Mainichi Daily News articles from November 2001

Mainichi Daily News archives from November 2001

Workers to pay 30% of medical costs.
November 30, 2001... The nation's salaried workers will have to pay 30 percent of their medical expenses in the future and more insurance payouts starting in fiscal 2003, following a heated decision by politicians on Thursday. The decision over how much...

Baseball boss bans NBS from buying BayStars.
November 30, 2001... Japan pro baseball commissioner Hiromori Kawashima on Thursday decided to revoke an earlier decision allowing the Nippon Broadcasting System (NBS) to become the top shareholder of the Yokohama BayStars, officials said. NBS officials had...

Japan needs more nimble Afghan policy.
November 30, 2001... Though the House of Representatives approved a basic plan for deploying the Self-Defense Forces to the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, Japan seems to have been left in the dust in its efforts to extend relief to and assist with the rebuilding of...

Cops raid Chongryon in scandal investigation.
November 30, 2001... Pyongyang's unofficial diplomatic missions in Tokyo were raided Thursday morning in a police probe into the scandal surrounding the failed Chogin Tokyo Credit Cooperative. Police busted into the Chiyoda-ku headquarters of the General...

Japan jobless at record high.
November 30, 2001... Japan's unemployment rate rose to a record high of 5.4 percent in October, up 0.1 point from the previous month, it was learned Thursday. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States have badly affected the already struggling...

Ministry reveals reason for Afghan refugee ban.
November 30, 2001... The Ministry of Justice has given its reason for denying refugee status to nine Afghan men, saying their testimonies were questionable and they had millions of yen stored in bank accounts. Ministry officials said five of the nine men had...

Chinese student sought for stabbing murder.
November 30, 2001... SAITAMA -- A Chinese student was put on a wanted list Thursday for slaying a fellow countryman in Shiki, Saitama Prefecture, police said. Investigators said they have found in the apartment of the unnamed student in Shiki bloodstained...

10 years demanded for Foreign Ministry embezzler.
November 30, 2001... Disgraced former Foreign Ministry diplomat Katsutoshi Matsuo, who embezzled more than 900 million yen of taxpayers' money to live the high life, should be jailed for 10 years, prosecutors told the Tokyo District Court on Thursday. "The...

Fake cop spoofed child prostitute for free sex.
November 30, 2001... A Chiba Prefecture man who posed as an undercover police officer to avoid paying an underage prostitute money has been arrested, police said Thursday. The imposter, Hiroshi Okamoto, is being held on charges of violating the law...

ASDF officer nabbed for arson attack.
November 30, 2001... NAHA -- An Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) officer has been arrested for setting fire to a facility at a Naha base he is stationed at, military police said Thursday. The airman, Sumio Tomimoto, a third class noncommissioned officer at the...

Failed Chogin gave N. Korean bigwig 2.6 bil. yen in loans.
November 30, 2001... An executive of North Korea's unofficial diplomatic mission in Tokyo received 2.6 billion yen in bank loans as operational funds for the ethnic group but did not pay back the funds in apparent collusion with credit union bosses, sources told...

Murderer nabbed after saying victim asked him to do it.
November 30, 2001... OSAKA -- A confessed killer who remained free for over two years because of a legal loophole was arrested Thursday, police said. The man, Seiichiro Nishikawa, is accused of strangling Osaka bar owner Yoshihisa Hirayama at a hotel in...

ASDF planes begin transporting supplies for U.S.
November 30, 2001... The Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) Thursday began transporting supplies between U.S. military facilities in Japan as part of Tokyo's support to the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. Defense Agency Administrative Vice Minister Ken Sato...

Fishermen win dam battle, but gov't to fight on.
November 30, 2001... The government is considering taking forcible measures to construct a controversial dam in Kumamoto Prefecture after a local fishing cooperative blocked its 35-year-old plan from proceeding. "We are bitterly disappointed," Land,...

Teen-age madams force classmate to sell sex.
November 29, 2001... YAMAGATA -- Two teen-age university students have been arrested for forcing a classmate to work as a prostitute and then taking all her earnings, police said. Arrested for breaking the Prostitution Prevention Law were two 19-year-old...

Mobster's body found in concrete block.
November 29, 2001... SHIMIZU, Shizuoka -- A gangster's body has been found encased in concrete-filled gasoline drum dumped at a parking lot here, police said Wednesday. Investigators were tipped-off to the location of the remains, which are believed to be of...

