itami estate worth 936 million yen

The late film director Juzo Itami, who killed himself last December, left a fortune worth about 936 million yen, tax sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 1998

Japan to dispatch rice tariff lobbyists

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 18, 1998

MSA boat crew witnesses Korean gunfight

The crew of a Maritime Safety Agency survey ship witnessed South Korean ships firing at what was reportedly a small North Korean submarine around 4:45 a.m. Friday, Transport Minister Jiro Kawasaki told reporters the same day.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 1998

North Korea video shows black markets, starving kids

Adults can be seen selling noodles, potatoes and kimchi on the streets, seemingly oblivious to the starving children wandering around them, combing the ground for anything edible.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 1998

JR firms on modernization roll in Asia

OSAKA -- Japanese railroads are boosting their support of railway modernization efforts in other parts of Asia, providing training, used engines and rolling stock.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 1998

Nissan denies rumor of DaimlerChrysler talks

Nissan Motor Co. President Yoshikazu Hanawa on Friday denied his company has negotiated with DaimlerChrysler AG over a capital-tieup alliance, but added that "generally speaking," the firm will welcome talks for a global alliance with other major automakers to survive the 21st century.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1998

Stimulus slowing economy's decline: BOJ

Japan's economic deterioration has slightly eased, mainly due to increased public works spending, but a self-sustained recovery of the private sector has yet to develop, Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1998

Shibuya-Ikebukuro subway line in the works

Teito Rapid Transit Authority applied Thursday with the Transport Ministry to build a new subway line linking Shibuya to Ikebukuro via Shinjuku.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1998

Kids with asthma at 50-year high: poll

Record high percentages of children in all grades levels from kindergarten to senior high school have asthma, according to a survey released Thursday by the Education Ministry.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 1998

Tokyo staffers get yearlong pay rise freeze

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government agreed with its labor union Thursday to freeze a proposed wage hike for its entire staff for a year, officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

Educators hammer out mandatory reforms

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

LDP finalizes record 9.3 trillion yen tax cut plan

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party finalized a large package of tax revisions Wednesday allowing for a record 9.3 trillion yen in tax cuts for fiscal 1999.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

Government wary of sales tax welfare role

The government Tax Commission, in a set of recommendations to the prime minister finalized Wednesday, called for cautious discussions about limiting the use of consumption tax revenues for welfare purposes.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998

Billiards stages comeback in hard times

OSAKA -- Billiards, a game in which Japan made off with gold, silver and bronze medals in this year's Asian Games, seems to be making a resurgence in popularity.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1998

Government nationalizes Nippon Credit Bank

The government has effectively placed Nippon Credit Bank under temporary state control, concluding the bad loan-laden institution had a capital deficit of 94.4 billion yen at the end of March.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1998

Environment Agency targets diesel emissions

An advisory council under the Environment Agency proposed Monday a set of stricter emissions guidelines for diesel automobiles that would lower the upper exhaust limits of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter by more than one-fourth by 2004.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

Auto auctioneer way ahead of information highway

23rd in a series of occasional articles about venture businesses
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

KEDO deal may collapse, Komura warns

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura expressed concern Friday that the agreement to provide North Korea with two light-water reactors may collapse unless Pyongyang cooperates to resolve suspicions about its missile and nuclear activities.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 1998

Hormone disrupter meeting attracts 1,100 participants

Staff writerKYOTO -- In an attempt to exchange the latest research on one of the most critical environmental issues today, more than 1,100 scientists and government officials from eight countries gathered Friday in Kyoto for a three-day symposium on endocrine disrupters.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 1998

Tokyo-Pyongyang tensions elicit more Defense disclosure

Five-year-old tensions between the U.S. and North Korea are intensifying, and Japan is growing increasingly nervous about the prospects of another missile launch from its reclusive neighbor.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1998

Economy mired but beginning to move: EPA

Though the economy remains in in contraction with continuing weakness in corporate investment, the Economic Planning Agency said in its monthly economic report Tuesday that "there is a whiff of change in the air."
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1998

Kogi River most polluted in nation

The Kogi River in Osaka Prefecture has the worst water quality of any river in Japan, while the Yoichi River in Hokkaido has the purest, according to an Environment Agency study released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1998

Students' Global Society opens forum for development issues

HIROSHIMA -- A group of students and scholars at Hiroshima University have formed Global Society, which they hope will be one of Japan's leading international research bodies for overseas development activities.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan