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JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

More ministry appointees named

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Tuesday appointed the ministry's Treaties Bureau Director General Shotaro Yachi as deputy vice minister for foreign policy and Japanese Minister to the United States Shin Ebihara to take Yachi's place, the ministry said.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

TSE dives to 13,500 in high-tech sales spree

Tokyo stock prices continued to take a beating Thursday, as sharp declines on Wall Street overnight coupled with indications of a faltering economic recovery at home depressed the benchmark stock index to below the 13,500 mark, the lowest closing in over 23 months.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2000

83 trillion yen budgeted for 2001

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Wednesday unveiled a draft general-account budget for fiscal 2001 that is smaller than its predecessor for the first time in three years but will nevertheless leave Japan 666 trillion yen in debt.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2000

Ministry proposes record-high defense budget

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday proposed a record-high defense budget of 4.955 trillion yen for fiscal 2001, which is a 0.4 percent rise over the initial budget for fiscal 2000, a ministry official said.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2000

Members of new economic advisory panel named

The government on Tuesday unveiled the lineup of a soon-to-be-launched advisory panel that is hoped to play a key role in setting the direction of economic and fiscal policies.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2000

2.5 trillion yen budgeted for outlying shinkansen

The government and the three ruling parties agreed Monday to begin construction of new sections of shinkansen tracks in the Hokuriku and Kyushu regions at a cost of 2.5 trillion yen to the central and local governments over roughly 12 years.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2000

Economic panel to be disbanded lists failures

A soon-to-be-disbanded top government advisory panel issued a report Monday reflecting on its failure to quickly deal with major economic changes such as the information technology boom and the collapse of the asset-price bubble that depressed the economy through the 1990s.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2000

Mori allots 250 billion yen toward IT 'revolution'

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday unveiled the breakdown of a 700 billion yen special budget that places special emphasis on efforts to realize an information technology "revolution" in Japan.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Local civil servants grow fewer

The number of local public servants across Japan as of April 1 was 3,204,297, down 27,861 from a year earlier, the largest decline since the Home Affairs Ministry began surveying their numbers in 1975, the ministry said in a report released Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Kato could be prime minister in 5 to 6 years, says Kamei

Koichi Kato, who unsuccessfully led a charge to oust Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori late last month, could become prime minister in five or six years, a top policymaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2000

1.8% growth eyed in 2001 forecast

The government is putting the final touches on its economic growth projection for fiscal 2001, with the Economic Planning Agency eyeing a target of around 1.8 percent, which would mark a third straight year of growth, government sources said.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2000

It's official, it's Mr. Bush

It's over. Nearly five weeks after U.S. voters went to the polls, Texas Gov. George W. Bush can claim to be the official winner and the 43rd president of the United States. It has been a wrenching time, for the candidates, their parties and the American public. Now, the healing must begin. It will be...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2000

SDF to get four aircraft for midair refueling

Japan will introduce four airborne refueling planes to help extend the flight range of Self-Defense Forces aircraft in its midterm defense buildup plan for the five years from fiscal 2001, coalition sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2000

Mori hopes to visit U.S. soon

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori offered his congratulations Thursday to U.S. President-elect George W. Bush and said he hopes to visit the United States "as quickly as possible" after Bush takes office in January.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 15, 2000

Streamlining hopes face roadblocks: Hashimoto

The ongoing process of realigning central government ministries and agencies remains trapped in a bureaucratic vise, according to former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who is currently state minister in charge of streamlining the nation's bureaucracy.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2000

Mori sues over story on gangster ties

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori filed a libel suit with the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday against a magazine that published an article and photographs allegedly linking him to a rightwing gangster, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2000

FRC executive to head up FSA after realignment

Shoji Mori, secretary general of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, will replace Masaharu Hino as head of the Financial Services Agency, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2000

Green tax among panel proposals

The Central Environmental Council proposed Wednesday that the government consider introducing an environmental tax as one measure to combat global warming and air pollution.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Fujimori a Japanese, can stay: Kono

The government has officially confirmed that ousted Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has Japanese citizenship and that there is no problem with him staying indefinitely, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono announced Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 13, 2000

Television as a pillar of the state

BROADCASTING POLITICS IN JAPAN: NHK and Television News, by Ellis Krauss. Cornell University Press, 2000, 278 pp., $35 (cloth). Many of us know NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) for its film documentaries, its cultural programs -- stunning or plodding, depending on your perspective -- or its Sunday morning singalongs....
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2000

Mori ready to scrap cozy budget conference

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Monday that he was ready to scrap a controversial budget conference that seats top politicians elbow to elbow with top government ministers.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2000

Stocks likely to rebound on bargain-hunting

Tokyo stock prices appear poised to rebound strongly on bargain hunting.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2000

Magazine to run picture of Mori, alleged rightist

In the latest potential headache for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, a weekly magazine plans to publish photographs of Mori with a man allegedly linked to a crime syndicate in an edition that will hit newsstands this week.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2000

Mr. Fox gets down to business

Mexico's new president, Mr. Vicente Fox, has wasted no time in getting down to business. During the campaign, he promised sweeping change. The Mexican people believed him, voting him into office in a historic election. In his inaugural address last week, Mr. Fox stuck to his theme of renewal. But the...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Yohei Kono or Ryutaro Hashimoto likely to succeed PM Yoshiro Mori

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will emerge as the favorites to succeed Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori when the likelihood of his resignation increases come spring or summer, according to a veteran political analyst.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 9, 2000

Better education system hinges on revision of law: Machimura

The 53-year-old Fundamental Law of Education needs to be revised if Japan is to lay the foundations of a better education system in the 21st century, according to newly appointed Education Minister Nobutaka Machimura.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Nonbinding tribunal can only sentence the nation to shame

Since three Korean women came out in 1991 and demanded government compensation for being forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, many former "comfort women" have died in despair, receiving no compensation, never seeing their rapists brought to justice and having suffered the further humiliation...
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2000

Subcommittee reviews corporate laws

A subcommittee under the Industrial Structural Council, an advisory panel to the minister of international trade and industry, on Friday compiled a set of proposals to revise corporate laws to make corporate management more responsive and flexible.

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.