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JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

MSDF officer arrested, admits spying for Russia

The Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, a researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, on suspicion of violating the Self-Defense Forces Law, which prohibits SDF members from divulging classified security...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2000

LDP approves 17 billion yen loan to China

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday approved a 17.2 billion yen special loan package for China despite Japanese protests over recent Chinese naval activities near Japanese waters, LDP officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Mori, Putin make little progress

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their two-day summit in Tokyo on Tuesday, agreeing to continue peace treaty negotiations toward the yearend deadline but with a territorial dispute stuck at an impasse.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2000

Evacuees to get new homes

The processing of evacuees from the volcanic island of Miyake is going smoothly and the first of three groups of islanders is scheduled to move into public housing today, officials of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2000

Russian intransigence led to U.S. missile delay

WASHINGTON -- Russia's refusal to negotiate changes in its 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the United States played a key role in President Clinton's decision to delay the initial phases of construction for a national missile defense system, leading U.S. newspapers reported Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

34 projects join those to be scrapped

The Construction Ministry listed 34 public works projects Friday for possible scrapping based on its own criteria for stopping wasteful spending.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

Mori's house has odd occupants

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is less than happy about the state of his official residence, saying the many mice that scurry through the dwelling are not the aging residence's only unwanted visitors -- "Some say there are ghosts as well," he said.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

NTT remerger mulled

The government and the ruling coalition are considering urging the two regional arms of telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to merge in spring 2002 -- less than three years after they were split -- according to coalition sources.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2000

Pupils evacuated from Miyake settle in at west Tokyo school

Schoolchildren evacuated from Miyake Island arrived Wednesday afternoon at a school in western Tokyo that will be their temporary home shortly after an evacuation order was issued for all parts of the volcanic island.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2000

Japan aims to pass U.S. in IT in five years

Japanese business leaders and Cabinet members agreed Wednesday to map out a national strategy by the end of the year to promote information technology, setting a goal of outrunning the United States as a "super-express IT power" in five years.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Children lead exodus of volcanic Miyake Island

Miyake Island's Mount Oyama erupted again early Tuesday morning -- its second major blast this summer -- hastening the evacuation of 136 children later in the day.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2000

An achievement of sorts

The latest normalization talks between Japan and North Korea, held here for two days last week, ended in a draw, although the two sides agreed to meet again later this year. While North Korea focused on "liquidating the past," demanding a Japanese apology and compensation for the 1910-1945 colonization...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

Mori handed 233 public works projects to be axed

Top policy officials of the ruling coalition parties on Monday handed Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and his Cabinet a list of 233 public works projects to be canceled in an effort to make Japan's massive construction budget more effective.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2000

Managing Japan's monetary policy

The Bank of Japan announced Aug. 11 that it would abandon its "zero-interest rate" policy, by which is meant that the money market interest rate at the shortest end of terms would be virtually zero.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2000

Inamine reiterates stance on new U.S. base time limit

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine on Friday reiterated the prefecture's demand that the central government work toward imposing a 15-year limit on the use of a new facility for the U.S. Marine Corps to be built in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, that will take over the helicopter operations of the Futenma Air Station...
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2000

Is the Bank of Japan right?

LONDON -- The governor of the Bank of Japan, Masaru Hayami, and the majority of the BOJ's policy council have drawn criticism from the Japanese government and leaders of Japanese industry for the decision to end the BOJ's zero-interest-rate policy. These criticisms have been echoed in the British press....
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2000

Capital gains tax system should stay: FRC chief

Hideyuki Aizawa, chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission, said Friday that he will call on the Finance Ministry to maintain the current capital gains tax system in order to prevent the ministry's proposed reforms from negatively affecting the domestic stock market.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

Updated environment plan to add new economic options

The Basic Environment Plan -- Japan's 5-year-old master plan for a more environmentally sustainable society -- is in the middle of a seismic revision.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2000

Defense Agency to seek tanker aircraft

The Defense Agency plans to seek government approval to acquire a tanker aircraft for aerial refueling for the Air Self-Defense Force in the next fiscal year.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2000

The summer 'silly season' everywhere

Europe is on holiday. Go to Paris and you will find half the restaurants shut. Many industries close down for weeks, and their workers flock to holiday resorts. Britain is not much different from the rest of Europe in this respect -- although British firms tend to stagger holidays more than in other...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2000

Rally held to push issue of abductions

About 250 relatives and supporters of missing Japanese who were allegedly abducted by North Korean agents staged a demonstration march Sunday in Tokyo, asking Japan to push the matter in normalization talks this week.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2000

Hatoyama has no competition in DPJ race

Yukio Hatoyama was assured Monday of remaining leader of the Democratic Party of Japan after hopeful contenders failed to file their candidacies due to the lack of sufficient backing.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2000

Welcome end to the zero-rate policy

The Bank of Japan lifted its zero-interest-rate policy Aug. 11, despite strong resistance by the government, which exercised its right for the first time under the new BOJ law in its unsuccessful attempt to have the vote by the central bank's Policy Board postponed. One week later, the Nikkei-225 average...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Mori to embark on diplomatic tour in Asia

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori leaves today for an eight-day trip to four Southwest Asian countries, during which he is expected to call on India and Pakistan to sign an international treaty banning tests of nuclear weapons.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2000

China withdraws Morita's welcome

China has declined to accept a visit by Transport Minister Hajime Morita, in what some see as an indication of its displeasure over his visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Government workers facing salary reductions

The National Personnel Authority on Tuesday recommended bonus reductions and a freeze on central government employees' basic monthly salaries, which would reduce government employees' annual income over the previous year for the second consecutive year.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Arafat to arrive Thursday for visit

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will arrive in Japan on Thursday for a two-day visit, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono announced Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2000

Hands off the Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan, at a policy meeting last Friday, lifted its controversial zero-interest rate policy, which was adopted in February last year amid mounting deflationary pressures. The decision is overdue, given that the economy has shown growing signs of recovery in recent months. The good news for...

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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.