Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri articles from February 2000

Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri archives from February 2000

Unemployment rate in Jan. remains at 4.7%//The Daily Yomiu.
February 29, 2000... Unemployment rate in Jan. remains at 4.7% Yomiuri The unemployment rate in January remained unchanged from the previous month at 4.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Management and Coordination Agency said Tuesday in a preliminary...

Top court backs right to refuse blood//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Top court backs right to refuse blood Yomiuri The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that surgeons violated a woman's right to self-determination when they gave her a blood transfusion during an operation, breaking their promise not to do so even if...

Lower house passes fiscal 2000 budget//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Lower house passes fiscal 2000 budget Yomiuri The 85 trillion yen fiscal 2000 budget--mainly targeting putting the economy on the right track for a full recovery--passed the House of Representatives by a majority vote from the ruling...

Bill to crack down on waste dumping//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Bill to crack down on waste dumping Yomiuri The Health and Welfare Ministry plans to submit to the current Diet session a bill to revise the Waste Disposal Law to clarify the responsibilities of waste producers and prefectural governments. In...

Deadly amoeba causes 1st fatality in Japan//The Daily Yomi.
February 29, 2000... Deadly amoeba causes 1st fatality in Japan Yomiuri KURUMEC Fukuoka The death of a Saga woman in 1996 was caused by a killer amoeba called Naegleria fowleri, the first such fatality recorded in Japan, a Kurume University research team told The...

Tax-evasion rap filed against firm, clients//The Daily Yom.
February 29, 2000... Tax-evasion rap filed against firm, clients Yomiuri The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau filed criminal complaints at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Tuesday against former managers of a tax consulting company and its clients on...

ASEAN urges Japanese to invest in Southeast Asia//The Dail.
February 29, 2000... ASEAN urges Japanese to invest in Southeast Asia Yomiuri The Association of Southeast Asian Nations held its first joint investment seminar in Japan on Monday, urging Japanese investors to take advantage of the region's economic recovery and...

Nakada escapes rap for dereliction of duty//The Daily Yomi.
February 29, 2000... Nakada escapes rap for dereliction of duty Yomiuri The National Police Agency on Monday decided to stick to its original decision to not discipline Kanto Regional Police Bureau chief Yoshiaki Nakada even after he was discovered to have failed...

2 held over import, sale of fake cartoon figurines//The Da.
February 29, 2000... 2 held over import, sale of fake cartoon figurines Yomiuri OKAYAMA Two men were arrested Monday on suspicion of illegally importing and selling stone figurines modeled on characters from popular children's cartoons such as "Pokemon," police...

Minami Securities gets 3-month ban//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Minami Securities gets 3-month ban Yomiuri The Finance Ministry on Monday ordered Minami Securities Co. to suspend operations for three months after the Maebashi-based firm disregarded a ministry order to halt the sale of questionable...

Education chief to visit S. Korea//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Education chief to visit S. Korea Yomiuri Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone will pay an official visit to South Korea in March, making him the first education minister to formally visit the country since the end of World War II, ministry...

Ignorance about welfare benefits leads to tragic death of.
February 29, 2000... Ignorance about welfare benefits leads to tragic death of child Yomiuri UTSUNOMIYA The recent death of a 2-year-old girl in Utsunomiya who was starving and fatally weakened by the cold may be seen as a tragedy arising from her mother's...

Police chief used official car to attend off-duty function.
February 29, 2000... Police chief used official car to attend off-duty function Yomiuri NIIGATA Investigations into the scandal involving Niigata prefectural police chief Koji Kobayashi and Kanto Regional Police Bureau head Yoshiaki Nakada have revealed that the...

Suit filed against Osaka immigration office over rejection.
February 29, 2000... Suit filed against Osaka immigration office over rejection of refugee-status application Yomiuri OSAKA Two men filed a suit Monday demanding that the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau rescind its decision to reject their refugee-status...

