Mainichi Daily News articles from February 2000, page 2

Mainichi Daily News archives from February 2000

Obuchi facing rocky road ahead.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Although Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi appears to be secure at the head of the nation for the time being, it's not unimaginable that he'll face a challenge to his position within the year. Lurching in the wings are...

Transport minister to visit Ogasawara Islands.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai is set to visit the remote Pacific islands of Ogasawara later this week to give his backing to the construction of the islands' first ever airport, the Mainichi learned on Saturday. ...

First-ever 3-D view of Hokkaido.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Correspondent JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- Astronauts orbiting the Earth on the space shuttle Endeavour have produced the first-ever 3-D map of Japan to be released publicly, officials at the United States National Aeronautics...

Niigata cops face censure.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun The government may punish Niigata Prefectural Police executive officials for failing to take proper measures upon the discovery of a 19-year-old kidnapped woman, as well as for falsely announcing, with their chief's...

EDITORIAL: In vitro fertilization.
February 22, 2000... An ethics panel of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology has endorsed an opinion that would permit in vitro fertilization procedures that utilize sperm and ova donated by parties from outside of a marriage. The society's current...

Overnight call rate flat at 0.02%.
February 22, 2000... The key unsecured overnight call rate was unchanged at 0.02 percent on Friday from Thursday's weighted average. The Bank of Japan drained 400 billion yen from the market by selling bills under repurchase agreements to keep the fund...

Minister calls on school to admit AUM kids: Reluctant Saitama village fears disruptions.
February 22, 2000... Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone called on a village authority in Saitama Prefecture on Friday to allow the 6-year-old twin daughters of a former senior AUM Shinrikyo member to attend the local elementary school. "We can fully...

Court to rule on Dentsu suicide case in March.
February 22, 2000... The Supreme Court has decided to present on March 24 its ruling on whether the suicide of an employee of Dentsu Inc., the nation's largest advertising agency, was caused by overwork. The trial at the top court's No. 2 Petty Bench,...

Electronics giants allow commuting by computer.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Advances in the field of information technology and the rapidly expanding possibilities of the Internet now permit employees of electronics giants to do what once seemed possible only in science fiction -- telecommuting....

Japanese staffers at US Embassy dodging taxes.
February 22, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Filing practices permit improper reporting Some 250 Japanese employees of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo's Minato-ku improperly declared their personal income for a seven-year period until 1998, reaching a total of around...

Records show Nichiei tried to hide role.
February 22, 2000... A former regional deputy chief of Kyoto-based loan shark Nichiei Co. who is under arrest for intimidating debtors was transferred on paper by his employer to an affiliated company to hide the fact that he was a Nichiei employee, police said...

Cops grill JCO foreman over role in mishap.
February 22, 2000... TOKAI, Ibaraki -- A JCO Co. foreman at the nuclear plant here has been questioned about his involvement in the nation's worst-ever nuclear accident, police have said. Kenzo Koshijima, 53, is being questioned about allegations of...

NPA grills Niigata cops over kidnapping.
February 22, 2000... NIIGATA -- The National Police Agency (NPA) questioned the Niigata Prefectural Police head Sunday over the force's inadequate handling of the case in which a missing woman was rescued last month after a nine-year confinement at her abductor's...

Ex-nurse, gang boss busted for hospital extortion.
February 18, 2000... KOSHIGAYA, Saitama -- A former nurse and a gang boss were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of extorting 38 million yen from the former director of the scandal-tainted hospital here where she worked, police said. Yoshinobu Takahashi, 55,...

Tokai poll confirms residents' nuclear fears.
February 18, 2000... MITO -- Seventy-eight percent of residents polled in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, where the nation's worst nuclear accident occurred last year, said they feel the country's nuclear power facilities are dangerous, a survey by the municipal...

Used car dealer arrested for ordering theft.
February 18, 2000... KISHIWADA, Osaka -- An executive of a used car dealer here has been arrested on suspicion of ordering employees to steal money in order to fund the company's operation, police said. Investigators suspect that Yoshitada Izumoto, 26,...

High school student kills self after assault.
February 18, 2000... HACHINOHE, Aomori -- A 17-year-old high school boy hanged himself last week after being assaulted by a student at another high school, police said Wednesday. According to Aomori Prefectural Police, a family member of the boy, a student...

