Mainichi Daily News articles from May 2000

Mainichi Daily News archives from May 2000

Cops praise daredevil driver: Deliberate collision saves life of stroke-hit motorist.
May 26, 2000... A daredevil Tokyo company president will be commended for saving the life of a driver who suffered a stroke at the wheel -- by using his vehicle to bring the out-of-control car to a halt, police said. Akira Kawasaki, the 51-year-old...

Concrete falls in Nagano train tunnel: Chunks fail to rattle JR East -- trains run on.
May 26, 2000... MARUKO, Nagano -- Five chunks of concrete -- apparently from a tunnel ceiling --were found lying on the Nagano Shinkansen Line here, officials said Wednesday. But the find didn't rattle East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) officials, who...

TV program director flees kidnappers.
May 26, 2000... A 32-year-old director of a Fuji Television Network, Inc. news program was apparently abducted last week but escaped unhurt several hours later, it was revealed on Wednesday. Police suspect that the case may be a kidnapping for ransom and...

Supermarket part-timer fatally stabs boss.
May 26, 2000... AIRA, Kagoshima -- A 16-year-old part-timer at a supermarket here was arrested after he allegedly stabbed the manager to death Wednesday afternoon, police said. The boy, whose name is being withheld under the Juvenile Law, stabbed...

Construction minister attacks anti-weir head: Government chief calls man 'untrustworthy' in verbal diatribe.
May 25, 2000... Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama on Tuesday launched a vengeful personal attack on a representative of a Tokushima group campaigning against the proposed Yoshino River weir in the city, saying that he won't attend talks with the group...

Comin'up roses.
May 25, 2000... Visitors stroll in the Aramaki Rose Park in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, where about 10,000 rose bushes consisting of 230 varieties are in full bloom. Park officials said that the roses will be at their best in the 1.7-hectare park until late...

Briefly: Obuchi's daughter to run in House election.
May 25, 2000... TAKASAKI, Gumma -- Yuko Obuchi, the second daughter of late former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, announced Tuesday that she will run in the upcoming House of Representatives election from the Gumma No. 5 constituency to secure the seat vacated...

Briefly: Teacher may have infected up to 80 with TB.
May 25, 2000... NAGOYA -- Four people have contracted tuberculosis (TB), apparently from a high school teacher, the municipal government's Health and Welfare Bureau confirmed Tuesday. According to the bureau, a 27-year-old teacher at a public high...

Briefly: Company president found knifed to death.
May 25, 2000... KAMMAKI, Nara -- A company president was found stabbed to death in his office here Tuesday morning, police said. According to police, Kazuto Morita, 36, president of Moriwa Jutaku, a real estate company in Kammaki, Nara Prefecture, was...

Briefly: Truck crash causes Hyogo power outage.
May 25, 2000... AOGAKI, Hyogo -- The power supply to some 1,700 households here was cut off when a large truck smashed into a utility pole early Tuesday morning, police said. At around 4:25 a.m. on Tuesday, the truck, driven by Masashi Togai, 35,...

Briefly: Ex-Okinawan gov. may run for House seat.
May 25, 2000... The largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is poised to field former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota in the upcoming House of Representatives election, a high-ranking member of the party said. The party has offered to place Ota on a...

Mori under siege: Opposition parties to submit no-confidence vote.
May 25, 2000... The leaders of the four opposition parties agreed Tuesday to submit a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori while a Mainichi survey showed that the disapproval rate for the Cabinet has sharply increased. ...

Negligent trucker escapes jail once again.
May 25, 2000... A truck driver who once escaped being charged with running over and killing an 8-year-old Tokyo boy in 1997 thanks to prosecutors' apparent inaction was found guilty of gross negligence in court Tuesday and given a suspended jail term. ...

Stamping out.
May 25, 2000... British Maj. Hugh Evans brands a cow with the help of local Serbs in the village of Gornja Brnjica, north of Pristina, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo on Monday. The British Command organized the branding to prevent the cattle of Serbs...

Osaka eyes Tokyo-style bank tax.
May 25, 2000... The Osaka Prefectural Assembly is set to pass a bill introducing a controversial new tax on banks operating in the prefecture from fiscal 2001, following the precedent set by Tokyo. The prospect came after the general affairs committee of...

Editorial: The carbon tax.
May 25, 2000... When the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997, global warming was described as the biggest problem that humankind would face in the 21st century. The Kyoto Protocol obligated the advanced industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas...

