Mainichi Daily News articles from July 2001

Mainichi Daily News archives from July 2001

The boob-tube election.
July 31, 2001... As the House of Councillors election campaign pulls into the homestretch, political parties and individual candidates are devoting an inordinate amount of time worrying about media strategies -- and about television in particular. The...

Tanaka turns on Koizumi over Yasukuni visit.
July 31, 2001... Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka turned her horns into ally Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi after he vowed Thursday to go ahead with a visit to the controversial Yasukuni shrine. The prime minister shouldn't plow ahead with the visit,...

Prosecutors let off Snow Brand's former elite.
July 31, 2001... Two former top executives of Snow Brand Milk Products Co. won't face criminal proceedings over last year's mass food poisoning, apparently because prosecutors couldn't find hard evidence against the duo. Sources said three officials of...

Disgraced diplomat pinched pennies to live royal lifestyle.
July 31, 2001... Sacked Consul General Makoto Mizutani made life misery for workers under his supervision so he could live a lavish lifestyle resembling that of a feudal lord, sources said Thursday. Mizutani, fired Thursday over allegations that he had...

Mom fatally bashes toddler.
July 31, 2001... SAITAMA -- A mother has been arrested for bashing her 3-year-old son to death at their home, police said. Kayoko Kiyamazawa has admitted to beating up her son, Ryo, but denies intending to kill the child, who was returned to his mother's...

Suspects picked up over construction worker's murder.
July 31, 2001... OMIHACHIMAN, Shiga -- Three men suspected of killing a construction worker last month were arrested early Thursday, police said. Ichiro Kita, 42, a car salesman from Omihachiman, and two other unidentified men, were arrested for the...

Shots fired at warden's car.
July 31, 2001... MIYOSHI, Aichi -- Shots were fired into a prison warder's car at a dormitory here Thursday morning, police said. Traces of two shots from a pistol were found in the bonnet of a car parked outside the dormitory for warders from Nagoya...

Firebug US Marine gets 5 years.
July 31, 2001... NAHA -- A firebug U.S. Marine was slapped with a five-year jail term Thursday at a Naha court for an incendiary rampage in Chatan, Okinawa Prefecture, earlier this year. Presiding Judge Soichi Hayashi described crimes committed by Lance...

Flash flood in Tokyo claims old woman's life.
July 31, 2001... An elderly pensioner died under her home Wednesday night after it was flooded following a flash flood that hit western Tokyo's Hachioji, police said Thursday. Suzuko Ogata, 67, of Hachioji's Higashiasakawa district, was found by her...

Man holds clue to handcuffed girl's fate.
July 31, 2001... KOBE -- Slain Noriko Kamiie told friends she was going to meet a man just hours before her tragic death, police said Thursday afternoon. After spending time around JR Suita Station in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, with friends from her...

Judge: Tight-fisted employers sowed seeds of own murders.
July 31, 2001... MITO -- Two indebted workers who killed their bosses were spared from the gallows Thursday after the presiding judge acknowledged that the victims had helped trigger their own deaths. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for the...

Investors gorge on McDonald's share launch.
July 31, 2001... Hamburger giant McDonald's Co. (Japan) sizzled on its share launch Thursday, knocking off Internet portal Yahoo Japan Corp. to become the largest firm in stock value on the JASDAQ market. Individual investors hungry for shares boosted the...

Biker teens busted over Molotov-cocktail cache.
July 31, 2001... A gang of fourteen youths has been arrested for stockpiling dozens of Molotov cocktails in Tokyo in preparation for a planned strike on a rival gang, police said Thursday. The boys, aged between 14 and 19, are members of a Tokyo,...

Ax falls on scamming Denver consul general.
July 31, 2001... The reputation of the nation's corruption-riddled diplomatic service plummeted further Thursday as an elite "career" diplomat was dismissed for allegedly embezzling 73,000 dollars (about 9 million yen) in taxpayers' money. Makoto...

City leaders ordered to pay back retirees' wages.
July 31, 2001... OSAKA -- Ikeda Municipal Government acted illegally by extending the retirement age of a select group of officials, the Osaka District Court ruled Friday morning. Ikeda's mayor, board of education superintendent and other top city...

3 old women die in collision.
July 31, 2001... SENDAI -- Three women believed to be in their 60s died and a man was injured after a crash between a car and a truck here Friday morning, police said. The identities of the casualties are not yet known, but the man's injuries were...