Bogus Fukuoka doctor nabbed.
February 18, 2000... FUKUOKA -- A bogus doctor was arrested Wednesday for violating the Medical Practitioners Law by treating patients without a medical license, Fukuoka Prefectural Police said. Nobuyuki Nakato, a 46-year-old quack from Kitashigeyasu, Saga...

15-year-old boy nailed for bashing teacher.
February 18, 2000... YUKI, Hiroshima -- A 15-year-old male junior high school student here was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of inflicting bodily injuries on his teacher in the school earlier this month, police said. According to investigation, the boy,...

Mitsui Marine drops tie-up plans.
February 16, 2000... Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co. will pull out from a planned tripartite merger with Nippon Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and Koa Fire and Marine Insurance Co. due to a failure to narrow differences during negotiations, company officials...

Peaking out over a Chinese chow down.
February 16, 2000... Staff Writer Tokyo restaurant spices up Chinese cuisine with Japanese and French aesthetics for a visual feast Think of Chinese food and, invariably, an image of dishes of fried vegetables piled high comes to mind. Of course,...

Expanding a cramped lifestyle.
February 16, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun 'No, yojohan are not popular at all these days." The man from the student housing department at Kyoto University is quite emphatic about how modern students regard rooms that have traditionally been associated with...

Politicians' aides misuse big names.
February 16, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Former secretaries to three legislators, including Justice Minister Hideo Usui, accepted 34 million yen from an executive of a consultation company, which was allegedly giving advice on tax evasion, in return for...

EDITORIAL: Glico-Morinaga case.
February 16, 2000... The 15-year statute of limitations in the notorious Glico-Morinaga case expired on Feb. 13. This case, which involved 28 crimes, including the lacing of confections with sodium cyanide and the kidnapping of Katsuhisa Ezaki, the president of...

Dutch Royal Collection opens.
February 16, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun The opening ceremony for the Dutch Royal Collection exhibition was held on Monday at the Hyokeikan Building of the Tokyo National Museum in Taito-ku. Some 800 people attended the ceremony, which was held prior to the...

Seminar to mull values, future of nation-states.
February 16, 2000... Mainichi Daily News A symposium discussing the future of the nation-state and the interaction of Asian and European values organized by the Asian-Europe Forum for Young Professionals is slated to be held on Feb. 19 in conference room 502...

Kidnap suspect says he wanted companion.
February 16, 2000... NIIGATA -- The man who was sent to prosecutors on Sunday for allegedly abducting and confining a now 19-year-old woman for more than nine years said he kidnapped her because he wanted someone to talk to, according to investigators. ...

Briefly: Nichiei staffer denies extortionist tactics.
February 16, 2000... A former employee of loan shark Nichiei Co. denied during a hearing at the Tokyo District Court on Monday that he used extortionist tactics to recover a loan from a debtor's guarantors. Yukihiro Wada, 45, who has been indicted on charges...

Police chief accused of retaliation campaign.
February 16, 2000... NAGAOKA, Niigata -- A chief of a police station here allegedly instructed his subordinates to retaliate against police in another precinct after one of his officers was arrested on charges of assault in that precinct for hitting a taxi driver...

Toyama students join shuttle mission.
February 16, 2000... TOYAMA -- Five middle schools are taking part in an international educational program involving the ongoing U.S. space shuttle mission to photograph Earth's surface by remotely controlling a digital camera aboard the shuttle, teachers at a...

Sidelight: International Children's Library.
February 15, 2000... Diet proceedings returned to normal on Wednesday after two weeks of boycott by the opposition. It was the first time in the Diet's 110-year history that a prime minister gave a policy speech in both houses of the legislature with the...

Niigata man busted for imprisoning girl 9 years.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun SANJO, Niigata -- Betting on the horses and driving a car led to a man being arrested Friday after he kept a girl prisoner in his home for over nine years until she was rescued safely last month, police said. In a...

Music heavyweights blast taxing wages going to charity.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Bureaucratic boneheadedness has riled two classical music heavyweights after the Ministry of Finance insisted on taxing wages the performers want to donate to charity. World-renowned Russian cellist Mstislav...

EDITORIAL: Rocket failure.
February 14, 2000... The M-5 rocket launched by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science on Thursday was not able to put its payload, an Astro-E satellite, into orbit. This fiasco prompts us to ask, is the nation's space development program hogtied? ...