As I See It: Aomori urged to rethink 2003 Games.
May 25, 2000... If average shoppers purchased an item that is supposed to cost 8,000 yen but were then presented with a bill for 56,000 yen, they would probably drop their jaw and take up the matter with the store. Many would probably return the merchandise....

Diet member battles prejudice against AIDS.
May 25, 2000... When Diet member Satoru Ienishi was younger, marriage and raising a family seemed out of the question. He had been diagnosed in 1987 as having contracted the HIV virus through contaminated blood products used to treat his hemophilia. ...

Music breaks down cultural barriers: Peruvian band takes message to nation's schools.
May 25, 2000... UENO, Mie -- A group of Peruvian musicians has once again demonstrated that music is a universal language as they forge ties with the local community. Huauje mi Kanki, a group of musicians formed six years ago that specializes in Andean...

Okinawan musician hits silver screen.
May 25, 2000... OKINAWA, Okinawa -- Since he began performing at the age of 16, master musician Seijin Noborikawa, 69, has attracted many people to his rapid, fanciful way of playing the sanshin, a three-stringed lute representative of the spirit of Okinawa....

Furthermore: Environmental art.
May 25, 2000... KYOTO -- Cartoons appealing for the preservation of the environment, which were included in the fourth annual Kyoto International Cartoon Exhibition, will be on display until the end of this month at the United Nations headquarters in New...

Insurance fraudsters arrested over death.
May 25, 2000... A man and woman suspected of filing a bogus marriage certificate so they could collect a 50 million yen insurance claim taken out on the woman's husband after he died, were arrested Tuesday, police said. Makiko Tarusawa, 29, and Yoshihiro...

Cops bust colleague of strangled woman.
May 25, 2000... CHITOSE, Hokkaido -- A former colleague of a murdered woman whose charred body was found in March in Eniwa, Hokkaido, was arrested early Tuesday morning, police said. Hokkaido Prefectural Police arrested Minako Okoshi, 29, for allegedly...

Director rapped for bad stage play: TV exec told gang to run amok for cameras in Osaka.
May 25, 2000... A TV-Osaka Co. (TVO) director who allegedly told motorcycle gang members to drive recklessly around the streets of Osaka in order to create sensational scenes for a television program is facing criminal charges, Osaka Prefectural Police...

Cop stamps assault file with own fingerprints.
May 24, 2000... A Tokyo female police officer who stamped documents related to a sex assault case with her own fingerprints because she "didn't want to bother the victim" has led to her superior officers making a red-faced apology. The Motofuji Police...

Editorial: China should cool down.
May 24, 2000... As Chen Shui-bian was being sworn in as Taiwan's new president on May 20, the world focused its attention on how the new leader, still young at 49, would respond to Chinese pressure to accept a "one China" policy. Fifty-one years ago,...

Sidelight: Cross-strait reconciliation.
May 24, 2000... Taiwan is shaped like a sweet potato. Hence, native Taiwanese call themselves Fanshu (sweet potato). In contrast, those who came to the island from the Chinese mainland in postwar years are known as Yutou (taro). For decades, the two haven't...

Teen-ager torched to death: Cops hunting two men for dousing youth with gasoline.
May 24, 2000... MUIKA, Niigata -- The charred remains of a 16-year-old who was brutally bashed, then doused with gasoline and torched to death, were found in a tunnel here Monday morning, police said. Police are looking for two men -- both about 30 years...

Cop delivers speedy let-offs.
May 24, 2000... NIIGATA -- A former head of a traffic unit of the Niigata Prefectural Police apparently covered up speed violations by nine officers of its own force and two others, the police department has admitted. Norio Osawa, 60, former chief of...

Online ticket swindler cheats pop-music fans.
May 24, 2000... An Internet trickster has been swindling fans of teen-age pop sensation Hikaru Utada by peddling fake concert tickets at inflated prices, the Mainichi has learned. In the scheme, the swindler offered tickets in an online auction for an...

Scientist: Gases may produce new Ice Age.
May 24, 2000... A new Ice Age may freeze over Earth in the late 21st century because emissions of gases linked to global warming halve the amount of certain currents circulating the oceans, a researcher's study has found. Shukuro Manabe, a climatology...

Insurance widow rebuffs hit-and-run accusations.
May 24, 2000... A woman standing to gain 50 million yen from her husband's death has denied any involvement in his untimely demise last month, police said Monday. The woman, 29, showed up at Joto Police Station in Tokyo's Koto-ku and told police that...

Elderly man hauled in for killing 84-yr-old.
May 24, 2000... A 71-year-old Osaka man has been arrested over the murder-robbery of his 84-year-old neighbor that netted only several thousand yen earlier this month, police said Monday. Toichiro Nakamura was arrested Sunday on suspicion of strangling...

