Mainichi Daily News articles from June 2001

Mainichi Daily News archives from June 2001

Man busted over "school uniform" teen prostitute.
June 29, 2001... A middle-aged company president has been arrested after using the services of a 15-year-old prostitute because he wanted sex with a girl in a school uniform, police said Wednesday. Yoichi Nakane was arrested for breaking the law banning...

Faulty circuits to blame for jet shots.
June 29, 2001... KITAHIROSHIMA, Hokkaido -- Faulty electrical circuits were to blame for an Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) jet strafing a rehabilitation center for the elderly here Monday, ASDF officials said Wednesday. Static electricity generated by the...

Political correctness drives animal world crazy.
June 29, 2001... Visually impaired bugs? Vertically challenged penguins? Less able eels? Sound strange? Bad luck, because that's the scenario academics across Japan are looking to create by re-naming animals because their current names are deemed...

Chinese couple dump dead baby in pond.
June 29, 2001... NAGANO -- A Chinese couple missing for months have been arrested after dumping their infant child's body in a sports bag they ditched in a pond, police said Wednesday. The couple, a 22-year-old man and his 21-year-old wife whose names...

Schoolboy prank nets deadly results.
June 29, 2001... YOKKAICHI, Mie -- A schoolboy died here Wednesday after he jumped from his third-floor classroom onto protective netting only to plunge to the ground as the netting tore to shreds, police said. Isao Uchida, 18, was rushed to a hospital in...

Married women strike blow in sex discrimination suit.
June 29, 2001... Women subjected to gross sexual harassment because they refused to stop working after marriage were awarded 90 million yen in compensation from Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. in a landmark Osaka court ruling late Wednesday. Yasuko Watanabe...

Wanted "fat man" owns up to strangling mother with butt bag.
June 29, 2001... HIRAKATA, Osaka - A man sought for the murder of a woman in a hotel here gave himself up to authorities Wednesday night, saying he had strangled her with his butt bag, police said. Takeshi Tabata was arrested for murder after telling...

"Suicidal" swimmer survives 30 hours by treading water.
June 29, 2001... NAHA -- A suicidal middle-aged man who tried to kill himself by jumping from a ferry into the sea some 100 kilometers from land, was rescued Wednesday after he treaded water for over 30 hours, Japan Coast Guard officials said. The...

Food company kidnappers get just desserts.
June 29, 2001... SETTSU, Osaka -- Four men who so tormented a boy they kidnapped and bashed last month that he committed suicide upon being released were arrested Wednesday, police said. Minoru Kitamura, 25, Yuji Bo, 40, and two unidentified male...

Government must cradle day care.
June 29, 2001... Until recently, the government had made little headway in efforts to help working women balance their jobs and child-raising responsibilities. But acting on recommendations from an expert panel, the Cabinet approved an ambitious plan on June...

Fat customer sought over Osaka hotel strangling.
June 29, 2001... HIRAKATA, Osaka -- A middle-aged woman was found strangled at a hotel here late Tuesday night, local police said Wednesday. Osaka Prefectural Police are hunting for a plump man who had been staying at the hotel with her for questioning...

LDP's Koyama: Bribes didn't drive support for KSD.
June 29, 2001... A shamed former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislator admitted Wednesday that he reaped over 30 million yen in bribes from the ex-director of the KSD foundation during the opening day of his trial. But the corrupt politician, Takao...

Rail firm raided over 2nd train smash.
June 29, 2001... FUKUI -- Investigators scoured a debt-ridden railway company on Wednesday over the firm's second head-on train collision in about six months, which left 25 people injured. Fukui Prefectural Police raided Keifuku Electrical Railroad Co....

JAL engine parts shower residential area.
June 29, 2001... KOMAKI, Aichi -- Hundreds of fragments of a Japan Airlines (JAL) jet engine plummeted onto a densely populated area of the city, damaging at least three parked cars on Wednesday, police said. A shop assistant suffered slight burns on his...

Nagoya court orders foot-cult to foot compensation.
June 29, 2001... NAGOYA -- Bigwigs of foot-reading cult Ho-no-Hana Sanpogyo who tricked nine Tokai region people into handing over 30 million yen were ordered to pay the ill-gotten money back at a court here. "Ho-no-Hana exploited the plaintiffs' personal...

Suspect-bashing cops land suspended sentences.
June 29, 2001... MATSUYAMA -- Despite bashing suspects in custody, three former Ehime Prefectural Police officers were only punished with suspended jail terms on Wednesday. The Matsuyama District Court sentenced Megumi Nozawa, a former assistant...