Woman severs sister's head.
July 31, 2001... A suburban Tokyo woman has been arrested after killing her sister, then cutting her body into little pieces, leaving the head in her bath for days, police said Friday. Hitomi Kitahara was only arrested after a tip-off from a friend who...

Old woman dies after son backs car into her.
July 31, 2001... OTSUKI, Yamanashi -- An elderly woman died here after her son accidentally reversed his car into her, police said Friday. Mitsuko Kato, 86, slammed her head on a concrete block after her son's car slammed into her and caused her to fall...

Koizumi, Tanaka postpone fight till after poll.
July 31, 2001... A bitter row between the government's two most popular ministers will be postponed till Monday to avoid affecting the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's hopes in Sunday's Upper House election, according to a spokesman Friday. Prime...

Dodgy deliveryman busted.
July 31, 2001... TOYONAKA, Osaka -- A man was arrested Friday after posing as a deliveryman to enter an old woman's home, then binding, beating and robbing her and another man before setting her home on fire, police said. Koji Noyori, 54, unemployed of...

Slain girl made tearful call.
July 31, 2001... KOBE -- Noriko Kamiie, a 12-year-old girl killed in savage circumstances on Tuesday, tearfully phoned a friend just minutes before her battered body was found beside the Chugoku Expressway, police said Friday. Speaking in a place where...

Cop bought goodies for jailed gangster.
July 31, 2001... SENDAI -- A police officer bought lottery tickets, made phone calls and gave food to a gangster detained in a police cell on drug charges, the Sendai District Court heard Friday. "While I was in a detention cell for questioning, the...

Parents sue over son's bullying death.
July 31, 2001... KANUMA, Tochigi -- The parents of a boy who killed himself here in 1999 after being bullied at school have filed a 110 million yen suit against local authorities and his classmates, it has been learned. The boy, Takehito Usui, hanged...

Baby dies in daycare center.
July 31, 2001... OSAKA -- A 5-month-old baby boy mysteriously died Friday morning at an Osaka daycare center, police said. Niko Hata was found lying facedown in a crib in the center in the early hours of the morning. An autopsy will be carried out to...

Koizumi should stay away from Yasukuni.
July 31, 2001... Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told his Japanese counterpart, Makiko Tanaka, during their meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday that he "worries that the foundations of (Sino-Japanese) friendship could crumble" if Prime Minister Junichiro...

Prosecutor clerk sentenced for chasing schoolgirl.
July 31, 2001... SAITAMA -- A former public prosecutor clerk who dishonestly obtained a copy of the family register of a high school girl he admired was Friday handed down a suspended prison sentence. The former clerk, Tadashi Takahashi, 48, was sentenced...

Foreigners rob bank in money-change ruse.
July 31, 2001... Two foreigners pretending to ask for change at a Tokyo bank stole 10 million yen in cash from inside a counter Friday afternoon, police said. The foreigners entered the Kyobashi branch of the Sumitomo-Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) in...

Tokyo CPI declining at a faster rate.
July 31, 2001... The consumer price index (CPI) in central Tokyo is falling at a faster pace, a report released Friday by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications has shown. The CPI for Tokyo's 23 wards stood at 99.5...

Foreigners attack, rob family of 6 in Nagano.
July 31, 2001... KAWAKAMI, Nagano -- Six family members were recovering from injuries here Saturday after a group of foreigners broke into their home, bound them with adhesive tape and stole 150,000 yen, police said. Police said the group of five or six...

Bandit quartet terrorizes Tokyo hostess bar.
July 31, 2001... Four bandits stormed a Tokyo hostess bar on Friday night, belting customers and hostesses with knife handles and stealing 6.4 million yen worth of cash and valuables, police said Saturday. Two hostesses at the downtown Cattleya club and...

Ambassador to US falls on sword over Denver scandal.
July 31, 2001... Japan's ambassador to the United States will quit over the embezzlement scam engulfing a Denver consul, the top diplomat said Friday. To take responsibility for appointing the embezzling official, ambassador Shunji Yanai offered to fall...

Researcher: Akashi fireworks prediction way off mark.
July 31, 2001... AKASHI, Hyogo -- The municipal government grossly underestimated the amount of fireworks watchers who would pack onto a bridge where 10 people were crushed to death, a researcher has claimed. The researcher's estimate of 5,000 onlookers...

Prisoners increasing at same rate as jobless.
July 31, 2001... Inmates are piling into the nation's prisons at a rate roughly matching increases in the ranks of the unemployed, a Justice Ministry report showed Saturday. The report unveiled a close relationship between the number of inmates and the...