Study claims 1 in 7 women battered by partners.
November 29, 2001... One in seven Japanese women has been subjected to either physical or sexual abuse, a shocking World Health Organization (WHO) report has shown. Of the Japanese women aged from 18 to 49 interviewed as part of an eight-stage WHO global...

Cook kills drunken customer.
November 29, 2001... YOKOHAMA -- A cook who used one of his work knives to kill a drunken customer who persistently caused problems at his restaurant was Wednesday arrested for murder, police said. Nobuo Aoshima, 50, a cook at the Hormone Dojo Daiei...

Teacher admits guilt over slain pre-teen prostitute.
November 29, 2001... KOBE -- A junior high school teacher pleaded guilty to confinement after leaving a 12-year-old prostitute for dead when she jumped from his speeding car because he had handcuffed her to its seat. Ken Fukumoto, 34, admitted to the Kobe...

Bikers bail up court car, blast it with BBs.
November 29, 2001... Up to 11 Tokyo teen-age biker gang members face arrest after they surrounded a van carrying their gang leader from a reformatory to a court, prevented it from moving and blasted it with BB guns, police said Wednesday. Six of the bikers...

Chinese man dies after bar brawl.
November 29, 2001... SAITAMA -- The body of a Chinese man was found dumped in Shiki, Saitama Prefecture, early Wednesday, police said. Investigators said the victim, Shen Chengmin, of Shiki, was stabbed once in the throat. Three Chinese friends of Shen...

Deadly drivers doomed to face harsher penalties.
November 29, 2001... Drunken, speeding or blatantly careless drivers face punishments far stricter than existing penalties following the unanimous passage through the House of Councillors Wednesday of a revised Road Traffic Law. Drivers found guilty of the...

DRPK-linked exec busted as lender scandal mushrooms.
November 29, 2001... An executive of Pyongyang's unofficial diplomatic mission was arrested for allegedly embezzling some 830 million yen from a failed lender under its influence, investigative sources said Wednesday. Expanding their net into the Chogin Tokyo...

Overtime lawsuit takes aim at young worker's death.
November 29, 2001... KOBE -- Bereaved family members of a young Fujitsu group employee who died after slogging through 104 hours overtime a month launched a lawsuit against the company Wednesday. Demanding 86 million yen in compensation, the family of...

'Imposter' nabbed over 7-month-old Kyoto swindle.
November 29, 2001... KYOTO -- A man has been arrested seven months after he allegedly walked out of a failed credit union with 100 million yen by pretending to be a court-appointed bankruptcy mediator. Outlining an intricate scheme on Wednesday, arresting...

Dad gets 2-1/2 years for deadly pancake punishment.
November 28, 2001... MATSUE -- A farmer who suspended his 8-year-old daughter from a tree -- leading to her death -- because she ate a pancake without approval was ordered Tuesday to spend 2-1/2 years behind bars. The lawyer representing Minoru Nakatani, of...

Yankees reportedly eyeing Nomo.
November 28, 2001... NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees and two other Major League clubs have an eye to catch Hideo Nomo while the Boston Red Sox intends to retain the free agent Japanese pitcher, the U.S. newspaper Boston Globe said Monday. The Yankees, which...

Merger of highway corporations axed.
November 28, 2001... The ground-breaking merger of the debt-ridden Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority with three other expressway public corporations has been scuttled by a government panel on reforming public corporations. Bureaucratic concerns about using...

Gov't soothsayers: GDP revival relies on reforms.
November 28, 2001... Japan's sickly gross domestic product (GDP) figures can clamber into positive numbers in fiscal 2004 if Tokyo unflinchingly forges ahead with structural reforms including clearing bad loans, a government panel said Tuesday. And not only...

Severely decomposed bodies found in unused container.
November 28, 2001... NOBORIBETSU -- Two decomposed bodies were found in a transport container left unused here for more than two years and investigators suspect either foul play or a double suicide, police said Tuesday. An employee of a transport company in...

Korean execs embezzled millions in credit scam.
November 28, 2001... Former executives of a pro-Pyongyang organization embezzled several hundred million yen that they had borrowed illegally from a now defunct Tokyo credit cooperative, investigative sources disclosed Tuesday. The Metropolitan Police...

The Constitution and citizens' obligations.
November 28, 2001... The Meiji Constitution specified that citizens were required to perform three major tasks: military service, pay taxes and acquire an education. In the postwar Constitution, these duties have been transformed into an obligation to educate...

Trade surplus down for 16th consecutive month.
November 27, 2001... Japan's trade surplus fell to 462.5 billion yen during October, the 16th consecutive monthly fall and 32.9 percent less than for the same month last year, the Finance Ministry announced Thursday. Both exports and imports were down, with...