Jottings//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Jottings Yomiuri The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column of The Yomiuri Shimbun's Feb. 28 issue. * * * The U.N.-led transitional administration in East Timor, the region that has undergone scores of brutalities committed by...

Sky PerfecTV to rescue ailing DirecTV.
February 29, 2000... Communication satellite broadcasting operator DirecTV has entered the final stage of negotiations to integrate its operations with its rival Sky PerfecTV by transferring its subscribers to the largest digital communication service provider in...

Arabian Oil loses right to drill in Kafji field.
February 29, 2000... Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co.'s drilling rights in the Gulf expired at 6 a.m. Monday, company President Keiichi Konaga and International Trade and Industry Minister Takashi Fukaya announced. Fukaya said he deeply regretted that the firm's...

Court turns life sentence to death.
February 29, 2000... The Tokyo High Court on Monday sentenced a man to death for the murder of a woman for whom he had served a prison sentence for raping, overruling a lower court decision that imposed a life sentence. Takashi Mochida, 57, was given a life...

Ford, Mazda, Volvo to share chassis.
February 29, 2000... Ford Motor Co. of the United States, Mazda Motor Corp. of the Ford group and Swedish automaker AB Volvo have jointly mapped out a plan to fit their cars with a standardized chassis, industry sources said Monday. The action is expected to...

Nakada escapes rap for dereliction of duty.
February 29, 2000... The National Police Agency on Monday decided to stick to its original decision to not discipline Kanto Regional Police Bureau chief Yoshiaki Nakada even after he was discovered to have failed to conduct a special inspection of the Niigata...

2 held over import, sale of fake cartoon figurines.
February 29, 2000... OKAYAMA: Two men were arrested Monday on suspicion of illegally importing and selling stone figurines modeled on characters from popular children's cartoons such as "Pokemon," police said. Yoshiaki Hayashi, 40, a self-employed dealer in...

Minami Securities gets 3-month ban.
February 29, 2000... The Finance Ministry on Monday ordered Minami Securities Co. to suspend operations for three months after the Maebashi-based firm disregarded a ministry order to halt the sale of questionable corporate bonds. The order was issued by the...

Education chief to visit S. Korea.
February 29, 2000... Education Minister Hirofumi Nakasone will pay an official visit to South Korea in March, making him the first education minister to formally visit the country since the end of World War II, ministry sources said Monday. An official visit...

Ignorance about welfare benefits leads to tragic death of child.
February 29, 2000... UTSUNOMIYA: The recent death of a 2-year-old girl in Utsunomiya who was starving and fatally weakened by the cold may be seen as a tragedy arising from her mother's ignorance about her own right to receive social welfare benefits. The...

Suit filed against Osaka immigration office over rejection of refugee-status application.
February 29, 2000... OSAKA: Two men filed a suit Monday demanding that the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau rescind its decision to reject their refugee-status applications. Afghan nationals Abdul Basir, 25, and Ghulam Hussain, 47, filed the suit with the...

Jottings.
February 29, 2000... The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column of The Yomiuri Shimbun's Feb. 28 issue. The U.N.-led transitional administration in East Timor, the region that has undergone scores of brutalities committed by those opposed to...

Minshuto crows over Miyagi by-election victory.
February 29, 2000... Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), the main opposition party, has picked up steam for the next House of Representatives election after the recent victory of its candidate in a Miyagi Prefecture by-election. As the Sunday victory of...

Editorial: Energy policy comes with a price.
February 29, 2000... Arabian Oil Co. on Monday lost a concession to drill for crude oil in Saudi Arabia. The oil company will continue to drill for oil in the field as it retains rights in Kuwait, but will be forced to drastically downsize its operations. The...

ASEAN urges Japanese to invest in Southeast Asia.
February 29, 2000... The Association of Southeast Asian Nations held its first joint investment seminar in Japan on Monday, urging Japanese investors to take advantage of the region's economic recovery and the increased purchasing power of its member countries....