Phone turned off in schoolgirl's 20 minutes of horror.
July 31, 2001... KOBE -- Somebody switched off the mobile phone of a 12-year-old girl who died Tuesday after being handcuffed and battered, preventing her friends from trying to contact the victim, police said Saturday. Friends had desperately attempted...

Firm releases insurance package for bikers.
July 31, 2001... Motorcyclists will soon no longer have to worry about paying for a crash on a borrowed bike now that one insurance company has introduced a package covering any bike a person rides. Kyoei Mutual Fire and Marine Insurance Co. will from...

Farmer dies climbing Mt. Fuji.
July 31, 2001... FUJIYOSHIDA, Yamanashi - A 61-year-old man collapsed and died Saturday morning while climbing Mount Fuji, police said. Shuji Yamashita, a farmer from Hikita, Kagawa Prefecture, and 25 other fellow climbers began scaling the mountain from...

Drunken cop smashes car into road fence.
July 31, 2001... A drunken police officer who smashed his car into a road fence while on his way to buy a bottle of whiskey was arrested late Friday, police said Saturday. Yukio Horie, an officer at the Yao Police Station in Osaka Prefecture, apparently...

A feeble Upper House.
July 31, 2001... The House of Councillors is facing a serious challenge to its existence. Virtually all parties are dominated by House of Representatives' members, and the power gap appears to be growing. The bicameral system, under which the respective...

Record no. of absentee voters sending off ballots.
July 31, 2001... Record numbers of absentee voters are believed to be casting ballots for Sunday's House of Councillors election, which some experts predict will help make or break the new Junichiro Koizumi administration. Politicians were busy winding...

Stepping up software development.
July 31, 2001... Broadband Internet access is no longer just a pipe dream. An increasing number of households are enjoying transmission speeds approximately 10 times faster than the 56,000 bits per second that is now possible over ordinary phone lines. ...

Taxi drive, wife die after inhaling exhaust gas.
July 31, 2001... A taxi driver and his wife have died after apparently inhaling exhaust gas from his cab parked in the first-floor garage of their Osaka home, police said. At around 8:35 p.m. on Saturday, Michisuke Kobiki, 68, and his 67-year-old wife,...

Coalition set to secure majority.
July 31, 2001... The tripartite ruling coalition appears set to secure a majority in the House of Councillors as a result of Sunday's election after riding on the wave of popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to exit polls. Koizumi is...

Researcher: Akashi fireworks-watcher prediction way off mark.
July 31, 2001... AKASHI, Hyogo -- The municipal government grossly underestimated the amount of fireworks watchers who would pack onto a bridge where 10 people were crushed to death, a research has claimed. The estimate of 5,000 onlookers -- more than...

Early turnout poor in Upper House poll.
July 31, 2001... Voter turnout was low as of Sunday afternoon in the House of Councillors election in which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's structural reform policy is the main issue. As of 2 p.m., the turnout was 28.4 percent, down 1.75 points from...

Ambassador to US quits over Denver scandal.
July 31, 2001... Japan's ambassador to the United States will quit over the embezzlement scam engulfing a Denver consul, the top diplomat said Friday. To take responsibility for appointing the embezzling official, ambassador Shunji Yanai offered to fall...

Nagoya ordered to improve flawed welfare centers.
July 31, 2001... The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has ordered Nagoya to improve its child-welfare centers after one center failed to prevent the fatal abuse of a 7-year-old girl this month, officials said Saturday. Judging that the city-run...

Okinawa awaits ASDF airman's rape verdict.
July 31, 2001... OKINAWA, Okinawa -- A verdict is due to be handed down Monday morning in the trial of a former Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) corporal accused of raping a junior high schoolgirl. Prosecutors have demanded the Okinawa Branch of the Naha...

Coalition secures comfortable majority.
July 31, 2001... The tripartite ruling coalition secured a comfortable majority in the House of Councillors election on Sunday after riding the wave of popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to early vote counting. Koizumi proclaimed victory...

Police grill post offices over election allegations.
July 31, 2001... NAGOYA -- Several post offices in Nagoya suspected of ordering workers to vote for a former postal administration chief are being investigated on suspicion of violating election laws, police said Monday. Aichi Prefectural Police...

AUM guru ordered to pay damages for lethal gassing.
July 26, 2001... AUM Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara was ordered by a Tokyo court Wednesday to pay 465 million yen to families of victims of the doomsday cult's 1994 deadly gassing of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Presiding Judge Kazuo Ichinomiya of the...