Vengeful ex-cop takes own life in prison cell.
November 27, 2001... KUROBANE, Tochigi -- A former police officer serving a prison sentence for the attempted murder of a boss who refused his request for a job transfer has committed suicide in his cell, police said Thursday. Shoji Nagashima, who was forced...

Swindling law official sentenced at own court.
November 27, 2001... WAKAYAMA -- A marshal who duped a court into handing him over 850,000 yen in fees for property inspections he never conducted was Thursday handed down a three year suspended sentence at the same court. The marshal, Takenori Furuta, 65,...

Prisoner tells on cop who buttered him up.
November 27, 2001... KOBE -- A police officer faces charges after he handed over to a detainee photos of women convicted of drug use, showed him movies and plied him with canned drinks, police said Thursday. Authorities learned of the incident after the...

10,000 dollar robber nabbed 1 year after crime.
November 27, 2001... A man who robbed a bank delivery van of 10,000 dollars in Tokyo's Tachikawa was arrested Thursday, a year after he committed the crime, police said Friday. The man, 53-year-old Kazumi Tate, has denied any involvement in the robbery. ...

Fugitive nabbed days before eligible for immunity.
November 27, 2001... MATSUE, Shimane -- A woman has been arrested just days before the statute of limitations on her case ran out after turning up at a police station for permission to open a sex shop while unaware she was on a wanted list. The woman,...

Fake bills appear in Wakayama vending machines.
November 27, 2001... WAKAYAMA -- Over 50 fake 1,000 yen bills have been found in vending machines in the Wakayama Prefecture cities of Wakayama and Hashimoto since Nov. 15, police disclosed Thursday. Police said the 52 fake bills could easily be recognized as...

Saitama schoolboy muggers snared.
November 27, 2001... YOSHIKAWA, Saitama -- Two schoolboys were arrested and a third taken into protective custody after they waylaid, bashed and robbed a man here Wednesday, police said Thursday. Arrested for robbery resulting in injury were two 14-year-old...

Youth predict gloomy outlook for Japan's future.
November 27, 2001... More of the nation's youth believe that Japan's future is going to worsen than think it will improve, a survey released Thursday by the Cabinet Office has shown. And the greatest cited problem for the younger generation in today's...

Gov't slashes visas handed out to Afghans.
November 27, 2001... The number of visas the government has issued to Afghans has dived this year to just 2 percent of 1999 levels, the House of Councillor's Judicial Affairs Committee has revealed. In the first 10 months of this year, immigration authorities...

Failed student demands 13 mil. yen from university.
November 27, 2001... OSAKA -- A student here has demanded 13 million yen compensation from an Osaka university, claiming the university raised false hopes that he had been accepted into the institution under a sports recommendation program. The 20-year-old...

Gov't backtracks on fighting Creutzfeldt-Jakob patients.
November 27, 2001... After years of battling in courts to avoid compensating Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients, the government said Thursday it will seek to reach a settlement with plaintiffs. Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi was forced to act after...

Hokkaido organization produced infected cow's feed.
November 27, 2001... SAPPORO -- Possibly infected feed given to a cow diagnosed this week as having mad cow disease came from the Hokkaido agricultural organization Hokuren, it has been learned. An executive of a local agricultural association said Thursday...

Train slams into toddler as father watches in vain.
November 27, 2001... MATSUYAMA -- A 2-year-old boy was killed Thursday morning after an express train slammed into the car he was in as his father tried vainly to find an emergency stop button, police said. Ryoto Miyoshi was killed after the JR Yosan Line...

Guilty docs escape penalties after time limit elapses.
November 27, 2001... A government medical panel has decided not to punish a dozen doctors criminally convicted of blunders because it's "too late" to subject them to administrative penalties, the Mainichi has learned. Following Mainichi reports in June last...

Mass arrests break up lock-picking ring.
November 27, 2001... A lock-picking band of burglars who have netted over 30 billion yen in 400 heists throughout 11 prefectures has effectively been broken up after the arrest of 20 of its members, police said Thursday. About 10 people suspected of...

Taisei Fire & Marine collapses under U.S. terror claims.
November 27, 2001... Midsize insurer Taisei Fire & Marine Insurance Co. was Thursday granted court protection from creditors after crumbling under 74.4 billion yen in claims relating to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, government officials...

Cops nab 26 in Shinjuku sex-shop raids.
November 27, 2001... Tokyo police raided sex shops, nightclubs and a disco in the nation's largest entertainment district of Tokyo's Shinjuku and arrested 26 managers and employees for unauthorized business, officials said Friday. The 26 under arrest are...

