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JAPAN
Feb 28, 2000

Arabian Oil loses drilling rights; Saudi aid canceled

The 40-year-old oil drilling rights of Arabian Oil Co., Japan's largest oil producer, in a major oil field in Saudi Arabia expired Monday morning as last-minute negotiations with Riyadh over the weekend ended in failure. Trade chief Takashi Fukaya expressed deep regret after the oil concessions officially...
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2000

The Constitution's honorable origins

For the first time in more than half a century, the postwar Constitution came up for formal and substantial discussion in the Diet on Thursday. To begin, the Constitutional Review Council solicited expert opinions from two constitutional scholars and examined how the current Constitution came into being....
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2000

Beijing's bombast backfires

Subtlety has never been the Chinese government's strong suit. Unfortunately, the government in Beijing has unleashed its latest broadside against Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province, at perhaps the worst possible time: weeks ahead of the island's second democratic presidential election and...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Tokyo backing Arabian Oil to very end, Fukaya says

Trade chief Takashi Fukaya underlined Wednesday the government's determination to support Arabian Oil Co. until its negotiations with Saudi Arabia over the renewal of the firm's rights to a major oil concession there are exhausted. Despite media reports on the apparent pessimism of some government officials,...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Port transport business targeted for deregulation

The Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday to deregulate the harbor transport business in a bid to boost the competitiveness of Japanese ports. The government was to submit the bill to the Diet later in the day, aiming for enforcement this year. The bill, which would revise the Port Transport Business Law,...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

State drops effort to sway Ishihara

The government issued a statement Tuesday that spells out its position on Tokyo's controversial new tax plan and at the same time washes its hands of the issue. "The government sees that the plan includes problems and asks the prefecture to deal with the issue carefully," the statement says. It also...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2000

China probes U.S.' other Asian alliances

China's deepening alignment with Russia, and the sales of advanced weapons that accompany it, risk fueling China's ambition of strategic dominance in East Asia. After the "recovery" of Taiwan, or so the scenario goes, China will concentrate on making the South China Sea a Chinese lake. In its path, however,...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2000

Hearings on 2000 budget bumped up

The Lower House Budget Committee voted Friday to hold hearings on the record 84.98 trillion yen state budget for fiscal 2000 on Thursday, paving the way for its passage through the lower chamber by the end of the month. Despite the opposition's call for more deliberation, the Budget Committee approved...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 17, 2000

Somebody stick a fork in the J. League; it's done

Some things are just not meant to be: the Buffalo Bills will never win the Super Bowl, Hideo Nomo will never develop a personality, Ichiro Suzuki will never trade in his bat for a sumo mawashi, and Fred Varcoe will never grace the cover of GQ magazine.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2000

Mr. Wahid takes charge

In a surprising reversal, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid suspended Gen. Wiranto, the former head of the armed forces, who was serving as coordinating minister for politics and security affairs. Despite fears that the decision might incite the military to turn against his government, heads of...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2000

Will Indonesia survive Suharto?

INDONESIA BEYOND SUHARTO, edited by Donald Emmerson. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, 395 pp., $26.95 (paper). Can Indonesia succeed in returning the troops to the barracks? Can it afford not to? Recent rumors of an impending coup against President Abdurrahman Wahid, moves by the president against some...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2000

Osaka hopes to imitate Ishihara's tax proposal

Osaka may follow Tokyo's move to raise funds by taxing banks more. Liberal Democratic Party members of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly will call for Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota to introduce a tax system to be imposed on large banks in the prefecture following a similar move in Tokyo, it was learned Wednesday. The...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

Turnout low at Founding Day ceremony

Diet members and foreign dignitaries on Friday attended a ceremony to celebrate National Founding Day at the Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Yet, despite the efforts of organizing officials to emphasize the historical significance of the ceremony, the occasion was marked more by the prevalence...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

Ishihara continues to push for bank tax

Despite criticism from the central government, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara took another step Thursday toward levying a 3 percent tax on banks by briefing party representatives of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. To go into effect, the proposal must be approved by the assembly during its regular session,...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

M-5 rocket fails to reach orbit; satellite feared lost

UCHINOURA, Kagoshima Pref. -- In another serious blow to Japan's space program, an M-5 rocket carrying an astronomical observation satellite failed Thursday to reach its expected orbit. The rocket was supposed to reach an orbit of between 270 km and 550 km from Earth after lifting off at 10:30 a.m....
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

Obuchi defends aide accused of swindling stock

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi rejected allegations Thursday that his close aide swindled a man, now deceased, out of shares currently worth about 2.3 billion yen. "I understand that he did nothing wrong," Obuchi said during an Upper House plenary session , adding that he himself was not involved in the...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2000

Sumo: the final gender frontier?