Japan Telecom, BT sign tech pact.
February 29, 2000... Japan Telecom Co. and British Telecommunications PLC on Monday signed a technology cooperation agreement to enhance each other's capabilities in technical development and gain leadership in the global telecommunications service market. ...

Arabian Oil's survival hinges on tough choices.
February 29, 2000... The survival of Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co. is in danger in light of the expiration Monday morning of its drilling rights in the Saudi Arabian portion of Kafji oil field. The loss of the concession will cause the company to lose about half...

Big Bang: Fuji Bank president expects joint operation to work well.
February 29, 2000... This autumn, Fuji Bank, Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan will establish a joint holding enterprise, Mizuho Holdings Co., which will take them another step toward management integration. The group will emerge as the...

Assembly Line: Technology fails to rub out eraser sales.
February 29, 2000... Despite the popularity of photocopiers and fax machines and the increasing use of correction fluids and tapes in recent years, erasers remain an office and classroom necessity. The eraser was developed in 1770 by British chemist Joseph...

New technology speeds up tests for donated blood.
February 29, 2000... The Japanese Red Cross Society recently made the shocking revelation that between 1989 and 1999, blood donated by a total of about 450,000 people was screened out because it was infected with hepatitis C. Of the 450,000 donors, about...

Face to face with critters at the Inokashira Park zoo.
February 29, 2000... Park zoos are never as wild, open or exciting as the mountains. However, for beginner naturalists, zoos provide excellent opportunities to study local plants and animals. Even a little extra knowledge about the resident wildlife makes a trip...

Web sites boost origami as art.
February 29, 2000... Origami, once considered a simple Japanese traditional recreation of creating decorative objects such as flowers and animals from sheets of square paper, has now gained recognition in the realm of international art. Ever more refined and...

Minshuto crows over Miyagi by-election victory//The Daily.
February 29, 2000... Minshuto crows over Miyagi by-election victory Yomiuri Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), the main opposition party, has picked up steam for the next House of Representatives election after the recent victory of its candidate in a Miyagi...

Editorial / Energy policy comes with a price//The Daily Yo.
February 29, 2000... Editorial / Energy policy comes with a price Yomiuri Arabian Oil Co. on Monday lost a concession to drill for crude oil in Saudi Arabia. The oil company will continue to drill for oil in the field as it retains rights in Kuwait, but will be...

Japan Telecom, BT sign tech pact//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Japan Telecom, BT sign tech pact Yomiuri Japan Telecom Co. and British Telecommunications PLC on Monday signed a technology cooperation agreement to enhance each other's capabilities in technical development and gain leadership in the global...

Arabian Oil's survival hinges on tough choices//The Daily.
February 29, 2000... Arabian Oil's survival hinges on tough choices Hiroyuki Nakamura Yomiuri The survival of Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co. is in danger in light of the expiration Monday morning of its drilling rights in the Saudi Arabian portion of Kafji oil...

Big Bang: Fuji Bank president expects joint operation to w.
February 29, 2000... Big Bang: Fuji Bank president expects joint operation to work well Fumihiro Kitayama Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Yomiuri This autumn, Fuji Bank, Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan will establish a joint holding enterprise,...

Assembly Line: Technology fails to rub out eraser sales//T.
February 29, 2000... Assembly Line: Technology fails to rub out eraser sales Yomiuri Despite the popularity of photocopiers and fax machines and the increasing use of correction fluids and tapes in recent years, erasers remain an office and classroom necessity....

Face to face with critters at the Inokashira Park zoo//The.
February 29, 2000... Face to face with critters at the Inokashira Park zoo Kevin Short Yomiuri Park zoos are never as wild, open or exciting as the mountains. However, for beginner naturalists, zoos provide excellent opportunities to study local plants and...

