Mainichi Daily News articles from July 2001, page 2

Mainichi Daily News archives from July 2001

Sino-Russian friendship pact.
July 24, 2001... Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed a friendship pact on Monday committing them to working together to oppose U.S. hegemony. Since the accord is likely to have an impact on Japan, the Japanese...

Factory accident claims 3 construction workers.
July 24, 2001... HACHINOHE, Aomori -- Three men were killed Thursday after scaffolding inside a 15-meter-high structure they were repairing collapsed at a cement factory here. Three other workers suffered broken bones and bruises in the catastrophe,...

Man dies under bullet train.
July 24, 2001... TAKATSUKI, Osaka -- A man jumped to his death under a speeding bullet train Thursday night, but the driver didn't realize what had happened until noticing bloodstains on the carriage 30 minutes later, police said Friday. The identity of...

Forging cop faces charges.
July 24, 2001... TOYAMA -- A Toyama traffic police officer has been suspended for a month after he compiled a fake accident report to cover up the illegal way he obtained evidence, police have admitted. Documents accusing the unnamed 28-year-old sergeant...

'San' fails to shine for outraged mother.
July 24, 2001... A woman's demands that a judge be axed because he failed to attach the honorific "san" to her deceased daughter's name when referring to her in court have been dismissed. Kiyoko Kataoka, a 62-year-old housewife, asked the Osaka High Court...

Knife salesman fatally stabs homeless 'buddy'.
July 24, 2001... A Tokyo knife salesman has been arrested after he used one of his products to stab to death a homeless friend who asked him for money for booze, police said Friday. Yuji Saito, 54, the salesman from Ota-ku, was arrested for the murder...

Parent strangler arrested.
July 24, 2001... NAGOYA -- A man who strangled his bedridden parents because they asked him to kill them has been arrested, police said Friday. Nobuo Otani, 38, unemployed of Nagoya, was arrested for the murder of his 76-year-old father, Kazuichi, and...

Deadly crossings spark calls for new lights.
July 24, 2001... Ten-year-old Kaori Furukawa and 9-year-old Ryo Toyama share a connection since they died. Both were killed at what have been labeled "dangerous intersections," and grieving family members are demanding that things change. Calling for the...

Fleeing 71-year-old smashes through tollgate.
July 24, 2001... MITO -- An elderly driver was hurled from his car and remains in a coma after he smashed through an expressway tollgate early Friday in a stolen station wagon, police said. Police waiting at the tollgate immediately apprehended the...

Tanaka blasted for missile turnabout.
July 24, 2001... Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama on Friday reproached Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka for her inconsistent comments over the controversial U.S. missile defense program. Tanaka has caused a stir by telling a Czech state...

G-7 presses for structural reform in Japan.
July 24, 2001... GENOA, Italy -- G-7 leaders are set to urge Japan to carry out structural and economic reforms during the present G-7 summit to play a locomotive role in the global economy, group officials said Friday. The leaders are to call on Japan to...

Jumping the gun on missile defense.
July 24, 2001... Washington successfully intercepted a ballistic missile in a test conducted on July 14, giving a boost of confidence to U.S. President George W. Bush as he headed to Genoa, Italy, for the Group of Eight Summit. More plans dealing with a...

EU gives Japan break on gas emissions.
July 24, 2001... BONN, Germany -- The European Union is offering Japan an upgraded deal on how much of its carbon dioxide cuts can be calculated via forest absorptions, in an effort to salvage the Kyoto Protocol. Tokyo had been pushing to attribute 3.7...

Granddad dies trying to rescue drowning 8-year-old.
July 24, 2001... TATSUTA, Aichi -- A man drowned Saturday afternoon after desperately attempting to rescue his grandson and a classmate who had plunged into a river here, police said. The man, 56-year-old Toshio Inaba, was found on the riverbed of the...

G-8 leaders heat up over Kyoto Protocol.
July 24, 2001... GENOA, Italy -- G-8 leaders were divided over the United States' decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Japanese officials said. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi described the prevention of...

US soldier arrested for stealing car.
July 24, 2001... MISAWA, Aomori -- A drunk U.S. soldier stationed at a base here was arrested in the predawn hours of Sunday for allegedly stealing a car from a restaurant parking lot, police said. David Kiendl, 22, a soldier at Misawa base, got into the...

G-8 leaders fail to agree on Kyoto Protocol.
July 24, 2001... GENOA, Italy -- G-8 leaders admitted they failed to narrow the gap over the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but agreed to cooperate to achieve its goal, according to a joint communique issued at the end of the annual...

