Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri articles from November 1999

Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri archives from November 1999

Yen's advance may hinder recovery.
November 29, 1999... Due to the rise in Japanese stock prices and a number of other factors, the yen rose sharply in New York on Friday to reach 101.25 yen to the dollar. There has been renewed concern that the yen's appreciation may have a grave influence...

Hashimoto wins 3rd term in Kochi.
November 29, 1999... KOCHI Daijiro Hashimoto was elected to a third consecutive term as governor of Kochi Prefecture on Sunday. Hashimoto received 274,670 votes, while Takao Tokorodani, president of the Kochi Prefectural Central Union of Agricultural...

Asian leaders seek greater cooperation.
November 29, 1999... Kiyohisa Yoshida Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent MANILA The leaders of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan, China and South Korea agreed to strengthen regional cooperative ties in several fields,...

Shady loans found to total 28.8 bil. yen.
November 29, 1999... Kokumin Bank, a collapsed second-tier regional bank, extended questionable loans totaling about 28.8 billion yen, most of which became irrecoverable, to a karaoke parlor operator and other companies, administrators appointed by the Financial...

Isomura elected to 2nd term as Osaka mayor.
November 29, 1999... OSAKA Takafumi Isomura was elected to a second term as Osaka mayor on Sunday, defeating main rival Kenji Inoue, an independent backed by the Japanese Communist Party. Voter turnout was just 33.55 percent, the second-lowest rate...

Nichiei debt collectors' phone calls said recorded.
November 29, 1999... Kyoto-based Nichiei Co., the nation's largest lender of unsecured loans to small businesses, tried to prevent complaints being brought against it by having its employees wear microphones when making phone calls to collect loans, it was...

Murder suspect said worried over daughter.
November 29, 1999... Mitsuko Yamada, the housewife arrested Thursday on suspicion of murdering 2-year-old Haruna Wakayama and abandoning her body, was apparently concerned that her own 2-old-year daughter may have been developing too slowly, it was learned...

Former Kokumin Bank execs face arrest.
November 29, 1999... Police plan to arrest a former president and several other former executives of the failed Kokumin Bank, a Tokyo-based second-tier regional bank, early this week on suspicion of extending 9.5 billion yen in unsecured loans to Kami Palace, a...

Concrete fall derails train in Hokkaido.
November 29, 1999... SAPPORO A freight train was derailed early Sunday in the Rebunhama Tunnel in the Rebunge district of Toyouracho, Hokkaido, after colliding with a 2-ton concrete block that had fallen from the tunnel ceiling onto the track, an official of...

Green dreams in print draw cash prizes.
November 29, 1999... U.S. graduate student Jon Bauer's essay "Don Quixote's Windmills" was awarded top prize in this year's Foreign Nationals Division of The Yomiuri Shimbun's annual essay contest, which was themed, "Save the Earth--What We Can Do Now." ...

Language learning: Throw yourself into it.
November 29, 1999... Atsushi Kodera Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer What is the fastest and best way to learn how to swim? Throw yourself into the deep end of the pool. You will probably catch on quicker than you had ever imagined. How do you learn a language?...

'A little bird told me' about a calendar.
November 29, 1999... Paul Murray Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer "A little bird told me" is an English expression that means "I know, but will not tell you how, or from whom, I learned it." It is also the title of a calendar designed to introduce the strange...

Insights into the world: State support fuels health obsession folly.
November 29, 1999... Masakazu Yamazaki A friend of mine once quipped: "Good health is a great treasure--I would gladly die for it." As the 20th century draws to a close, the cult of healthy living appears to be thriving throughout the advanced countries of...

Editorial: Trade talks should take place soon.
November 29, 1999... Venturing out into rough seas without a chart--that may be an appropriate metaphor to illustrate the third ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization, scheduled to start in Seattle from Tuesday. Representatives from 135...

Lefty Hoshino to opt for Tiger stripes.
November 29, 1999... Nobuyuki Hoshino is ready to join the Hanshin Tigers as a free agent, the lanky left-handed pitcher announced Sunday at a press conference in Osaka. "Working with manager (Katsuya) Nomura," Hoshino said, "will be a great learning...

National treasures to go on show.
November 29, 1999... The Yomiuri Shimbun, the Cultural Affairs Agency and the Tokyo National Museum will jointly hold an exhibition titled "National Treasures of Japan" in spring to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Cultural Properties...

Obuchi, Wahid agree to resume talks.
November 29, 1999... JAKARTA Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid agreed Saturday morning to start negotiations aimed at concluding a bilateral investment protection agreement to help increase investment in Indonesia, a...

21st century, Asia urged as 2000 summit themes.
November 29, 1999... Kiyohisa Yoshida Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent JAKARTA Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has instructed the Foreign Ministry and other organizers of the summit of the Group of Eight major nations to be held in Okinawa Prefecture next year...

Tokyo-Mitsubishi to repay 100 bil. yen in public funds to stay independent.
November 29, 1999... The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is likely to repay 100 billion yen in public funds it received in March last year before the end of fiscal 1999 in accordance with the government's bank recapitalization program, it was learned Saturday. The...

Survey: 80% support death penalty.
November 29, 1999... A survey has revealed that almost 80 percent of people nationwide support the death penalty--a record level of approval compared to six similar polls conducted since 1956, government officials said Saturday. An all-time low 8.8 percent of...

ASEAN, other Asian leaders begin summit.
November 29, 1999... Kiyohisa Yoshida Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent MANILA A two-day summit attended by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, together with Japan, China and South Korea, opened Saturday, with participating countries...