PM's popularity carries LDP to resounding Tokyo win.
June 27, 2001... Despite having to battle on traditionally hostile turf, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) emerged from Sunday's Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election with an impressive increase in seats. Although the metropolitan assembly has been a...

Man kills Korean lover.
June 27, 2001... A man from Kanagawa Prefecture faces arrest Monday morning after telling authorities his Korean lover died soon after he punched her in the face, police said. The man, whose name has not been released, will probably be arrested for...

Ex-Miss Japan's anti-stalker campaign flops.
June 27, 2001... Former Miss Japan Miwa Sano's attempt to fight stalkers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly ended in a debacle when she fell well short of winning a seat in Sunday's poll. Sano, currently serving her second term as a member of the...

Suicide wreaks havoc on timetable.
June 27, 2001... A man who jumped to his death on the JR Yamanote Line threw schedules into disarray on the vital train line circling the capital Monday morning, police said. The identity of the suicide whose body was found between JR Ikebukuro and...

Mother kills self, daughter.
June 27, 2001... HIDAKA, Saitama -- A woman threw her two young daughters from an 8th-floor landing, killing one and leaving the other clinging desperately for life, before she jumped and killed herself, police said Monday. Identities of the casualties...

Radicals bomb security boss.
June 27, 2001... A car exploded outside the home of a Tokyo security company president early Monday in what was believed to be an attack by an ultraleftist group, police said. Police said the car exploded and burst into flames at about 4:45 a.m. It was...

LDP thanks Koizumi for carrying party to success.
June 27, 2001... Victorious Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) bigwigs thanked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday for leading the party to victory in Tokyo's local election on Sunday. "The LDP has regained the trust of the public now we have Koizumi...

Man dies as driver strikes during car chase.
June 27, 2001... SOKA, Saitama -- A man died and two other people were seriously hurt Sunday night when a car being driven by a man chasing another car that had earlier hit him slammed into them, police said Monday. Akihiro Sakamoto, 50, a company...

Train pervert a police official.
June 27, 2001... AGEO, Saitama -- An official from a police credit union who fondled a schoolgirl's breasts as they rode a crowded commuter train Monday has been arrested, police said. Akira Shimoda, 58, the official from Ageo, was arrested for breaking...

Yakuza torch hostess van.
June 27, 2001... KURUME, Fukuoka -- Two masked men set fire to a van belonging to a hostess-delivery service company near Kurume's entertainment district in the predawn hours of Monday in what is believed to be a gang-related attack, police said. The...

Driver ignored red signal in Fukui train crash.
June 27, 2001... FUKUI -- A collision between two local trains here on Sunday that injured 25 people was caused by a driver ignoring a red signal when he left a station, police said on Monday. Police plan to question Makoto Shimokawadoko, the 22-year-old...

ASDF jet fires on bus, car.
June 27, 2001... KITAHIROSHIMA, Hokkaido -- An Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) jet fighter pilot strafed a car and bus here Monday during a botched training exercise, police said. Nobody was injured in the blunder, but the car's rear window was shattered....

Tanaka should cherish, not restrict debate.
June 27, 2001... Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka had raised the hopes of the public, which approves of her attempts to cut bureaucrats down to size and to put politicians back at the helm. Politicians can only lead, of course, with the support of the Diet, and...

B'z management slapped with 300 mil. yen tax bill.
June 27, 2001... Tax authorities have slapped a company managing popular Japanese rock group B'z with penalties of 300 million yen for hiding 840 million yen in income, it was learned Monday. Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau officials said B.U.M, the...

Realtor arrested for trying to blackmail ex-client.
June 27, 2001... A debt-stricken real estate agent who tried to blackmail 60 million yen from one of his former clients has been arrested, police said. Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested the agent, 55-year-old Fumio Hirayama, for attempted blackmail after...

Train kills schoolboy talking on cell phone.
June 27, 2001... SETTSU, Osaka -- A schoolboy has died after failing to notice that he was in the line of an oncoming express train because he was talking on his mobile phone, police said Tuesday. The 15-year-old boy, whose name is being withheld, was...

Girl gangs brawl with Molotov cocktails.
June 27, 2001... Members of an all-girl biker gang have been arrested after they used Molotov cocktails during an April fight with a rival all-girl gang, police said Tuesday. Risa Tsutsui, 21, leader of the gang and a some time bar hostess, Tomoko...