Rethinking ODA spending.
July 24, 2001... As spending priorities for the fiscal 2002 budget are established, the government's official development assistance (ODA) policy is likely to come under renewed scrutiny. It has become quite apparent that unless ODA spending is slashed, Prime...

Akashi to probe fatal fireworks crush.
July 24, 2001... AKASHI, Hyogo -- Akashi Municipal Government officials said Monday morning that they will form a task force to look into what caused Saturday night's tragic accident that caused 10 deaths. Akashi's accident commission will also look into...

Man drags fellow hiker to death on cliff.
July 24, 2001... NAGANO -- Two men died after one grabbed hold of the other in a vain attempt to stop falling down a cliff only to drag him along to a horrible death, police said Monday. Kazuo Kawabata, 47, and Hiro Yato, 81, were the hikers killed in...

Gov't challenges payout for slave-labor escapee.
July 24, 2001... The government on Monday appealed a court ruling that awarded 20 million yen in damages to relatives of a former Chinese slave laborer who spent 13 years hiding in Hokkaido's mountains without realizing World War II had ended. Ignoring...

Squatter diplomat grilled over hammer-wielding threats.
July 24, 2001... A rebel diplomat from the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo has been questioned over threats to kill a locksmith trying to change a lock at the official residence he occupies illegally, police said Monday. But questioning Zi Mizele...

Kung-fu instructor killed in martial-arts brawl.
July 24, 2001... NARITA -- A Shaoling kung-fu master has bashed another martial artist to death in a bareknuckle duel, police said Monday. A long-standing dispute had fueled the deadly match-up between Kenji Tamai, a kung-fu instructor of Sakura, Chiba...

Serial rapist locked away for life.
July 24, 2001... KOBE -- A serial rapist who sexually assaulted 11 women in western Japan during a five-year predatory spree was sentenced Monday to spend life behind bars. Presiding Judge Fumihiro Shirakami at the Kobe District Court said that rapist...

Tokyo scores let-off as Kyoto pact deal goes ahead.
July 24, 2001... Tokyo landed a let-off Monday on financial penalties linked to nations that fail to meet specific cuts to greenhouse gases, as international talks on climate change wound up with an agreement, reports said. Negotiations at the sixth...

Speeding cop a man on a 'mission'.
July 24, 2001... KAGOSHIMA -- A Kagoshima police officer caught for speeding said he was desperate to reach the bathroom, it was learned Monday. "I had to get to a toilet, so I inadvertently accelerated over the limit," the 25-year-old officer, whose name...

Stocks drop to new post-'bubble' low.
July 24, 2001... Share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange plummeted to a new post-"bubble" economy low Monday after G-8 leaders failed to adopt any measures to prevent a plunge in share prices. to 11,539.81, the lowest figure it has achieved since the...

Nikkei falls below 12,000-yen mark.
July 20, 2001... Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei average fell below the 12,000-yen mark for the first time since March as it closed Wednesday because investors were reluctant to trade in high-tech shares after U.S. chip giant Intel announced bleak...

Bereaved mother calls for sacking of judge.
July 20, 2001... The mother of a woman killed in a traffic accident has demanded that a high court judge be sacked over his alleged rude attitude during settlement talks on her daughter's case. Kiyoko Kataoka, from Ikoma, Nara Prefecture, said Judge...

Couple nabbed for deadly attack on 7-year-old.
July 20, 2001... NAGOYA -- A common-law couple that killed the wife's 7-year-old daughter following a series of vicious abuses have been arrested, police said Wednesday. The mother, Tomoko Suzuki, 32, and her 29-year-old common-law husband, Katsuhiko...

Gov't may slash ODA to China over military.
July 20, 2001... Japan, the world's top donor of governmental official development assistance (ODA), is discussing a cut in such aid to China on the grounds that the Asian neighbor has continually stepped up its military, officials have said. Japan has...

Univ. insurance package covers exam blunders, harassment.
July 20, 2001... Private universities worried about entrance-exam marking blunders or harassment on campus have been given the chance to protect themselves with an insurance package. Foreign-operated insurance company Ace Insurance on Wednesday began...

Fujimori's brother-in-law granted Japanese citizenship.
July 20, 2001... The government has given Japanese citizenship to the brother-in-law of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, a move that angers Lima because Peruvian authorities are trying to arrest him. The decision to grant former Peruvian...