Staff writer With the nation's first female governor taking office in Osaka, an old question is re-emerging: Are women to remain banned from stepping into the sacred sumo ring? Fusae Ota, who won the Osaka gubernatorial election Sunday, is taking aim at that glass ceiling with her eagerness to personally...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

Analysis: Obstinacy may backfire on both sides

The ruling coalition on Wednesday dug its heels in even deeper as a political battle for public sentiment with the opposition camp took another turn.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

Seat bill passes Diet on ruling bloc's vote

The contentious seat-reduction bill that has rocked the government for months was passed in an Upper House plenary session Wednesday amid an opposition boycott of all Diet proceedings. The ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Party and New Komeito -- skipped committee sessions in...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Panel recommends making new constitution by 2008

A new Constitution should be introduced in 2008, the head of the Upper House's constitutional research panel reiterated Tuesday. Masakuni Murakami, a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party, told the Upper House plenary session that he aims to wrap up discussions by the panel by 2005 have the...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Opposition parties continue Diet boycott

The Lower House on Monday entered a two-day, question-and-answer session on policy speeches delivered Friday as the opposition camp continued its boycott in the face of last week's turmoil over a seat-reduction bill. It marked the first time in the past 33 years that a question-and-answer session on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2000

A warning from cyberspace

Welcome to the digital world. That was not the actual wording of the message hackers left on Japanese government Web pages this week, but it was the meaning for anyone who bothered to read between the lines. This week's incidents were an embarrassment, or at most a nuisance. Next time, the damage could...
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2000

Debate kicks off on the Constitution

As the ordinary Diet session opened Jan. 20, the tripartite ruling bloc and the opposition forces squared off over a proposal to cut the number of Lower House seats. With a dissolution of the Lower House for a snap election looming, sharp rivalry is brewing between the coalition, made up of the Liberal...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Obuchi calls for creation of level, not vertical, society

In a speech before a Diet devoid of opposition members, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi called Friday for the creation of a nation in which individuals are not submerged in society but showcase their abilities and help invigorate the country. The opposition decided to boycott the session to protest the...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Opposition pledges to overthrow bloc

Leaders of the three major opposition parties pledged Friday after their boycott of the day's plenary sessions in both Diet houses to maintain a united front and overthrow the coalition government led by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. The Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2000

Residency awarded to lucky dozen

Twelve foreigners who have overstayed their visas will be allowed to stay in Japan after applying for residents' status in September, Justice Minister Hideo Usui said Friday. The 12 are part of a group of 21 who publicly approached immigration authorities in September. It is the first time the government...
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2000

Freedom Party gets its chance

Political deadlock has brought Austria's far-right Freedom Party to the brink of power. That has created unease among those who worry that joining the Cabinet will legitimize the party's extreme views -- and those of like-minded political groups elsewhere in Europe. Freedom's views are troublesome, but...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2000

Government to set up antihacker task force

The government Wednesday decided to establish a task force of specialists to prevent computer vandalism by hackers and make a manual at an early date. The decision was made at a meeting of section chiefs from all ministries and government agencies in charge of computer-related issues. Earlier in the...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2000

Homage to a mass murderer

I was shocked to see a photograph in The Japan Times last month of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka laying a wreath at the statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang. They looked rather sheepish. They should, in fact, have looked...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2000

A mother's place is in the Diet

Babies are always news, but an even more special baby than usual is expected in Japan in April. Its mother is a news-maker herself: Diet member and former Olympic speed skater and cyclist Ms. Seiko Hashimoto. Dubbed a "superwoman" of Japanese athletics, Ms. Hashimoto competed in seven consecutive Olympics...

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