New technology speeds up tests for donated blood//The Dail.
February 29, 2000... New technology speeds up tests for donated blood Jun Sugimori Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Yomiuri The Japanese Red Cross Society recently made the shocking revelation that between 1989 and 1999, blood donated by a total of about 450,000...

Web sites boost origami as art//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Web sites boost origami as art Yasuhiro Nakahara Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Yomiuri Origami, once considered a simple Japanese traditional recreation of creating decorative objects such as flowers and animals from sheets of square paper,...

Giants break camp with positions unfilled//The Daily Yomiu.
February 29, 2000... Giants break camp with positions unfilled Yomiuri The Yomiuri Giants went on a high-profile spending spree in the offseason to assemble a team they hope will break a three-year Central League pennant drought. As they prepare to return to...

Sky PerfecTV to rescue ailing DirecTV//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Sky PerfecTV to rescue ailing DirecTV Yomiuri Communication satellite broadcasting operator DirecTV has entered the final stage of negotiations to integrate its operations with its rival Sky PerfecTV by transferring its subscribers to the...

Arabian Oil loses right to drill in Kafji field//The Daily.
February 29, 2000... Arabian Oil loses right to drill in Kafji field Yomiuri Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co.'s drilling rights in the Gulf expired at 6 a.m. Monday, company President Keiichi Konaga and International Trade and Industry Minister Takashi Fukaya...

Court turns life sentence to death//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Court turns life sentence to death Yomiuri The Tokyo High Court on Monday sentenced a man to death for the murder of a woman for whom he had served a prison sentence for raping, overruling a lower court decision that imposed a life sentence....

Ford, Mazda, Volvo to share chassis//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 29, 2000... Ford, Mazda, Volvo to share chassis Yomiuri Ford Motor Co. of the United States, Mazda Motor Corp. of the Ford group and Swedish automaker AB Volvo have jointly mapped out a plan to fit their cars with a standardized chassis, industry sources...

Mitsubishi to go it alone in power sales venture.
February 28, 2000... Mitsubishi Corp. will independently fund its diversification into the electricity retail business with an affiliate, sources close to the major trading house has said. Diamond Power Co., which will be set up in mid-March with a capital...

Toyota, Uny group in e-trade tie-up talks.
February 28, 2000... Toyota Motor Corp. has opened negotiations with the Uny Co. group, which has Circle K and Sunkus convenience store chains under its umbrella, for an e-commerce tie-up, Toyota officials said Friday. Toyota and the Uny group are planning...

Arabian Oil concession close to expiry//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 28, 2000... Arabian Oil concession close to expiry Yomiuri The president of Arabian Oil Co. returned to Tokyo on Sunday night after eleventh-hour negotiations with Saudi Arabia over the extension of an oil concession in the Gulf appeared to have ended in...

Ombudsmen to inspect Tokyo disabled facilities//The Daily.
February 28, 2000... Ombudsmen to inspect Tokyo disabled facilities Yomiuri The Tokyo metropolitan government will dispatch ombudsmen to all its facilities for the mentally and physically disabled from April 1 to evaluate the operation of the facilities. The...

Short-term rates rise over fear of Y2K glitch//The Daily Y.
February 28, 2000... Short-term rates rise over fear of Y2K glitch Yomiuri Short-term interest rates are surging as financial institutions rush to secure reserve funds ahead of Tuesday, when it is feared the first leap year day of its kind in 400 years will cause...

Japan, China conclude bilateral fisheries treaty//The Dail.
February 28, 2000... Japan, China conclude bilateral fisheries treaty Hiroyuki Sugiyama Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent Yomiuri BEIJING Japan and China signed an agreement Sunday to make their new bilateral fisheries pact effective from June, settling differences...

Female murder suspect commits suicide//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 28, 2000... Female murder suspect commits suicide Yomiuri NAGOYA A 46-year-old woman, sought by police in connection with the fatal shooting of Yuko Sasaki, a teacher at a vocational school in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, was found dead Saturday in a car...