Schoolgirl kidnappers get five years in slammer.
July 20, 2001... HIMEJI, Hyogo -- Two men convicted of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and confining her for 21 days in a car trunk and a rented apartment were Wednesday ordered to spend five years in prison. In handing down the ruling on the two men,...

Diplomats milk state with inflated bills.
July 20, 2001... Foreign Ministry mandarins often defraud the state by ordering businesses to inflate charges to the ministry then making them return the excess amount, sources have told the Mainichi. Various sources have testified that ministry officials...

NHK ordered to redeem 'damaging' show.
July 20, 2001... Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) was ordered Wednesday to run a televised correction on a divorced couple after a court recognized that the public broadcaster defamed the woman during the show. "NHK aired the program (which featured an...

Genoa summit agenda.
July 20, 2001... The first Group of Eight Summit of the 21st century will convene on Friday in Genoa, Italy, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. It is highly symbolic that the ancient port city with close ties to the man who led the historic voyage to the...

S. Korea Parliament demands review of Japan-Korea relations.
July 20, 2001... SEOUL -- South Korean Parliament members unanimously agreed Wednesday to demand reevaluation of Japan-Korea relations following Japan's refusal to revise its "distorted" school history textbooks. The Parliament members, who met to...

Court blames teachers in bullying case.
July 20, 2001... SAKAI, Osaka -- A local junior high school boy who was beaten up by a bully while teachers turned a blind eye was awarded 600,000 yen in damages Wednesday at a court here. "The teachers failed to act appropriately," Presiding Judge...

Life term upheld for woman who killed lover's kids.
July 20, 2001... A woman who killed her married lover's two young children in 1993 by setting them on fire will spend the rest of her life behind bars after the Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision, it was learned Wednesday. The murderer, Yuki...

Foreign counterfeit gang nabbed.
July 20, 2001... A group of foreign criminals specializing in counterfeiting banknotes and credit cards has been busted, police said Wednesday. Malaysian Soo See-Choon, two of his fellow countrymen and a Peruvian were arrested in an operation carried out...

Bureaucrat busted for snatching women's undies.
July 20, 2001... Over 400 pieces of women's underwear have been confiscated from the Tokyo home of a Finance Ministry official, who is insisting that he picked all of them up on the streets, police said Wednesday. Public servant Sadao Ushimura, an officer...

Cops flush out toilet con artists.
July 19, 2001... CHIBA -- A company president was arrested Friday after employing people to sell unmarketable toilet water-saving devices then charge them huge amounts to undergo training because their sales records were poor, police said. Takeshi...

Koizumi should cancel Yasukuni visit.
July 19, 2001... Chinese President Jiang Zemin recently told the secretaries-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, and Conservative Party during their trip to Beijing that he opposes Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's planned visit to Yasukuni...

2 hurt as freighters collide.
July 19, 2001... MATSUYAMA - Two freighters collided in the foggy sea off Ehime Prefecture in the predawn hours of Friday, injuring two people, Japanese Coast Guard (JCG) officials said. At around 2:30 a.m., the 199-ton Chiyo Maru No. 1 and the 1,478-ton...

Homeless man murdered in Osaka identified.
July 19, 2001... A homeless man found fatally beaten to death at an Osaka park has been identified, police said Friday. Osaka Prefectural Police identified the man as Ikuo Sasai, 54, from Yamaguchi Prefecture. Investigators have also concluded that he...

New scandal hits Foreign Ministry.
July 19, 2001... Foreign Ministry officials apparently cooked books during the G-8 Summit in Okinawa last year to skim 12 million yen from public coffers, sources told the Mainichi Friday. After paying a car hire company more than it was supposed to...

Mom who dated son's classmate charged with blackmail.
July 19, 2001... NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo -- A 50-year-old housewife who began dating one of her son's classmates then threatened him when he tried to cut off their relationship has been charged with blackmail. The housewife reportedly became infuriated when...

Exec. nabbed for swindling 14 mil. yen in gold bullion.
July 19, 2001... A former foundation executive who swindled an acquaintance out of nearly 14 million yen worth of gold bullion was arrested Friday, police said. Takeo Sasagawa, 75, former managing director of the Japan Solidarity Committee for Asian...

Transport boss, driver arrested over fatal truck smash.
July 19, 2001... KAKIZAKI, Niigata -- A driver of a truck whose unstable load fell onto the road, smashing into an oncoming driver and killing him, has been arrested, along with a transport company president and three others, police said Friday. The...