LDP rides Koizumi's coattails.
June 27, 2001... After the votes had been counted, it seemed that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi probably had the biggest influence on the outcome of Sunday's Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) managed to stage a...

ASDF training targeted after Hokkaido strafing.
June 27, 2001... Monday's accidental strafing of a Hokkaido residential area has triggered a review of all Air Self Defense Forces' (ASDF) live-weapons training, the Defense Agency chief announced Tuesday. Government officials also revealed that drills in...

Gov't apologizes for Tanaka's muzzling attempt.
June 27, 2001... The top government spokesman apologized Tuesday for Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's attempt to gag a legislator from peppering her with controversial questions during a Diet committee's sessions. "I offer an apology on behalf of the...

Takenaka admits zero growth, mass sackings loom.
June 25, 2001... The economy will grow only "zero to 1 percent" in the next few years and up to 200,000 workers face the sack as a result of "painful" reforms mapped out by a government council, Heizo Takenaka, economics minister, said Thursday. ...

Japan should ratify The Kyoto Protocol.
June 25, 2001... The negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol on global warming have probably focused the spotlight more intensely on Japan's diplomacy than any other international controversy in recent years. While the U.S. has given the Kyoto Protocol a...

Moderate quake hits Aichi Pref.
June 25, 2001... A moderate earthquake measuring 3.7 on the open-ended Richter scale jolted Aichi Prefecture and surrounding areas Thursday morning, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties and no tsunami warning was...

Car runs down pedestrian in police chase.
June 25, 2001... NAGOYA -- Three men escaped and a teen-age boy was arrested after a car they were riding in hit and injured an elderly woman on Wednesday evening while being chased by a police car, police said Thursday. Police are grilling the boy,...

Pilot survives helicopter crash.
June 25, 2001... ONO, Fukushima -- A pilot survived after a helicopter he was operating hit an electric power wire and plunged into a rice paddy here early Thursday morning, local police said. At around 6 a.m., a medium-sized helicopter piloted by Keiji...

Rich old couple murdered.
June 25, 2001... KAKOGAWA, Hyogo -- A wealthy couple was found murdered in their home here Thursday morning, police said. Since their home had been ransacked, police are treating the case as a murder-robbery, investigators said. The daughter of...

Economic woes, skilled cheats sink tax evasion yield.
June 25, 2001... The amount of back taxes that evaders were ordered to pay in fiscal 2000 fell below 30 billion yen for the first time in 20 years, reflecting the poor economy and the growing skill of cheats, the National Tax Administration Agency said...

Ex-ambassador turns squatter.
June 25, 2001... A former charge d'affaires of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been squatting in the Congolese ambassador's official residence in central Tokyo for more than 12 months, forcing his successor to work from a rented apartment, the Mainichi...

Gov't report: Stall dam studies to save public funds.
June 25, 2001... The government will suspend dam feasibility studies and pull back on airport and harbor construction in a bid to slash budgets for public works projects, a land ministry report said Thursday. Toeing the line of recently released Economic...

Heavy rains cause chaos in western Japan.
June 25, 2001... Heavy rains drenching western Japan since Wednesday have wreaked havoc on the area, damaging a number of homes and forcing residents to evacuate, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday. In Tsuruda, Kagoshima Prefecture, a...

Chiba punters cast lot with invalid Koizumi.
June 25, 2001... CHIBA -- Hundreds of residents voted for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a mayoral election here. Problem was, he wasn't running in the poll. The ballots nominating Koizumi were naturally deemed invalid, officials of the Chiba...

Osaka bandit nets 2.5 million yen in daylight robbery.
June 25, 2001... A robber fled with 2.5 million yen in cash after a holding up a consumer credit company in downtown Osaka on Thursday afternoon, police said. At around 2:45 p.m., a middle-aged man stormed into the Nankai-Namba branch of AIC Co. in...

Knife-wielding assailant targets Tokyo schoolgirl.
June 25, 2001... A knife-wielding man who attacked a junior high school girl in a morning assault in Tokyo's Edogawa-ku was still at large Thursday evening. The unnamed girl, a second grader of Matsue Junior High School, was uninjured in the knife...

Grandson owns up to Hyogo killings.
June 25, 2001... KAKOGAWA, Hyogo -- A man who killed his grandparents because they caught him while he tried to fake a burglary of their home Wednesday has been arrested, police said Friday. Unemployed Noriyuki Matsumoto, 21, was arrested for robbery and...