Readers' Forum: Aichi More power to 'em.
February 14, 2000... To the Editor: Fusae Ota was elected as governor of Osaka Prefecture, becoming the first female governor and in Finland, a female president was chosen. When people chose a woman leader, it makes news. This is because only very few...

Gov't asks UK to take back MOX nuke fuel.
February 14, 2000... The Natural Resources and Energy Agency officially asked Britain earlier this week to take back plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel shipped to a nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture whose data were falsified, agency officials said....

Shagadelic!
February 14, 2000... About nine months after giving birth to a baby bird, both male and female crested ibises at the Sado Ibis Conservation Center in Niigata Prefecture are apparently nearing the mating season again. Officials of the center recently said feathers...

Readers' Forum: Exercises in futility.
February 14, 2000... To the Editor: For two months, the Readers' Forum was missing. Now it has started again in its regular role as the platform for English teachers to vent their anger at the Japanese for doing things the wrong way or trying to teach the...

NPA throws in the towel in Glico case.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun A series of crimes during the mid-1980s collectively referred to as the Glico-Morinaga Incident has led the National Police Agency (NPA) to concede defeat for the first time in its history. Despite assigning about...

Gov't mulls plan to OK nonconsensual transfers: Unions across nation expected to protest.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun The Labor Ministry wants to allow companies to transfer workers to other firms without their consent, in some situations, ministry officials said. Under a bill that the ministry planned to submit to the current Diet...

WWII bomb forces evacuation of 10,000.
February 14, 2000... Ten thousand northern Tokyo residents were evacuauted while Ground Self-Defense Force members on Friday defused an unexploded bomb believed to have been dropped by the United States during World War II. The 1-ton dud, measuring about 180...

Ireland offers scholarship to Japanese.
February 14, 2000... The government of Ireland is offering a 3,210 Irish punt scholarship for a Japanese student who wishes to conduct postgraduate study at a university or similar institute of higher learning in Ireland for the academic year 2000/2001 starting...

Readers' Forum: Taking responsibility.
February 14, 2000... To the Editor: The other day, I was shocked to watch a TV program about foreign communities. The program showed a volunteer institution in Germany. There were many children there who had suffered wounds in battles. They try to forget...

Shizuoka pub plays up school image.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun HAMAOKA, Shizuoka -- In most respects, it's just like any other elementary school classroom across the nation. What gives it away, though, are the ashtrays and wine lists on top of the desks that can be found in...

Niigata kidnapper used stun gun on victim.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata -- A stun gun apparently used to keep his captive weak and whimpering has been seized from the home here of Nobuyuki Sato, the man arrested Friday for kidnapping after he held a girl captive for over...

MOF official quits over corruption allegations.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun A former top Ministry of Finance (MOF) official resigned over allegations he received cash from an executive being investigated by tax authorities at a time when the ministry was trying to crack down on corruption,...

Toxins force closure of Toyonaka condo.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun TOYONAKA, Osaka -- A real estate company has decided to dismantle a nearly complete condominium it had been building here after excessive amounts of toxic substances were found at the site, it was learned Saturday. ...

Briefly: SDP executive quits politics to care for wife.
February 14, 2000... Opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) deputy leader Shigeru Ito has decided to retire from politics in order to take care of his bedridden wife, party sources said Saturday. Ito, 71, will not run in the next general election to be...

Hyogo co-op bigwig embezzled 13 billion yen.
February 14, 2000... KOBE -- A one-time bigwig at a cooperative that survives on taxpayers' money is suspected of having diverted for personal use 13 billion yen from a loan taken out to keep the organization afloat, sources at the cooperative said Saturday. ...

EDITORIAL: Near-zero interest rates.
February 14, 2000... Almost a year has gone by since the Bank of Japan implemented an unprecedented policy of maintaining interests rates at levels near zero. Ultra-low interest rates have provided financial institutions with breathing room and allowed the...

Great gaijin exodus: Foreigners staying illegally fear hefty fines.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Thousands of foreigners staying illegally in Japan are flocking to leave the country in an apparently mistaken belief that changes to immigration laws will force them to cough up hefty fines. Although changes to the...