Tutor nailed for pedophilia, Internet sales.
May 24, 2000... CHIBA -- A private tutor was hit with charges for sexually exploiting at least 30 young male students, police said Monday. Takao Shimizu, a 27-year-old tutor from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, also apparently sold images of his assaults to...

Mt. Usu destroying job hopes for locals.
May 24, 2000... DATE, Hokkaido -- Nearly 70 percent of Hokkaido residents who lost their jobs due to the eruptions of Mount Usu in late March have failed to find new work a month after the issue of evacuation orders, a Mainichi poll shows. The volcanic...

Molesting case against Nara police dropped.
May 24, 2000... NARA -- A former high-ranking police officer and two of his subordinates escaped being charged with an alleged sex attack after prosecutors decided Monday not to press charges. The Nara District Prosecutor's Office refused to disclose the...

Hospital defends dodgy death report: Osaka woman's relatives outraged at contradictions.
May 23, 2000... DAITO, Osaka -- Relatives of a woman who died here in February are outraged that a death certificate and autopsy report gave conflicting causes and times of her death, the Mainichi has learned. For documentation purposes, local...

Schools boosting number of counselors to curb bullying.
May 23, 2000... Counselors will be posted at public junior high and high schools across the nation beginning in 2001 to try to combat the effects of bullying and stem an increase in students refusing to attend school, members of a Ministry of Education...

Trial of Niigata kidnapper to kick off.
May 23, 2000... NIIGATA -- Nearly four months after a 19-year-old woman was rescued from a nine-year abduction ordeal, prosecutors will, on Tuesday, begin detailing what her kidnapper did to her in this unprecedented case. Two lawyers appointed by the...

Thinner-sniffing teen falls to his death.
May 23, 2000... KOBE -- A 15-year-old boy high on paint thinner plunged to his death after he tried to jump between the roofs of two different buildings here Sunday morning, police said. The boy had been part of a group of eight youths who had been...

Kansai Scope: Holland's contributions flow through time.
May 23, 2000... With this year marking the 400th anniversary of friendship between the Netherlands and Japan, interest in the culture and art of Holland is higher than ever in this country. The story of Johannis De Rijke is one case in point. De Rijke...

Tokyo Ballet features Kylian programs.
May 23, 2000... "Dreamtime," the fourth dance contract awarded to the Tokyo Ballet by the internationally acclaimed modern ballet choreographer, Jiri Kylian, will be performed in Japan for the first time this May. Kylian requested the late Japanese...

Legends of Okinawa.
May 23, 2000... Imagine Okinawa as the stage for the next Indy Jones movie. Picture Professor Jones reading from an ancient text, "Islands bobbing in the sea, moving at will, never the same height nor the same distance apart, and everything shining like...

Editorial: Lower House election.
May 23, 2000... After considerable haggling, a date has finally been set for a House of Representatives election. The voting will take place on June 25, with the official campaign period beginning on June 13. The upcoming poll will ask the public to assess...

Waiwai: Waido: The chill pill.
May 23, 2000... Can Kitosan -- a medicine made up of shrimp and crab shells -- really tame the tempers of the wildest beasts? Michael Hoffman reports. What if it's just chemistry? Evil, badness, viciousness -- call it what you will -- has come in...

Mayor relies on gangster for help.
May 23, 2000... SUE, Fukuoka -- Mayor Akiyuki Yoshimatsu of Sue relied on the services of a former gang leader in 1991 to settle a problem the town had with one of its residents, it was learned Saturday. A Sue resident sued the town in 1988 because of a...

Police probe umpire assault.
May 23, 2000... NAGOYA -- The Aichi Prefectural Police have begun an investigation after two baseball fans filed criminal complaints against Chunichi Dragons manager Senichi Hoshino and two players of the team, accusing them of inflicting injuries on an...

LDP makes mockery of donations law runaround.
May 23, 2000... The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has set up nearly 550 new branch offices since January this year, in an apparent attempt to walk around the law that bans corporate donations to individual politicians, a Mainichi survey has revealed....

Top swimmer cries foul: Fight over exclusion from Olympic team set to go to court.
May 23, 2000... Suzu Chiba, the nation's top swimmer who was controversially omitted from the swimming team for the Sydney Games, is planning to demand an international arbitrator to order the sport's Japanese governing body to disclose the team selection...