Tougher term handed down to lethal mother.
June 25, 2001... A woman deliberately killed her two infant children and deserves a longer prison sentence, the Osaka High Court has ruled, overturning a lower court ruling that only sent her away for 13 years. Presiding Judge Akira Nasu ruled that Yuri...

Highway robbers busted.
June 25, 2001... SAITAMA -- A gang off four robbed two motorists in Saitama Prefecture on Thursday after forcing their cars to stop and threatening them with metal bars and knives, police said. Police said the gang, who were traveling in a white station...

Aged animal abuser arrested after another atrocious attack.
June 25, 2001... An elderly Kyoto man let off after being picked up earlier this year for severing a dog's leg to make it easier for him to beg has been arrested again after he was caught mutilating another pup, police said. Tokio Ishihara, 64, of...

Bleached blonde banned from attending classes for months.
June 25, 2001... MARUGAME, Kagawa -- A 13-year-old girl was segregated from fellow students for almost two months because she dyed her hair blonde, education officials said Friday. Although officials from the public junior high school the girl attended...

Child slayer's apology 'a lie'.
June 25, 2001... IKEDA, Osaka -- Mass murderer Mamoru Takuma on Friday apologized for his brutal schoolyard attack that left eight children dead and another 15 injured, but his lawyer has labeled his statement a "lie." Takuma offered an apology for the...

Hubby attacks axed wife's boss.
June 25, 2001... SAITAMA -- A man outraged that his wife was fired from her job has been arrested after he threatened her old boss, police said Friday. Jiro Akiyama, 29, a plumber from Misato, Saitama Prefecture, was arrested for intimidation after he...

Drunk suicides in cell.
June 25, 2001... MIHARA, Hiroshima -- A man being held for drunken behavior hanged himself in his cell here Friday morning, police said. The 55-year-old man, an employee at an electronics store in Mihara, was found dead in his cell in the Mihara Police...

Hiranuma lashes out at China.
June 25, 2001... Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma has launched a bitter attack on China for introducing import curbs Friday that will double the price of cars, portable phones and air conditioners imported from Japan. "We have no...

Bandits target sex shop.
June 25, 2001... Two men broke into a Korean sex shop in Tokyo, tied up its owner and an employee and made off with the owner's cash card, police said. Police said the men, who had stockings over their heads and were armed with knives, broke into the...

Old man shot in delivery ruse.
June 25, 2001... An elderly suburban Tokyo man was gunned down Friday morning by two men pretending to be deliverymen, police said. Teruhito Tanabe has been hospitalized, but is expected to recover from his wounds. His assailants, who fled the scene...

Bomb threat throws scare into 'Pearl Harbor' preview.
June 25, 2001... An unknown terrorist threatened to bomb a preview screening of the controversial movie "Pearl Harbor," police said Friday. Investigators searched Tokyo Dome before the planned screening of the blockbuster movie there Thursday, but found...

Tanaka rapped for trying to shut up opponents.
June 25, 2001... Outspoken Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka was rebuked by top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda on Friday for overstepping her powers and trying to influence the way a Diet committee was being run. On Thursday, Tanaka phoned Ryuichi Doi,...

The right to collective defense.
June 25, 2001... The debate over whether Japan has the right to exercise collective defense has heated up in recent months. The day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi assumed office, he asserted that it was unacceptable that the government's hands would...

Wanted leftist finally nabbed by chance.
June 25, 2001... YOKOHAMA -- A far-left activist wanted for years for intercepting police radio broadcasts was found in her Tokyo hideout Friday and arrested, police said. The activist, 45-year-old Satoko Hongo, was arrested for violating the radio...

Trade minister lashes out at China.
June 25, 2001... Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma has launched a bitter attack on China for introducing import curbs Friday that will double the price of cars, portable phones and air conditioners imported from Japan. "We have no...

Police say man intended to kill grandparents.
June 25, 2001... KAKOGAWA, Hyogo -- A man who killed his wealthy grandparents apparently broke into their home to butcher them, not to rob them as he confessed following his arrest, police said Friday. Unemployed Noriyuki Matsumoto, 21, was arrested on...

Prosecutors to undergo training at private companies.
June 25, 2001... Narrow-minded prosecutors will undergo training at private companies and organizations for a year or two to broaden their view, according to a Justice Ministry plan revealed Friday. The plan has been prompted by the leak of investigative...