Tokyo Stocks.
February 14, 2000... Share prices turned downward on Thursday, dragged down by selling after the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average closed above 20,000 the previous day for the first time in more than 30 months. The key Nikkei index declined 297.75, or...

Dollar.
February 14, 2000... The dollar lost its earlier gains and fell to the mid-108 yen level on Thursday, on selling prompted by strong data on machinery orders. At 5 p.m., the dollar was quoted at 108.50-53 yen, down from 108.80-90 yen in New York and 108.77-80...

No pension for disabled Kobe man.
February 14, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Authorities say caregiving dad's paralysis doesn't hinder assistance KOBE -- A bedridden father of a seriously disabled man has been denied a pension for his son because authorities deemed that the father was not...

Naha urges US forces to probe jets' near miss.
February 14, 2000... NAHA -- The Okinawa Prefectural Government on Thursday urged the U.S. military to investigate the cause of last Friday's near miss between a U.S. Navy plane and an Air Nippon (ANK) jetliner over the sea near Naha in the prefecture. ...

Briefly: ANA caught shortchanging taxman.
February 14, 2000... Tax authorities have found that All Nippon Airways (ANA) failed to report about 700 million yen in income over a three-year period up to March 31, 1998, industry sources said Thursday. The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has imposed...

Briefly: Cops say stabbing victim was radical leftist.
February 14, 2000... YOKOHAMA -- The man who died Wednesday after being stabbed by three men on the platform of Manazuru Station on the JR Tokaido Line in Kanagawa Prefecture was a radical leftist and his death may be the result of internal feuding among members...

Briefly: Tokyo teens nabbed for huge postcard theft.
February 14, 2000... Police have arrested three teen-agers suspected of stealing more than 18,000 New Year's postcards worth about 940,000 yen from convenience stores to obtain spending money, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said Thursday. The three...

Briefly: Hospital technician nabbed for bribe-taking.
February 14, 2000... TOYOKAWA, Aichi -- A technician at a municipal hospital here has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes from an executive of a medical equipment manufacturer in exchange for giving the company a contract, police said Thursday. ...

Nuke safety steps drawn up.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun The nation's prime minister must declare a state of emergency when excessive levels of radiation are detected after a nuclear accident, a fundamental recommendation of the Nuclear Safety Commission panel says. The...

Murderous taxi driver to hang.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun HIROSHIMA -- A former taxi driver was handed the death sentence Wednesday for murdering four women, including a high school student, over a five-month period in 1996. The Hiroshima District Court convicted Hiroaki...

Editorial: Ishihara's tax plan.
February 10, 2000... There are two perspectives on every tax: that of the tax collector, and that of the taxpayer. To the tax collector, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's proposal to tax big banks is quite appealing for its boldness and straightforward approach. And...

Dollar.
February 10, 2000... The dollar slipped on Wednesday in volatile trading on profit-taking prompted by its failure to climb to 110 yen. At 5 p.m., the dollar traded at 108.77-80 yen, down from 109.45-55 yen in New York late Tuesday. It was quoted at 109.33-36...

Asiascope: Indian province a 'forgotten East Timor'.
February 10, 2000... India's "East Timor" is Nagaland, says Shukan Asahi (2/11). The metaphor, pregnant with foreboding, is a warning to both sides in the ongoing struggle: Indonesia lost East Timor, and East Timor lost its innocence along the jungle path to...

Big chill puts freeze on Honshu: Trains, planes hampered by sudden snowfall.
February 10, 2000... Shinkansen weren't hitting bullet speeds and some domestic flights never got off the ground as snow blanketed central and western Honshu on Wednesday. Strong winds wreaked havoc as well -- gusts knocked down a soundproof wall erected...

Unions seek 2,000 yen base wage hike.
February 10, 2000... The labor unions of Japan's major shipbuilding companies and automakers submitted to management Wednesday a demand for a base wage hike of 2,000 yen per month, marking the start of spring wage negotiations. The labor unions are under the...

Letters by Kyoto 'killer' found.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun KYOTO -- The suspect in the schoolyard murder of a boy here wrote dozens of letters addressed to several schools that reveal his frustration with the education system, police said. The sealed letters -- found in the...

Loan sharks turning to stock scam.
February 10, 2000... Loan sharks, cashing in on customers who want to utilize their own funds, are approaching them with appealing yet apparently fictitious stock investment projects. The loan sharks often approach people by phone or via the Web with sales...