Bar 'Mama-san' slain.
July 26, 2001... FURUKAWA, Ibaraki -- A hostess bar "Mama-san" has been stabbed to death in her home here, police said Wednesday. Mariko Takaku, 53, was found with multiple stab wounds in her home located above the hostess bar she operated in Furukawa....

Yakuza faces murder charge over 'cruel' car killing.
July 26, 2001... A gangster who repeatedly drove his car back and forward despite knowing a man was underneath the vehicle clinging for bare life will be charged with murder, prosecutors said Wednesday. Hiroshi Eguchi, the gangster, was originally...

Fugitive Net bandit busted.
July 26, 2001... A fugitive who hired two men he met through the Internet to pull off a 28 million yen robbery on a club owner has been arrested, police said Wednesday. The unemployed fugitive, Toru Takahashi, was arrested Tuesday after police found him...

'Possessed' teacher admits filming nude schoolgirls.
July 26, 2001... TOYAMA -- A teacher has admitted to filming a group of naked elementary schoolgirls while they showered during a taxpayer-funded nature camp, Toyama Prefectural Board of Education officials said Wednesday. The 31-year-old teacher, whose...

Handcuffed girl bashed, hurled from car.
July 26, 2001... KOBE -- A young girl died after being handcuffed, viciously beaten and later hurled onto the Chugoku Expressway on Tuesday night, police said Wednesday. Schoolgirl Noriko Kamiie, 12, suffered broken bones throughout her body and had been...

Baby dumped in flowerbed.
July 26, 2001... HASHIMOTO, Wakayama -- A newborn baby was found dumped in a junior high school flowerbed here Wednesday morning, police said. Still with its umbilical cord attached, the 3,490-gram baby girl clad in a white suit was rescued and is...

Acquitted man sues schoolgirl over sex attack accusal.
July 26, 2001... A man found not guilty of molestation has sued the schoolgirl who accused him, demanding almost 5 million yen in a case filed at the Tokyo District Court Wednesday. The man, a 28-year-old part-time worker whose name is being withheld,...

Korean escapes trial for 1945 murder.
July 26, 2001... NAGOYA -- A Korean man arrested for homicide in 1945 has outlasted 56 years of government attempts to prosecute him. The statute of limitations expired earlier this month for dealing with the unnamed man's alleged stabbing death of an...

Cops: Base spy slipped photo to Russian guard.
July 26, 2001... A Japanese man charged with spying on the U.S. Yokota Air Force base apparently handed over a photo of a U.S. base in Japan to a Russian soldier, as well as spilled other details to Moscow authorities, police said Wednesday. The...

Seoul insists again that Japan revise school textbooks.
July 26, 2001... HANOI -- Controversial history repeated itself Wednesday when a South Korean official told Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka that Japan should revise a contentious textbook. During talks with Tanaka, South Korean Foreign Minister Han...

S. Korea throws down latest textbook demand.
July 26, 2001... HANOI -- Controversial history repeated itself Wednesday when a South Korean official told Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka that Japan should revise a contentious textbook. During talks with Tanaka, South Korean Foreign Minister Han...

COP6 accord keeps Kyoto pact alive.
July 26, 2001... After an extra day of negotiations, the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP6) reached a deal on Monday in Bonn, Germany, that rescues the Kyoto Protocol. While the...

Priest faces legal hell over temple-run lottery.
July 25, 2001... HIROSHIMA -- A chief priest at a Buddhist temple here faces charges for illegally raking in some 20 million yen in a private lottery his religious group ran, police said Thursday. Investigative documents on the unnamed Enryuji temple...

G-8 leaders heat up over Kyoto Protocol.
July 25, 2001... GENOA, Italy -- Leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) nations are likely to be divided over the United States' decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Japanese officials said. Prime Minister...

JR loses 160 mil. yen in magazine ad debts.
July 25, 2001... Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) was saddled with 160 million yen in irrecoverable debts after failing to collect advertising revenue for one of its complementary magazines, it was learned Saturday. Trouble erupted over the company's...

US servicemen nabbed for Okinawa attacks.
July 25, 2001... OKINAWA -- Two U.S. servicemen were arrested here for damage to property early Saturday in the latest incidents to rile residents in Okinawa, law-enforcement officials said. Police arrested one of the men, 22-year-old Felnando Blanes, a...

Suicidal MSDF member busted for embezzlement.
July 25, 2001... MUTSU, Aomori -- A Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) member has been arrested for pocketing about 700,000 yen in public funds set aside for one of the force's lodging houses, MSDF officials said Saturday. Fumio Matsuzaka, 53, a 2nd...