Balancing work and home responsibilities.
November 27, 2001... In spite of all the clamor made over efforts to help working people carry out their child-raising, nursing-care and other household responsibilities, most working folks continue to struggle to balance all of the demands on their time. ...

Freshman fee cut riles university students.
November 27, 2001... FUKUOKA -- Students of a private Fukuoka Prefecture university are up in arms after its administrators slashed tuition fees for freshers starting from next April by a staggering 47 percent. Officials of Daiichi University College of...

Insurance boss busted for swindling old woman.
November 27, 2001... NAGOYA -- A former insurance company branch chief who swindled millions of yen from an elderly woman by promising her huge gains on a phony policy was arrested Thursday, police said. Mitsuhiro Kawahara, 47, was arrested for allegedly...

2 die in head-on collision in Chiba.
November 27, 2001... KASHIWA, Chiba -- Two people were killed and two others were seriously injured early Sunday after a car slammed head-on into an oncoming vehicle trying to overtake a truck, police said. Company employee Hideto Horikoshi, 21, and his...

Kanagawa lawman suspended over pickle-container assault.
November 27, 2001... YOKOHAMA -- A riot police officer arrested last month for flinging a pickle container at a waitress during a drunken Tokyo rampage was suspended from duty Thursday, Kanagawa police said. The shamed officer, Tadamasa Aoki, was let off from...

10,000 workers to go as Mizuho whets job ax.
November 27, 2001... Banking superpower Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG) plans to ax some 10,000 workers, as its three main entities are expected to show a 600 billion yen combined deficit at the end of the current financial year. Sources said the decision to...

Leaking gas sickens Osaka school.
November 27, 2001... OSAKA -- Thirty-two Osaka elementary school pupils were hospitalized Thursday after they apparently inhaled poisonous gas leaked from a neighboring factory, police said. The conditions of sickened students of the Shijonawate Minami...

Tracing the source of mad cow disease.
November 27, 2001... The government said Wednesday that it had discovered a second case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), in Hokkaido. The alarming news will surely make consumers even more reluctant to consume meat. Widely held...

Gov't orders extermination of all mad cow suspects.
November 27, 2001... Over 5,000 cattle that have been fed with a feed suspected of carrying mad cow disease will be put down, the government decided Thursday. Agriculture Ministry officials said it is likely that veterinary associations throughout Japan's 47...

Poisoning 'smear' case chucked out of court.
November 27, 2001... A Tokyo court has recognized that a former teacher had poisoned his illicit lover in 1998, rejecting his claim that prosecutors wrongly labeled him as a criminal in public. "The former teacher's admission of guilt during an early stage...

Middle-aged man beats infant comatose with hammer.
November 27, 2001... UTSUNOMIYA -- An unemployed man was arrested Thursday for viciously bashing his girlfriend's 18-month-old son with a hammer, police said. The infant was taken to hospital and remains in a coma. Although the man, Yoshihisa Nakagome,...

Bureaucrats bust ban on tour Tokyo campaign.
November 27, 2001... Tokyo officials, breaking a taboo on governmental efforts to advertise the capital as a tourist spot, have decided to promote the sprawling metropolis to travelers from around the world. The decision to launch a promotion campaign was...

Keep the reform momentum going.
November 27, 2001... The leaders of the three ruling coalition parties have agreed to endorse Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to dismantle or privatize seven government-affiliated corporations. The reform of such institutions -- seen as the centerpiece of...

Lock-picking crimes return to haunt Tokyo.
November 27, 2001... The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is stepping up its fight against lock pickers following an increase in break-ins in Tokyo in the latter part of this year. Police data shows that from August, the number of lock-picking crimes in...

Police suspect arson in Shinjuku fires.
November 27, 2001... An arsonist was probably responsible for three fires that broke out in the Kabukicho entertainment district of Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku early Saturday, police said. All the fires, which broke out within a two-hour period, were quickly...

Blockade breaker causes Narita havoc over lack of license.
November 27, 2001... NARITA -- A Niigata Prefecture man threw already nervous guards at Narita Airport into disarray by bursting through a security checkpoint and leading them on a wild chase until he was captured 15 minutes later, police said. With airport...

13-year-old dies in police motorcycle chase.
November 27, 2001... NIIHAMA, Ehime -- A junior high school girl died and another suffered light injuries after a motorcycle they were riding crashed into a wall during a police chase here Friday afternoon, police said Saturday. The local police chief...