Top court orders disclosure on Okinawa defense.
July 19, 2001... NAHA -- Naha residents have finally gained the right to find out about Self-Defense Forces structures in their city after the Supreme Court on Friday quashed the government's attempt to block disclosure of information on defense facilities....

Grandmother arrested over failed murder-suicide.
July 19, 2001... TSUGA, Tochigi -- A woman who strangled her granddaughter at their home Friday in an apparent murder-suicide bid has been arrested, police said. The suspect, Fumi Morikawa, 54, has admitted to the allegations, telling investigators that...

Bandits rob returning woman of 5 mil. yen.
July 19, 2001... WARABI, Saitama -- A bar operator was slashed and robbed of 5 million yen in cash, jewelry and clothing after she came home to find three men ransacking her apartment early Friday, police said. The 63-year-old bar operator came back to...

Dirty diamond dealers named by Tokyo.
July 19, 2001... The names of two jewelry stores accused of pressuring customers into buying expensive diamonds have been released by the Tokyo Metropolitan government. Local government officials decided Friday to release the names of the stores, Passion...

Beaten Osaka keeps mum over future Olympic Games bid.
July 19, 2001... MOSCOW -- Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura, dumbstruck after learning the Kansai city lost out to Beijing in the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games here Friday, refused to state whether the city would again bid to hold the world's biggest...

Mariners ban Japanese media.
July 19, 2001... SEATTLE, Washington - Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners have banned the Japanese media from covering the team's Japanese superstars in the wake of a controversial story by a tabloid magazine. A Mariners spokesman said Friday that...

Ministry official confesses corruption.
July 19, 2001... A Foreign Ministry official has admitted to cooking books to gather millions of yen worth of taxi coupons and expressway tickets, police said Saturday. Police are expected to raid the ministry early next week and it seems certain an...

Notorious nurseries like death camps.
July 19, 2001... An unlicensed nursery chain in the news because of a baby boy's March suffocation has witnessed 21 infant deaths in the past 26 years, it was learned Saturday. Including the March death, nursery chain operator Chibikkoen has been accused...

Junkie knifes heroic teen fighting to save Mom's life.
July 19, 2001... CHICHIBU, Saitama -- A teen-age boy was hospitalized with stab wounds after being knifed by a man recently released from prison who had been chasing after the junior high school student's mother, police said Saturday. The 13-year-old boy...

Boy slashes schoolgirl after she thwarts sex attack.
July 19, 2001... ICHIKAWA, Chiba -- A boy has been arrested after he used a knife to slash a high schoolgirl in the women's toilets at railway station because she thwarted his attempt to molest her, police said Saturday. An 18-year-old boy whose name...

Skymark offers 3,000 yen flights between Tokyo and Fukuoka.
July 19, 2001... Upstart Skymark Airlines will offer one-way tickets for a paltry 3,000 yen between Tokyo and Fukuoka flights every Wednesday from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17 to celebrate its third anniversary. It is the lowest domestic airfare in Japan since...

Gov't plan will cost 200,000 jobs, 20,000 businesses.
July 19, 2001... A government plan to clear in two-years the bad loans built up by financial institutions will put 200,000 people out of work and shut down 20,000 businesses, according to a report compiled by a major business research firm. Using last...

Mental hospital violence leads to calls for transparency.
July 19, 2001... Growing violence in hospitals for the mentally disabled means they will have to become more accountable when it comes to disclosing information, according to a government study group Saturday. Officials have deemed it necessary to set...

Seaman missing after collision.
July 19, 2001... KOBE -- The captain of a North Korean-registered freighter remained missing Saturday night after his vessel collided with a Japanese tanker in the foggy sea off Wakayama Prefecture, the Japan Coast Guard's Kobe office said. At around 9...

Who's resisting the Kyoto Protocol?
July 19, 2001... The Kyoto Protocol, drafted in December 1997 at the third session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3) to halt the advance of global warming, is in danger of becoming a dead letter. ...

Scandalized taxi firm cheaply off-loads car to bureaucrat.
July 19, 2001... A taxi company, already under investigation for shady deals with a Foreign Ministry official, knocked hundreds of thousands of yen off the price of a luxury German car sold to another high-ranking bureaucrat. While officials of the...

Nagasaki mayor to burn Bush on A-bomb pact.
July 19, 2001... NAGASAKI -- Nagasaki's mayor will mark the anniversary of his city's atomic bombing by protesting Washington's attempt to kill off U.S. commitment to a major nuclear-test ban treaty. Taking on the administration of U.S. President George...