Poll: LDP to snap up seats in Upper House election.
July 25, 2001... The leading coalition is likely to win some 65 seats in the upcoming House of Councillors election, easily achieving majority in the Upper House, a Mainichi poll has found. The poll, conducted one week before the Upper House election,...

Mom, daughter die in Tokyo blaze.
July 25, 2001... A mother and daughter died and two other family members were seriously injured early Tuesday after a fire broke out in their Tokyo home, razing three buildings, police said. Police said the fire broke out on the first floor of a two-story...

Diplomat takes rap for subordinate's fraud.
July 25, 2001... The Foreign Ministry is poised to punish a diplomat who supervised the organizing of the G-8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit following his subordinate's embezzlement of taxpayers' money, ministry sources said Tuesday. Sources said the ministry is...

10 students collapse in sweltering Kyoto heat.
July 25, 2001... KYOTO -- Ten high school students here collapsed while practicing baseball in sweltering heat today and were rushed to hospital, school officials said. Officials said the students, all from Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School in Kyoto's...

Police quizzed over fireworks deaths.
July 25, 2001... AKASHI, Hyogo -- Hyogo Prefectural Police have begun to question over 20 local police officers in charge of crowd control during last Saturday's fatal fireworks display over the deaths of 10 people, officials said Tuesday. The officers...

Inn suspended for poisoning school kids.
July 25, 2001... CHINI, Nagano -- A Japanese-style inn's restaurant was slapped with a four-day business suspension after more than 170 junior high school students from Tokyo were poisoned by tap water at the inn last week, officials said Tuesday. Nagano...

No rain sparks fears of water restrictions in Tokyo.
July 25, 2001... Only 1 millimeter of rain has fallen in central Tokyo this month -- a fraction of the average -- as temperatures continue to soar, and water restriction fears emerge. Meteorological Agency officials said rainfall during the 24 days to...

Traffickers exploit Chinese visa scam.
July 25, 2001... Human traffickers are exploiting a special short-term entry visa for Chinese by making those eligible for the visa marry a Japanese to obtain a permanent visa, Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau officials said Tuesday. Until 1999, there...

Murder suspect wins compensation over nude photo.
July 25, 2001... NAGASAKI -- A woman accused of murdering her own child and husband won compensation Tuesday from a publisher that damaged her reputation by printing a nude photo of her in one of its magazines. Shinchosha Co., publisher of the weekly...

Japanese man nabbed for stealing US military secrets.
July 25, 2001... A Japanese man working at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo was charged Tuesday with stealing confidential military documents, apparently to hand them over to Russia, police said. The unnamed man had been working as a front clerk at an...

2 GSDF officers, US man held for gang rape.
July 25, 2001... Two Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) officers and an American businessman have been detained for gang raping a woman during a private revel in Tokyo earlier this month, police said. The alleged rapists, GSDF first lieutenants Akinobu Ueta...

Three die of heatstroke, many more hospitalized.
July 25, 2001... Three people died of heatstroke and many more were hospitalized on Tuesday as a high-pressure system sent temperatures soaring around the nation. The sweltering heat wave pushed the temperature to a whopping 40 degree Celsius in Gunma...

Powell denies agreement to revise status-of-forces accord.
July 25, 2001... Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell ruled out the possibility Tuesday that Washington will agree to immediately revise the Japan-U.S. Status-of-Forces Agreement. Powell told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Tokyo that the...

Reforming the Summits.
July 25, 2001... The Genoa Summit convened amidst violent demonstrations by nongovernmental organizations and other groups which led to the death of a protestor for the first time in 27 meetings. A conference which was supposed to generate hope that advanced...

Woman busted for fatal hit on hubby.
July 24, 2001... CHIBA -- A woman who ordered hit men to fatally bash her husband to death last year and hide his body in a concrete drum has been arrested, police said. The alleged murderer, Chizuru Hashimoto, of Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture, reportedly...

Foreign Ministry scrutinizes overseas posts.
July 24, 2001... Every embassy and diplomatic office the scandal-hit Foreign Ministry operates overseas will be subject to year-long audits starting from autumn, the ministry has announced. The announcement, made by Senior Vice Minister Seiken Sugiura on...

Nurse slays close friend after fight over man.
July 24, 2001... SAITAMA -- A nurse was arrested Thursday after admitting to killing her colleague in April this year, police said. Tomoko Kaneda, 23, apparently mutilated the body of fellow nurse Yoshiko Nagata in her Saitama apartment following a...