Poll: Most Net users shop online//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 28, 2000... Poll: Most Net users shop online Yomiuri As the number of Internet users grows, more than half have used online shopping services, a recent survey by an information and telecommunications research company revealed. According to the survey,...

Doctor calls for public ova, sperm banks//The Daily Yomiur.
February 28, 2000... Doctor calls for public ova, sperm banks Yomiuri SUWAC Nagano The head of a maternity clinic in Nagano Prefecture who has conducted in vitro fertilization (IVF) using ova donated to couples by other women on Saturday called for the...

Cops play mah-jongg as kidnap case breaks//The Daily Yomiu.
February 28, 2000... Cops play mah-jongg as kidnap case breaks Yomiuri The latest police scandal involving Niigata prefectural police chief Koji Kobayashi and Kanto Regional Police Bureau head Yoshiaki Nakada--who were to resign from their posts Tuesday for a...

Minshuto-backed candidate wins Miyagi Pref. by-election//T.
February 28, 2000... Minshuto-backed candidate wins Miyagi Pref. by-election Yomiuri SENDAI Masamitsu Oishi, backed by opposition party Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), won a House of Representatives by-election in Miyagi Prefecture Sunday, defeating three...

The View From Monday / Doubt cast on lead-up to Pearl Harb.
February 28, 2000... The View From Monday / Doubt cast on lead-up to Pearl Harbor attack Naoki Inose Special to The Daily Yomiuri Yomiuri While searching for books on Amazon.com's online bookstore, I came across one in which the author claims that the surprise...

Beleaguered SDP looks for winning poll formula//The Daily.
February 28, 2000... Beleaguered SDP looks for winning poll formula Yomiuri Although the Social Democratic Party set an ambitious goal of sharply increasing the number of seats it has in the House of Representatives during a party conference Saturday, the...

INSIGHTS INTO THE WORLD / Will Syria put its name to a pea.
February 28, 2000... INSIGHTS INTO THE WORLD / Will Syria put its name to a peace deal? Mohamed H. Heikal Yomiuri Two Arab signatures are essential to any overall accord that is to resolve the Middle East crisis: Egypt's and Syria's. In 1978, then President Anwar...

Editorial / Police need root and branch reform//The Daily.
February 28, 2000... Editorial / Police need root and branch reform Yomiuri Niigata prefectural police chief Koji Kobayashi was disciplined and effectively dismissed on Saturday. The news leads us to believe that soul-searching efforts on the part of police since...

Free study time a hit with children, parents//The Daily Yo.
February 28, 2000... Free study time a hit with children, parents Asami Nagai Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer Yomiuri KYOTO The Ryogaoka Primary School grounds were in a state of total chaos. As two girls inspected the school's hares in the animal enclosure, two boys...

Carp deal blow to Ono's hopes for rotation spot//The Daily.
February 28, 2000... Carp deal blow to Ono's hopes for rotation spot Yomiuri Trying to earn a place on a mound staff as stacked as the Yomiuri Giants, Hisashi Ono did himself no favors Sunday. Ono was battered for six earned runs in three innings by the Hiroshima...

Kobe Steelers prove their mettle//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 28, 2000... Kobe Steelers prove their mettle Yomiuri Lock Blair Larsen and winger Daisuke Ohata scored two of Kobe Steel's four first-half tries to lead the Shakaijin-champion Steelers in a 49-20 trouncing of Toyota Motor in the final of the 37th...

O'Malley takes swing at teaching Japan's future stars//The.
February 28, 2000... O'Malley takes swing at teaching Japan's future stars Ken Marantz Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter Yomiuri More than a few among the boys and girls gathered around Tom O'Malley were too young to remember the American when he was starring for the...

Kenyans rule in Yokohama//The Daily Yomiuri</copyright>.
February 28, 2000... Kenyans rule in Yokohama Jim Allen Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter Yomiuri YOKOHAMA From the time her team landed at Narita Airport, Kenyan coach Sarah Walunbengo has been telling people that Kenya would end Japan's five-year stranglehold on the...