Banks to write off trillions more than expected.
November 27, 2001... Japan's top 14 commercial banks intend to write off a combined 6.5 trillion yen in bad loans this fiscal year as financial authorities are poised to conduct special inspections on their financial situation, industry sources said. The...

Train plows into drunken driver on tracks.
November 27, 2001... SENDAI -- A rapid service train smashed into a vehicle here Friday morning after a drunken driver mistook the railway tracks for a street and drove onto them and then fell asleep, police said. No one was hurt in the 8 a.m. collision,...

Man buried alive in landslide.
November 27, 2001... OTSUKI, Yamanashi -- A man trapped beneath a landslide Saturday morning has been confirmed dead, police said Sunday. Mitsuo Yamamuro, 59, a construction company employee, was unearthed from the debris that built up when part of a cliff...

Earthquake jolts Okinawa islands.
November 27, 2001... An earthquake registering 3 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale jolted Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture shortly before noon Saturday, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediately reports of casualties or damage to...

Anthrax ruled out in package sent to Gunma housewife.
November 27, 2001... MAEBASHI -- White powder found in a package sent from New York to a Gunma Prefecture housewife was not anthrax, prefectural government researchers said. Scientists conducted tests on the powder and the woman's mucous membranes, but...

Kimono-dealer killer details 2nd murder.
November 27, 2001... KORIYAMA, Fukushima -- A suspect arrested for abandoning a 63-year-old kimono dealer's body has admitted to killing an old woman to claim an insurance payout, police said Saturday. Law enforcers claimed that 63-year-old milkman Morio...

USJ attendance tops 8 million mark.
November 27, 2001... Over 8 million people have passed through the turnstiles at Universal Studios Japan (USJ), exceeding in eight months the number of visitors forecast for the park's first year, its operator said. If the current pace continues, the number...

Local chapters revolt against Japan's biggest union.
November 27, 2001... Nine prefectural chapters of the nation's biggest union have rebelled and refused to pay union fees, citing a slush fund and tax evasion scandal that has swamped the organization, a Mainichi survey has found. The amount of fees withheld...

Station saves day for those with toilet troubles.
November 27, 2001... YOKOHAMA -- A revolutionary new toilet equipped with facilities to clean catheter bags has opened at the Shin-Yokohama subway station, Yokohama Municipal Government operators said Sunday. It's the first toilet of its type on a train...

Train-crash driver released from prosecutors.
November 27, 2001... FUKUI -- A driver at Keifuku Electric Railroad Co. who was arrested last week over a head-on train collision in Fukui Prefecture in June has been released, police said Saturday. The Fukui District Court withdrew its permission to...

Thieving care worker nailed.
November 27, 2001... A suburban Tokyo woman has been arrested after stealing the bank passbook and seal from a co-worker at the senior citizens' home where they worked, police said Sunday. Noriko Ino, 40, was arrested for theft after she allegedly used the...

Powdered-milk link discovered in mad-cow cases.
November 27, 2001... SAPPORO -- Japan's second mad-cow disease afflicted beast was given the same powdered milk as the first infected cow, the prefectural government said Saturday. Hokkaido officials said they would investigate the milk's producer, Tokyo...

Unlicensed driver kills 2, hurts 5.
November 27, 2001... MUTSU, Aomori -- An unlicensed driver caused a crash here late Saturday that left two dead and five other people seriously injured, police said Sunday. Killed in the crash were 17-year-old Izumi Hatanaka and Shigeo Yamazaki, a...

Mizuho CEOs to resign over huge deficit.
November 27, 2001... Three chief executive officers of Mizuho Holdings Inc. will resign in April 2002 to take the blame for the huge deficit the world's largest banking group is expected to suffer at the end of the current fiscal year, sources said Saturday. ...

1 dies, 4 hurt in expressway pile-up.
November 27, 2001... HIROSHIMA -- A man died and four others were injured in a pileup involving five cars on an expressway in Hiroshima Prefecture late Saturday night, police said Sunday. At around 11:30 p.m., a car crashed into the rear of another car that...

Gov't plans damages limit for company bigwigs.
November 27, 2001... Upper limits should be set on damages corporate executives have to pay in civil suits for their company's misdeeds because the exorbitant sums they now often have to fork over are unrealistic, politicians have said. The Liberal...

Firebomb suspected in Kyoto police box blaze.
November 27, 2001... KYOTO -- A firebomb is being blamed for a blaze that broke out in the lounge of a Kyoto police box early Sunday, police said. The arsonist who struck the police box appears to have thrown a firebomb through a window and into the lounge,...