'Dark pages' spark scholars' interest: Research aims to illuminate Japanese WWII detention of Dutch in Indonesia.
May 23, 2000... Fifty-five years after the end of World War II, Japanese and Dutch scholars have embarked on a quest to shed some light on the gloomy era in the Netherlands' history known as the "dark pages." The name is given to the period during the...

The 5th Miyazaki music festival.
May 23, 2000... The 5th Miyazaki Music Festival is currently under way through May 28 in Miyazaki. The schedule of the latter half of the festival is as follows. (1) The 2000 Program is being presented in the Concert Hall of the Miyazaki Prefectural...

Millennium project commissioned by three halls in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo.
May 23, 2000... Osaka's Izumi Hall is hosting a joint project with Kioi Hall in Tokyo and Shirakawa Hall in Nagoya that will foster the creation of new musical works appropriate for the new millennium. These three concert venues established a liaison...

Female cop steals cash to buy clothes.
May 23, 2000... The case of a 36-year-old female police sergeant accused of stealing from her department's tobacco vending machine was sent to prosecutors by the Osaka Prefectural Police on Thursday. The unnamed sergeant allegedly stole an estimated...

Editorial: Mori's bombshell.
May 23, 2000... The ruling and opposition parties usually strive to accentuate their differences when a Diet session winds down prior to a general election. But the normal political calculus for the homestretch of this Diet session could be altered by...

Crackdown on kids' law eyed.
May 23, 2000... A subcommittee of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has compiled a set of proposals seeking to lower the minimum age at which youths face criminal punishment from 16 to 14 years of age. The proposals, aimed at revising the...

Mt. Usu's tourist spots may get new home.
May 23, 2000... Tourist businesses ravaged by long-term closures as a result of the eruptions of Hokkaido's Mount Usu could be moved en masse to a safer area, according to a recovery plan released Friday by a government task force. Mount Usu erupted on...

Life turns to hardball for Giants' Kiyohara.
May 23, 2000... The millennium year hasn't been a good one for Kazuhiro Kiyohara, a slugger for the Yomiuri Giants who not too long ago could boast of being the nation's most popular ball player. Hitting a dismal .120, with only one home run this year,...

Magazine scoops shots of prone Obuchi.
May 23, 2000... The weekly photo magazine Friday has published a photo of the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in hospital in its June 2 edition, magazine editors disclosed Thursday. The controversial photo, part of a five-page article that went on sale...

Cop without license crashes chief's car.
May 23, 2000... A police officer was arrested in Tokyo on Friday after he allegedly drove a car without a license and collided into another vehicle while on duty. Naoya Kuwano, a 29-year-old officer at the Kamata Police Station's detective division in...

Coalition makes 'jobs for 500,000' promise.
May 23, 2000... The ruling coalition on Friday vowed to create 500,000 jobs in their "promises" for voters in the House of Representatives election expected to be held in June. Officials of the three parties, the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and...

Court upholds detention of Nepalese man.
May 23, 2000... A decision to detain a Nepalese man who was declared innocent on charges of murder and robbery was upheld by the Tokyo High Court on Friday. Lawyers representing the confined man, Govinda Prasad Mainali, 33, had made a request to the...

Typhoon season swirls off in Okinawa.
May 23, 2000... The rainy season began in Okinawa Prefecture and neighboring areas on Friday, eight days later than average and 10 days later than last year, the Okinawa Meteorological Observatory said. The weather over the southernmost part of the...

1,251 candidates to run for House of Reps.
May 23, 2000... In the House of Representatives election expected to be held on June 25, more than 1,250 candidates may run for the 480 seats from across the nation, a Mainichi survey has found. Dozens more people may run but the total number of...

High school apologizes for false accusations.
May 23, 2000... HOFU, Yamaguchi -- Education officials of Yamaguchi Prefecture warned the principal of a high school after staff of his school wrongly accused a student of extortion. The pressure apparently led to the student dropping out of the school. ...

Latest LDP gaffes hand opposition election ammo.
May 23, 2000... A hat trick of gaffes involving top brass from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) looks likely to provide perfect ammunition for opposition parties before the upcoming general election, thereby casting a shadow over the LDP's...

Stool pigeons may get lucky in war against int'l crime.
May 23, 2000... Stool pigeons in global crime cases may get immunity from prosecution to prevent the nation from becoming a hotbed of international crime, Justice Ministry officials told the Mainichi. The officials said that they are trying to strengthen...

Seven US servicemen nabbed over weekend.
May 23, 2000... NAHA -- A U.S. Airman who viciously bludgeoned a store employee over the head with a bottle then stole food and seasoning before fleeing has been arrested, police said Sunday. The arrest of Senior Airman James I. McIlvan for robbery...

