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JAPAN
Dec 10, 1999

$1 million earmarked to aid Chechnya refugees

The government announced Friday that it will extend $1 million to international humanitarian aid organizations to aid refugees who have evacuated the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya. Under the emergency aid plan, Japan will offer $500,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 1999

DPJ panel wants labor law to force holiday leave

Article 38 of the Labor Standards Law should be revised to forcibly cure the nation's workaholism by obliging all businesses to make workers take paid holidays, a policy study group of the Democratic Party of Japan said Thursday. The average Japanese worker takes only about half of the paid holidays...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 1999

Losing the battle in Seattle

Last Tuesday, a crowd in downtown Seattle assembled in front of a McDonald's restaurant. First, a French dairy farmer, defending European agricultural export subsidies, denounced the World Trade Organization. Next, a Brazilian farmer, harmed by those same European export subsidies, excoriated the WTO....
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Education White Paper emphasizes individuality

Educational reforms should put priority on respecting a child's individuality and giving local authorities more autonomy to correct "excessive equalization," according to the 1999 White Paper on Education released Tuesday. In the report, submitted to the day's Cabinet meeting, the Education Ministry...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Kono claims deal close on ending Pyongyang sanctions

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono expressed his resolve Monday to quickly work to lift remaining sanctions against North Korea and resume bilateral talks on normalizing diplomatic relations. Kono's comments came one day after Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed him to study lifting sanctions against the...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Down Under music with Asian flair

The renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe vividly recalls gifts he received as a young boy growing up in 1930s rural Tasmania, given to him by family friends on return from Japan. One gift was a much-thumbed children's version of the "Tale of Genji," the other a cardboard-cutout castle.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1999

Delegation urges resumption of talks with Pyongyang

Representatives of a nonpartisan mission that returned from a trip to North Korea on Friday urged Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to work toward a quick resumption of normalization talks with the Stalinist country. Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who headed the delegation, and two other representatives...
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 1999

Tough times again for Ozawa

While I was away from Japan on a recent overseas trip, the nation was plunged into political confusion following Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa's threat to leave the ruling three-party coalition. Ozawa suggested that his party could quit the alliance -- which also includes the Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Nago base relocation no done deal

YOKO HANI Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Inamine agrees to heliport relocation

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine made it clear Friday that he will accept the relocation of key functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to a new facility within the prefecture -- as long as the site is a joint military-civilian site that the U.S. military will be required to leave in 15 years....
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

SDF to fly supplies to Timor refugees

Self-Defense Forces aircraft will fly humanitarian aid supplies to East Timorese refugees in West Timor, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono formally announced Friday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 1999

Heading for a showdown

Nov. 9 marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which led to the end of the Cold War. The international situation, liberated from ideological confrontations, has changed a great deal since then.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 1999

The challenge of jobs for graduates

Students graduating from the nation's universities, two-year junior colleges and high schools next March are not likely to agree with the optimistic pronouncements being made about signs of a long-delayed recovery for Japan's battered economy. Better days may indeed be ahead for the corporate world,...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Aid bills for small businesses sail through Lower House

The Lower House plenary session passed legislation Tuesday to revise the 1963 Small and Medium Enterprise Basic Law, clearing the way for the government to shift its policy from assisting all small firms as economic underdogs to encouraging "diverse and dynamic" businesses.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 1999

New debate catches Obuchi off guard

Staff writers
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Politicians brace for one-on-one Diet debate

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Coalition's nursing care rift on the mend

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

LDP executives cave in to corporate donation ban

Reversing an earlier decision, top executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party agreed Monday that corporate donations should be banned beginning next year as stipulated in a 1995 law.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 1999

Prospects of a military coup in India

This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Part 1 appeared in yesterday's Opinion page.
EDITORIALS
Nov 6, 1999

Coming to legal grips with Aum

Citizens who are justifiably wary of the lingering threat to public safety posed by the Aum Shinrikyo cult welcome the bill seeking to control its activities now under consideration in the Diet. It is expected to be enacted into law before the end of the year. The numerous criminal activities with which...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

New Komeito's ethics clash with new partner

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

Coalition vetoes move to oust Fujinami

The ruling coalition on Thursday rejected an opposition proposal to vote on whether to demand that former Chief Cabinet Secretary Takao Fujinami, whose bribery conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court, voluntary resign from the Diet.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

Obuchi vows redress for Tokai accident victims

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Thursday said the government will compensate victims of the Tokai nuclear accident -- if they can establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the radiation and any illnesses.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Japan to lift ban on flights to Pyongyang

The government announced on Tuesday that it will resume charter flights to North Korea, easing sanctions it imposed in September 1998 after a North Korean missile flew over Japan.
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
Oct 28, 1999

Government plans shot in arm for small companies

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 1999

Jospin rides high, blessed by luck and skill

PARIS -- When Lionel Jospin was appointed prime minister of France in June 1997, there were not many people willing to bet on his longevity in office. The "plural left" majority on which he had to rely looked too divided on most issues, from Europe to immigration, to enable him -- or so it seemed at...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1999

Fujinami resigns from LDP

One-time Chief Cabinet Secretary Takao Fujinami left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday but refused to say whether he would resign as a member of the Lower House, now that his bribery conviction in the decade-old Recruit scandal has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 1999

More aid offered to Timor refugees

The government will offer humanitarian aid supplies for East Timorese refugees through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 1999

State stand on Korean veterans may be unconstitutional: court

OSAKA -- Refusing a state pension to Korean residents of Japan simply because they are not Japanese nationals might run counter to the constitutional principle of equality under the law, the Osaka High Court said Friday.

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