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JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Fujimori must return to face accusers: new Peru envoy

The newly appointed Peruvian ambassador to Japan has urged deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to return to Lima to answer accusations leveled at him following his decision to resign as president last year from Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2001

No quick fixes for Japan's ills

TOKYO and LONDON -- The 17th annual meeting of the U.K.-Japan 21st Century Group -- the bilateral think tank set up by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher way back in the '80s -- took place this year on Awaji Island in Kobe Bay, island of gods and puppets and,...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Vote on Mori set for Monday

The opposition camp agreed Friday to jointly submit a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet on Monday morning, in the hope of securing the upper hand in the ongoing battle to remove the unpopular leader.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2001

Tightening the noose on war criminals

LONDON -- For years, former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic lived openly in Belgrade at 119 Vlagoja Parovica Street. He treated with utter contempt his indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for directing the slaughter of 7,045 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July,...
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

New debt-waiver rules planned by the FSA

The Financial Services Agency plans to draft guidelines authorizing banks to waive claims on outstanding loans if corporate borrowers agree to spin off or scrap unprofitable divisions, FSA officials have said .
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Tokyo monument honors victims

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government unveiled a peace monument Friday at Sumida Ward park, honoring some 100,000 people who died or were listed as missing as a result of the firebombing of Tokyo during World War II.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Penal Code change would target credit card fraud

The government endorsed a bill Friday that increases the maximum jail term for credit card fraud to 10 years from the current five years and imposes heavier fines, officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

TSE plunges to lowest level in 151/2 years

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was again plagued by seemingly endless declines Friday as the key Nikkei index closed at its lowest level in 15 years and seven months.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Tokai Bank to close fundraising unit

Tokai Bank said Friday it will wind up its wholly owned subsidiary, Tokai Bank (Deutschland) GmbH, which has helped Japanese firms raise funds by issuing bonds denominated in the German mark.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2001

Japan, South Korea firms see bigger benefits in forging more alliances

Kyodo News Relations between Japanese and South Korean business enterprises have deepened in the past two or three years with increases in business alliances and joint ventures as well as full-scale sales offensives in the Japanese market by firms such as Hyundai Motor Co.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Jobless rate stays at 4.9%; spending remains in a lull

Dour economic indicators released Friday provided further evidence that Japan's economic recovery is stalling, with unemployment staying at a record-high level of 4.9 percent in January and consumer spending remaining flat.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Lawmaker's firm punished for illegal subcontracting job

The Infrastructure Ministry on Friday punished a construction firm owned by Mamoru Nishida, a former home affairs minister, for making 385.5 million yen from an illegal subcontracting job, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Foes of Isahaya project get more good news

Yoshio Yatsu, head of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, on Friday expressed qualified readiness to open the lock gates of a huge reclamation dike that traverses Isahaya Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget passage offers Mori no relief

Normally, a prime minister will breathe a sigh of relief when the annual budget package clears the Lower House. But for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the chamber's approval of the 82.65 trillion yen fiscal 2001 budget could mark the beginning of the end for his administration.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 3, 2001

New frontiers for hogaku

Music in Japan tends to be highly categorized. Ongaku is the Japanese generic term for music, but most Japanese understand it to refer to Western music (the word yogaku is more specific). Hogaku (Japanese music) indicates both Japanese music in general or, more specifically, the music of the Edo Period....
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2001

The critical mass

The current exhibition of 127 sculptures at the Yokohama Museum of Art is not only interesting from an artistic point of view, but also provides a fascinating insight into much of the intellectual Sturm und Drang of the 20th century.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Bill gives traffic law new teeth

The government approved a bill Friday to revise the traffic law by toughening penalties for flagrant violations including drunken driving and driving without a license.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 3, 2001

Wake us for the next dance

The abundance of new dance and theater available in Tokyo during the months of February and March is a sure indicator of just how profoundly new work in this city depends on grants and other handouts from funding bodies. These budgets, such as they are, must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Union wants to pressure Myanmar

The secretary general of a major global trade union body wants the international community to review its relations with Myanmar to pressure the military leadership to stop using its people as forced laborers.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 3, 2001

JOC panel mulls next president

A panel of the Japanese Olympic Committee met Friday to consider candidates to replace president Yushiro Yagi when his term of office expires later this month. While details of the meeting were not made public, the JOC committee was reportedly divided on recommending Yagi for another term, despite his...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Official claims innocence in HIV scandal

A former high-ranking Health and Welfare Ministry official repeated a not guilty plea Friday to the charge of professional negligence in an HIV infection scandal involving the deaths of more than 500 hemophiliacs as his lawyers made final arguments in the Tokyo District Court.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget wins approval

The House of Representatives on Friday approved the 82.65 trillion yen state budget for fiscal 2001, a move guaranteeing its enactment in time for the April 1 start of the fiscal year.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports