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COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2001

Defense issues move to the fore

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, in a policy speech to the Diet Jan. 31, stated: "Emergency legislation (designed to defend Japan in the event of foreign aggression) is necessary to ensure the security of the state and the people. I intend to initiate considerations in this regard." Earlier, on Jan. 26,...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Task force disbanded as Japanese confirmed safe in Iraq

The government on Saturday set up a liaison office at Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Official Residence and convened a Foreign Ministry task force following an air strike by U.S. and British warplanes on radar facilities south of Baghdad on Friday, government officials said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 18, 2001

Memories of Fido remain from hair to eternity

I am covered, head to foot, in dog hair. It's as if it had rained cats and dogs and I splashed through a puddle of them.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2001

New Komeito may desert Mori in no-confidence vote

The tide of ill will against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori gained momentum Friday when the leader of a key coalition partner said his party may not support Mori in a no-confidence motion.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2001

Career bureaucrats increasingly opting out

An increasing number of young, fast-track career bureaucrats handling Japan's economic policymaking are leaving public positions, either because they are seeking better work in the private sector or because the recent government realignment is reducing their administrative authority.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2001

Cabbies, waiters and retailers predict a slowdown

Taxi drivers, waiters and workers in other sectors considered close to the man on the street in January were more pessimistic about the economy than in any other month since the government began conducting its so-called Economy Watchers poll a year earlier, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 15, 2001

Shed light on unbelievable accident

The collision between a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine and a Japanese fisheries training ship Friday off Oahu Island, Hawaii, was simply unbelievable. It is a sad fact, however, that the collision, which is believed to have been caused by negligence on the part of the submarine, sank the ship, leaving...
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

Head of embezzlement probe replaced after being hospitalized for exhaustion

The Foreign Ministry will replace its secretariat director general, Tomoyuki Abe, who is expected to remain in hospital for a long time to recover from work exhaustion, a high-ranking ministry official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

Head of embezzlement probe replaced after being hospitalized for exhaustion

The Foreign Ministry will replace its secretariat director general, Tomoyuki Abe, who is expected to remain in hospital for a long time to recover from work exhaustion, a high-ranking ministry official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

Politicians test online waters for votes

Staff writer In a country where nearly 30 million people out of the 120 million population use the Internet, about 400 out of 732 Diet members have their own Web site.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2001

Picking priorities in Russia

Russia's economy is looking good. A year of 7 percent growth and high oil prices have provided a much needed windfall for the country. By all appearances, then, it is the wrong time to pick a fight with the West. But the government of President Vladimir Putin seems to be doing just that. It is a pointless...
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Opposition finds grist as Mori golfs amid tragedy

The opposition camp made full use of its latest ammunition against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- his decision to keep playing golf Saturday despite learning about a collision between a Japanese vessel and a U.S. submarine -- during Tuesday's House of Representatives Budget Committee deliberations.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2001

Opposition finds grist as Mori golfs amid tragedy

The opposition camp made full use of its latest ammunition against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori -- his decision to keep playing golf Saturday despite learning about a collision between a Japanese vessel and a U.S. submarine -- during Tuesday's House of Representatives Budget Committee deliberations.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Government to warn of possible economic slowdown

The Cabinet Office will revise downward its overall assessment of the domestic economy and effectively warn of a possible slowdown in a monthly report scheduled to be released on Friday, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Government to warn of possible economic slowdown

The Cabinet Office will revise downward its overall assessment of the domestic economy and effectively warn of a possible slowdown in a monthly report scheduled to be released on Friday, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Defense Agency staff, SDF to face stiffer penalties for spying

The Defense Agency plans to make penalties for personnel and Self-Defense Forces members who leak secret information harsher by raising the maximum prison term from one year to five years, agency sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

The accidental ambassadors

Less than six months after bathing in the international attention that came with hosting the Olympic Games, Australians are celebrating their nation's 100th birthday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2001

Upheaval on the horizon

Diet debate started Tuesday on the fiscal 2001 government budget. The debate is likely to see head-on confrontation between the ruling and opposition forces. The government and the ruling coalition are hoping to pass the budget before fiscal 2000 ends March 31 in order to prepare for an Upper House election...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

BOJ cuts discount rate to record low of 0.35%

Coming under intense political pressure, the Bank of Japan decided Friday to reduce the official discount rate by 0.15 percentage points to a record low 0.35 percent.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Ministry, NPA to target drunk drivers

The Justice Ministry and National Police Agency said Friday they will launch a series of joint meetings next week involving lawyers, scholars and other outside experts to effectively cope with the problem of drunken and reckless driving.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Public works bid-rigging said widespread

Takehiko Mori says he is confessing to his crime now that the three-year statute of limitations for the offense has expired.
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2001

Coalition will complete plan to boost stocks today: Kamei

The ruling coalition will accelerate work on measures to revive share prices, compiling them by tonight, the top policy maker of the Liberal Democratic Party said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2001

Government to rely on bonds for 41% of all revenue by 2004

Rising social security costs will force the government to issue bonds worth 41.1 percent of its total revenue in fiscal 2004, up from 38.5 percent in fiscal 2000, the Finance Ministry says in a simulation report released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2001

Price falls have Miyazawa, BOJ at odds

The Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors are likely to join the debate over Japanese prices later this month in Italy — a debate in which the government and BOJ continue to see falling prices in a different light.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Mori's credit card data not stolen by hackers

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's credit card details were not stolen by computer hackers who allegedly infiltrated the World Economic Forum, as was claimed by a British newspaper, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Opposition may boycott budget committee

The ruling and opposition camps on Tuesday locked horns over the recent money-for-favors scandal, with the LDP saying one of its Diet members implicated in the case will not testify until after the fiscal 2001 budget clears the Lower House.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Opposition may boycott budget committee

The ruling and opposition camps on Tuesday locked horns over the recent money-for-favors scandal, with the LDP saying one of its Diet members implicated in the case will not testify until after the fiscal 2001 budget clears the Lower House.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.