Cop arrested for taxi driver assault.
February 10, 2000... NIIGATA -- A police officer was arrested on Wednesday for inflicting injuries on a taxi driver while under the influence of alcohol, police said. According to the officials at the Prefectural Police's inspector's office, Masataka Miota,...

English teacher quits over break-in, assault.
February 10, 2000... YAMAGUCHI -- A 25-year-old American teaching assistant at a school in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, tendered her resignation Jan. 31 after the school refused to disclose the identity of a 14-year-old male student who allegedly broke into her...

'Drifter' Chu Arai dies.
February 10, 2000... Chu Arai, a TV personality and former member of a comedy troupe, "The Drifters," has died at his Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture home, his family said Wednesday. He was 71. Arai was found collapsed at around 6:30 a.m., Wednesday, and was...

Singer's real estate co. goes belly up.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun A real estate company managed by singer Masao Sen, whose real name is Kentaro Abe, applied for liquidation with the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 4, a private research company Teikoku Databank Ltd. revealed on Tuesday....

Osaka gov. goes to work.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Newly elected Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota went to work for the first time on Tuesday, two days after she won Sunday's gubernatorial race to become Japan's first female governor and 49 days after predecessor Knock Yokoyama...

Osaka air-pollution ruling under scrutiny.
February 10, 2000... The central government and the Hanshin Expressway Public Corp. appealed to the Osaka High Court on Tuesday against the recent ruling over air pollution in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, in which they were ordered to reduce exhaust fumes. ...

Tokai residents once bitten, twice shy.
February 10, 2000... The number of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, residents who consider nuclear power to be safe has plummeted since the nation's worst-ever nuclear accident occurred in the village in September last year. At a conference held in Tokyo on...

737, fighter jet in close shave.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun Passengers on a plane that flew through Okinawa Prefecture last week are counting their lucky stars after the jetliner escaped a near collision apparently with a military fighter. The Air Nippon (ANK) Boeing 737-500...

Serial arsonist nabbed in Osaka.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun TOYONAKA, Osaka -- A man who has admitted to "so many arson attacks I can't remember them all," has been arrested here, police said. Hideaki Sato, 29, a Toyonaka salesman arrested Monday night for attempted arson...

Foreigner sues bank over discrimination.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Shimbun An American journalist in Japan filed a lawsuit against Asahi Bank on Tuesday seeking 11 million yen in compensation for psychological distress after his housing loan application was rejected. According to the suit...

Editorial: Juvenile justice.
February 10, 2000... The structure of our juvenile justice system makes it inevitable that the findings of juvenile courts will be rejected on occasion by higher courts. The Supreme Court's decision on Monday to overturn a Tokyo High Court ruling in a civil suit...

Strictly Business: Tomen admits it'll take 109 bil. yen loss.
February 10, 2000... Tomen Corp. said Tuesday it will post a net loss of 109.3 billion yen on an unconsolidated basis in fiscal 1999 to March 31, a drastic downward revision from its earlier forecast of a 3.5 billion yen profit. The major trading house said...

Kobe teacher ends 23-year walking tour.
February 10, 2000... Mainichi Daily News BARROW, Alaska -- A British teacher at Kobe Marine University recently completed a 23-year walking trip spanning the two Americas to aid native Alaskans. In 1977, George Meegan set out from the town of Ushuaia in...

Zen and the art of dialogue.
February 10, 2000... OUDA, Nara -- After reaching Seisen-an Temple in this small mountain town two hours from central Osaka, one is greeted with an unobstructed view of the Yamato mountains, a sight that has inspired numerous poems and paintings since ancient...

Amateur ethnographer smitten by China: Japanese salaryman plans to document lives of ethnic minorities.
February 10, 2000... ASHIYA, Hyogo -- Despite holding down a busy job at a chemical company, Koichi Haga dedicates what little free time he has to visiting minority groups in China to document their lives. So far he has visited about 50 ethnic groups and taken...

Furthermore: Helping hand.
February 10, 2000... KAWABE, Wakayama -- A master of aikido (a martial art derived from judo) who lived in Turkey for over six years, will travel to the quake-stricken country on Feb. 14 to deliver blankets to victims of last summer's earthquake, many of whom...