Editorial: Emperor visits Europe.
May 23, 2000... Japan's first contact with the Netherlands occurred 400 years ago, when a Dutch ship drifted onto the shores of what is now Oita Prefecture. The list of items that reached Japan from the land of windmills since then are countless, some of the...

EDITORIAL: Free trade pacts.
May 20, 2000... A consensus is emerging within Japan's government and private sector in support of free trade agreements with Asia and Latin America. The Japan External Trade Organization unveiled a report in April that stresses the merits of a trade pact...

Healthy firms to be allowed to set up banks.
May 20, 2000... The government plans to allow nonfinancial companies to create banks specializing in settlement services on condition that the banks have sufficient capital and income sources, according to draft guidelines presented on Thursday. The...

Company who drove worker to suicide must pay family: Ishimoto Foods ordered to fork over Y111 mil. in recompense.
May 20, 2000... HIROSHIMA -- A food company that overworked one of its employees to the point of suicide in 1995 must pay the family of the employee over 100 million yen in compensation, a court here ruled Thursday. The Hiroshima District Court ordered...

Gov't OKs bill to curb stalking.
May 20, 2000... The House of Representatives on Thursday passed into law an anti-stalking bill that incorporates maximum punishments of one-year imprisonment or a fine of 1 million yen for violators. The bill, which cleared the House of Councillors on...

Kanazawa cop reprieved: High Court suspends officer's conviction for violence.
May 20, 2000... KANAZAWA -- A high court overturned a lower court ruling that gave a former police officer a 30-month prison term for fatally kicking a man during questioning, and, instead, handed him a suspended prison term on Thursday. The Kanazawa...

Bully sent to reform school.
May 20, 2000... NAGOYA -- The Nagoya Family Court decided Thursday to send a 15-year-old youth to a reformatory, the first court decision on any of the 10 boys arrested earlier this year on suspicion of extorting 54 million yen from another 15-year-old boy....

Gov't to apologize for illegal dumping.
May 20, 2000... TAKAMATSU -- In a drastic development in the nation's largest illegal waste dumping case, prefectural authorities here have decided to apologize to residents on Teshima Island for negligence that resulted in the disposal of massive toxic...

Dollar.
May 20, 2000... The dollar fell slightly against the yen in an aimless market on Thursday after failing to test its upper side overnight. At 5 p.m., the dollar traded at 109.12-15 yen, down from 109.30-40 yen at 5 p.m. Wednesday in New York, after...

World Music: Festival of sound offers three reasons to be cheerful.
May 20, 2000... Although the Big Mikan might never make the shortlist as one of the world's most beautiful cities, it more than compensates for its unattractiveness by being the venue of choice in Asia for some of the world's more interesting and eclectic...

LDP moves to speed up court hearings.
May 20, 2000... Japan should have more lawyers and judges to speed up notoriously snail-paced court hearings, according to a report issued Thursday by a legal reform panel in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). More expert opinions will also be...

IT-share bubble full of hot air.
May 20, 2000... Although top shareholders of information technology (IT) companies dominated last year's list of top taxpayers, IT share prices have plummeted since they came into the cash, and now rumors are floating around that the industry's surge in...

Tokyo Stocks.
May 20, 2000... Share prices fell sharply Thursday, reflecting volatility on Wall Street with the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average slipping below 17,000 at one stage for the first time in four trading days. The Nikkei lost 372.40, or 2.14...

Man charged in failed murder-arson case.
May 20, 2000... NEYAGAWA, Osaka -- The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted a 48-year-old man on charges of arson and attempted murder, police said Thursday. According to Neyagawa Police Station, on July 1 1996, Takami Nakamura, an...

Alleged teen killer to undergo psych tests.
May 20, 2000... TOYOHASHI, Aichi -- A 17-year old, under arrest for the fatal stabbing of a pensioner early this month, is to undergo an extensive psychiatric evaluation following approval from the Nagoya District Court on Wednesday. The third-year high...

Readers' Forum: Saluting a true friend.
May 20, 2000... To the Editor: When I opened my newspaper this morning (Wednesday, May 10; May 11 in some areas) I was shocked and saddened to see a picture of Haruo Nishimura followed by an article reporting his death. I have known Nishimura, a...

Sidelight: Mori's talent backfires.
May 20, 2000... Starting off with St. Petersburg, Russia, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited seven countries in nine days on a tour designed to smooth the way for the G-8 summit scheduled for July in Okinawa. He wound up his kamikaze-style whirlwind trip in...