Ombudsmen to inspect Tokyo disabled facilities.
February 28, 2000... The Tokyo metropolitan government will dispatch ombudsmen to all its facilities for the mentally and physically disabled from April 1 to evaluate the operation of the facilities. The ombudsman system was introduced in the wake of reports...

Arabian Oil concession close to expiry.
February 28, 2000... The president of Arabian Oil Co. returned to Tokyo on Sunday night after eleventh-hour negotiations with Saudi Arabia over the extension of an oil concession in the Gulf appeared to have ended in failure. With no agreement reached, the...

Japan, China conclude bilateral fisheries treaty.
February 28, 2000... BEIJING: Japan and China signed an agreement Sunday to make their new bilateral fisheries pact effective from June, settling differences over zoning in the East China Sea that have plagued the accord since it was signed in November 1997. ...

Short-term rates rise over fear of Y2K glitch.
February 28, 2000... Short-term interest rates are surging as financial institutions rush to secure reserve funds ahead of Tuesday, when it is feared the first leap year day of its kind in 400 years will cause computers to malfunction. Anticipating that...

Female murder suspect commits suicide.
February 28, 2000... NAGOYA: A 46-year-old woman, sought by police in connection with the fatal shooting of Yuko Sasaki, a teacher at a vocational school in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, was found dead Saturday in a car parked in Toyota in the prefecture, according to...

Poll: Most Net users shop online.
February 28, 2000... As the number of Internet users grows, more than half have used online shopping services, a recent survey by an information and telecommunications research company revealed. According to the survey, conducted by InfoCom Research Inc....

Doctor calls for public ova, sperm banks.
February 28, 2000... SUWA, Nagano: The head of a maternity clinic in Nagano Prefecture who has conducted in vitro fertilization (IVF) using ova donated to couples by other women on Saturday called for the establishment of public sperm and ova banks. At a...

Cops play mah-jongg as kidnap case breaks.
February 28, 2000... The latest police scandal involving Niigata prefectural police chief Koji Kobayashi and Kanto Regional Police Bureau head Yoshiaki Nakada--who were to resign from their posts Tuesday for a series of blunders in a case involving the nine-year...

Minshuto-backed candidate wins Miyagi Pref. by-election.
February 28, 2000... SENDAI: Masamitsu Oishi, backed by opposition party Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), won a House of Representatives by-election in Miyagi Prefecture Sunday, defeating three other candidates, including a Social Democratic Party candidate...

The View From Monday: Doubt cast on lead-up to Pearl Harbor attack.
February 28, 2000... While searching for books on Amazon.com's online bookstore, I came across one in which the author claims that the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941 was not a surprise at all, but a carefully orchestrated high-level effort by...

Poll: Hospitals ready for role in transplants.
February 28, 2000... Most hospitals nationwide authorized to remove organs from brain-dead donors for transplants are prepared for such an event, albeit with certain reservations, according to results of a survey by The Yomiuri Shimbun. Of the 371 hospitals...

Beleaguered SDP looks for winning poll formula.
February 28, 2000... Although the Social Democratic Party set an ambitious goal of sharply increasing the number of seats it has in the House of Representatives during a party conference Saturday, the prospects of the party realizing that goal seem dim, owing to...

Editorial: Police need root and branch reform.
February 28, 2000... Niigata prefectural police chief Koji Kobayashi was disciplined and effectively dismissed on Saturday. The news leads us to believe that soul-searching efforts on the part of police since last year have merely been cosmetic. Drastic...

INSIGHTS INTO THE WORLD: Will Syria put its name to a peace deal?
February 28, 2000... Two Arab signatures are essential to any overall accord that is to resolve the Middle East crisis: Egypt's and Syria's. In 1978, then President Anwar Sadat put Egypt's signature to the Camp David treaty, effectively ending the possibility...