Extortionist plants fake bomb at Nagoya bank.
June 25, 2001... NAGOYA -- A 37-year-old blackmailer was arrested Friday for planting a fake bomb at a Tokai Bank branch here that forced over 700 people in the building to flee for safety, police said. "I had troubles repaying debts to consumer credit...

Man held for torching elderly couple in Fukushima.
June 25, 2001... FUKUSHIMA -- A local waste disposer was detained Friday for killing an elderly couple by torching their home last year over a dispute, police said. Kiyoshi Ishii is denying murdering landowner Shigeyoshi Mimori and his wife Matsue. ...

Kindergarten attack in Tokyo a false alarm.
June 25, 2001... A kindergarten teacher who claimed to be attacked Tuesday by a knife-wielding woman at her school in Tokyo's Suginami-ku had been lying, police said Friday. "I made the story up because I was behind in doing my paperwork and needed more...

Pervert pen pusher nabbed for train sex attack.
June 25, 2001... A drunken central government official who molested a woman on a crowded Tokyo commuter train Friday night has been arrested, police said Saturday. Tomohiro Otsuka, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, was...

Woman dumps newborn's body.
June 25, 2001... TSURU, Yamanashi -- A woman who dumped a newborn boy's body in a corner of a public housing estate here was arrested Saturday morning, police said. It is not known whether Sayomi Amano, the 38-year-old woman arrested for illegal disposal...

Horror nursery operators busted for kid's death.
June 25, 2001... Operators of a Tokyo daycare center where a baby boy died after another child fell asleep on top of him were arrested Saturday as authorities launched a crackdown, police said. Masamitsu Maekawa, president of Chibikkoen, the Toyama-based...

Woman, baby latest targets of dodgy deliverymen.
June 25, 2001... TSURUGASHIMA, Saitama - A bandit posing as a deliveryman slashed a housewife and attacked her baby here Friday night before ransacking her home and fleeing with a wad of cash, police said Saturday. Mie Yoshioka sustained minor injuries...

Security sales boom in wake of Ikeda massacre.
June 25, 2001... Security equipment sales and inquiries have boomed in the wake of the brutal killing of eight schoolchildren in Osaka on June 8, retailers of the equipment say. Retailers say fears for the safety of children following the murders have...

Kids sickened by killer drill.
June 25, 2001... KAMO, Kyoto -- Little girls at an elementary school here became violently ill after teachers sprung a drill aiming to instruct them on how to seek protection if a berserk attacker raids their class, education officials said Saturday. A...

Man arrested over fatal hit-and-run.
June 25, 2001... CHICHIBU, Saitama -- A man who gave himself up after causing a fatal hit-and-run accident was arrested here early Saturday, police said. Takayuki Arai initially fled after he ran into Mitsuaki Naoe, who had been strolling along a...

Future teachers flunk math.
June 25, 2001... Three in four students in tertiary teacher training courses have trouble solving elementary school level mathematics problems, a university survey has found. A survey conducted by two professors from Kyoto University and Tokyo's Keio...

Akita collision kills 2.
June 25, 2001... OMAGARI, Akita -- Two men died after the driver of their car ignored a red light and slammed into an oncoming car late Friday night, police said Saturday. Killed in the crash were 57-year-old residents of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture,...

Officials fear DPRK converted illegal export into spy ship.
June 25, 2001... North Korea may have created a spy ship out of a fishing vessel that Japanese businessmen helped illegally sell to the communist nation, officials have warned. Four people were arrested Saturday in connection with the illegal export of...

Gov't: Japan to run own show on any missile shield.
June 25, 2001... WASHINGTON -- Japan will keep its own finger on the firing switch of any future missile defense shield, Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani said in Washington on Friday. "If Japan were to possess a ballistic missile system, it would be...

Protecting our children.
June 25, 2001... The Ikeda, Osaka, classroom tragedy continues to shock and haunt us, despite the time that has elapsed since the incident. The eight children who were killed will not come back, and the emotional wounds of their surviving classmates run deep....

Thieves snatch 1.7 mil. yen from Saitama ATM.
June 25, 2001... KAWAGOE, Saitama -- Thieves broke into a consumer finance institution here early Saturday and drilled into an ATM machine, making off with 1.7 million yen before security guards arrived, police said. Investigators said the burglary...

Assailant slashes Kagawa schoolgirl.
June 25, 2001... ZENTSUJI, Kagawa -- A man stabbed a junior high school student here on Saturday afternoon, police said, in the latest knife-assault inflicted on a pupil in the nation. The girl's arm was slashed in the attack occurring at about 12:20...