Protesters cry foul over textbook-selection 'scheme'.
July 19, 2001... Activists are seeking to sick a governmental watchdog on a textbook reform society that allegedly recruited local-government politicians to lobby for a controversial history text to be selected for schools. The society got the politicians...

Tough rules sicken more Osaka teachers.
July 19, 2001... Strict working regulations are stressing out a rising number of Osaka Prefecture teachers so badly that they have to take days off, an expert has claimed. The amount of Osaka teachers in fiscal 1999 taking leave for mental illness was...

2nd pricey robbery strikes Shiga importer.
July 19, 2001... KUSATSU, Shiga -- More than 100 top-class watches, rings and bags worth some 20 million yen were stolen from an imported goods shop in the Shiga Prefecture town of Ritto early Sunday morning, police said. Thieves had bashed through a...

Blistering temperatures fatally scorch Japan.
July 19, 2001... Mid-summer heat seared cities with their warmest temperatures so far this year Sunday, as authorities reported that this month's scorching weather is taking its toll -- fatally in one case. Fukushima and Yamagata in the Tohoku region and...

Safes not too safe in Osaka.
July 19, 2001... MORIGUCHI, Osaka - A 100-kilogram safe containing nearly 17 million yen in cash was stolen from a supermarket here late Saturday or early Sunday morning, police said. Witnesses reportedly told the Moriguchi Police Station that a group of...

Fujimori set to be tried in absentia.
July 19, 2001... MEXICO CITY -- A Peruvian prosecutor on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to declare former President Alberto Fujimori an "absent criminal" as a step to his arrest and extradition from Japan. Under the Peruvian legal system, if Fujimori...

Beer lands ban for baseball boys.
July 19, 2001... UTSUNOMIYA -- A Tochigi Prefecture high school baseball team has been banned from games with other schools, this time not because of bullying in the team but of beer drinking, baseball officials said Sunday. As the ban on games is...

Girl dies and man missing in dam tragedy.
July 19, 2001... CHIKUSHINO, Fukuoka -- One of four children who were playing in a dam drowned after they slipped into a deep area and a man who jumped into the water to rescue them was missing, police said Sunday. When the four children fell into the...

Celebrity candidates.
July 19, 2001... Many candidates running in the July 29 House of Councillors election are not professional politicians but stars from across the spectrum. Filling the Upper House with people from a broad range of backgrounds can be a plus if it livens...

Habitual stalker targets teen.
July 19, 2001... A suburban Tokyo man who persistently preyed on a teen-age schoolgirl has been arrested, police said. Hideyuki Oe, 30, unemployed of Tokyo, was arrested for breaking the stalker regulation law by allegedly following around and pestering a...

Pervert policeman arrested for copping a feel.
July 19, 2001... MATSUDO, Chiba -- A police officer has been arrested after riding his bicycle up behind a woman walking her dog and squeezing her breasts, police said Monday. Norio Nakajima, 38, the police sergeant from Matsudo, was arrested for...

Taxpayers cheated of trillions of yen by outdated drug deals.
July 19, 2001... A massive increase in health insurance claims for pharmaceuticals by medical organizations taking advantage of an antiquated practice has fueled speculation of widespread abuse. Officials at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare say...

Police poised to pounce in Ministry swindling scandal.
July 19, 2001... Police are set to arrest at least two Foreign Ministry officials and two employees of a Tokyo hire car company after they allegedly faked accounts for last year's G-8 summit to pocket 12 million yen. A warrant for their arrest for fraud...

Games vote farce reflects Osaka's clueless campaign.
July 19, 2001... Osaka expected to poll big in the first round of voting to select the 2008 Olympic Games host city, but instead ended up humiliated by being the first candidate eliminated from the race, according to sources from the city's bid committee. ...

Beijing's winning Olympic bid.
July 19, 2001... Beijing was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics, soundly defeating bids by Osaka and other cities. We should congratulate Beijing and wish it success. The opportunity to host the Olympic Games provides China with the ultimate stage for selling...

Thieves net 29 million yen from 3 Osaka supermarkets.
July 19, 2001... A total of 29 million yen in cash was stolen from three supermarkets in Osaka Prefecture over 2 1/2 hours in the predawn hours of Monday, Osaka police said. Police suspect the same person, or group, is responsible for the three cases,...

Prosecutors seek hefty jail term for ex-Dietman's son.
July 19, 2001... Prosecutors demanded Monday an eight-year jail term for a disgraced former legislator's son after he and his father allegedly conspired to rip off members of their own private insurance association. "The defendant wasted a huge amount of...