Wind turbines start turning at eco-friendly power plant.
November 29, 1999... SAPPORO Tomen Corp. on Saturday began operations at its new power plant using computer-controlled wind turbines to generate electrical power in Tomamaecho, Hokkaido. The 100-hectare site has 20 wind turbines with a combined...

Ex-Kobe Steel chairman questioned over payoffs.
November 29, 1999... OSAKA Osaka prefectural police questioned a former chairman of Kobe Steel Ltd. who was implicated in statements made by a sokaiya corporate racketeer about a 30 million yen payoff case that surfaced earlier this month, sources said...

Hyogo police said involved in hit and run.
November 29, 1999... KOBE A police car driven by two officers in a Hyogo prefectural police patrol unit allegedly hit a minibike early Friday, badly injuring two teenagers, and sped away to chase after other speeding minibikers in Nagata Ward, Kobe, The...

Chiba gov. appeals to Narita protesters.
November 29, 1999... NARITA Chiba Chiba Gov. Takeshi Numata on Saturday visited seven farming families in the Toho district of Narita, Chiba Prefecture, who are opposed to the construction of a second runway at Narita airport, to urge them to break the...

Welfare beneficiaries tipped to reach 1 mil.
November 29, 1999... The number of people receiving basic financial support from the government has rapidly increased due to the economic recession and other factors, reaching about 990,000 as of the end of July, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Saturday. The...

New Nichiei pay system stresses increasing loans.
November 29, 1999... OSAKA Kyoto-based Nichiei Co., the country's largest lender of unsecured loans to small businesses, introduced a new salary structure in September under which its employees are encouraged to pressure clients to extend their loan...

JCO employee's condition worsens.
November 29, 1999... Hisashi Ouchi, the JCO Co. employee who suffered the greatest exposure to radiation during the criticality accident that occurred at the company's nuclear reconversion plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sept. 30, is now in critical...

Editorial: Payoff scheme should be delayed.
November 29, 1999... The Financial System Council has reached a crucial phase in its study of the effects of the implementation of the currently frozen banking payoff system, in which deposits of up to 10 million yen would be guaranteed in the event of a banking...

'Flowers for Algernon' author reveals secrets of his success.
November 29, 1999... Isabel Reynolds Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer International Book Day on April 23 saw the publication of the results of a survey in which more than 24,000 Japanese people were asked to name the most memorable book they had ever read....

Injured Cole missing from United's Toyota Cup campaign.
November 29, 1999... Manchester United will have to try and win the Toyota Cup on Tuesday night without the goalscoring skills of England international Andy Cole. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson brought an 18-strong squad to Tokyo on Saturday but Cole was...

Black Saturday at Urawa as Reds fall Fans left with tears for souvenirs.
November 29, 1999... Urawa Reds, Japan's best-supported club and one of the wealthiest in the J.League, dropped into J2 on Saturday on an emotional final day of the season's second stage. Reds, playing in front of another full house at Komaba Stadium, needed...

Project aims to save rainwater, money.
November 23, 1999... Kakuya Ishida Many local governments have come to the conclusion that urban areas rely excessively on large-scale dams in the distant upper reaches of rivers for their water resources. They have therefore been trying to make effective...

Net set to dominate music distribution.
November 23, 1999... Tamaki Aikyo Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Music distribution via the Internet in Japan is set to expand drastically between the end of the year and spring. Some start-up companies have already begun paid distribution, and Sony Music...

Web-enabling a toaster... or a soda bottle.
November 23, 1999... John Jerney Special to The Daily Yomiuri PC3 When we think of the Web, we usually think of high-powered and often large computers serving out Web pages to potentially millions of other computers located all around the world. And as...

Dragons' Sun sets.
November 23, 1999... South Korean pitcher Sun Dong Yol of the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons announced his retirement at a Nagoya hotel Monday after a season in which he managed 28 saves despite struggling with a leg injury. Sun, who felt that pain...

'Genji' scroll re-created in original hues.
November 23, 1999... The latest digital technology has been used to reproduce the original vivid colors of "Genji Monogatari Emaki," a picture scroll depicting 20 scenes from the novel "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu. Part of the scroll, which was...

Obuchi unlikely to call early general elections.
November 23, 1999... Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Saturday came close to ruling out dissolving the House of Representatives for general elections in December or early next year, sources said. The prime minister's tentative decision reflects his wishes to...

Government to draft food-supply crisis plan.
November 23, 1999... The government plans to create a food crisis management system that would be activated in the event of an emergency, such as a sudden decrease in food imports, which account for about 60 percent of the nation's calorie intake. Sixteen...

2 more officers quizzed in drug possession case.
November 23, 1999... KYOTO A Kyoto prefectural police special investigation squad has discovered that two serving prefectural police officers were involved in a case in which two former police officers were indicted on charges of illegally possessing...

City tells firms to install trash disposal units in condos.
November 23, 1999... The Musashino municipal government in western Tokyo is to instruct private condominium developers to equip new buildings with garbage disposal units, The Yomiuri Shim-bun learned Saturday. The decision is aimed at not only decreasing the...

Inaugural issue of magazine for wheelchair users due out.
November 23, 1999... The inaugural issue of a quarterly magazine for people in wheelchairs is set to go on sale Sunday. "Wawawa" magazine, whose entire staff is made up of disabled people, has an article on how to go sightseeing in Yokohama in wheelchairs....

Ex-senior officer held over abuse of authority.
November 23, 1999... NARA A former Nara prefectural assistant police inspector was arrested Saturday on suspicion of abusing his position by obtaining personal data on cellular telephone users and passing the information to an acquaintance, police said. ...

Govt may alter 500 yen coins to foil vending scam.
November 23, 1999... The Finance Ministry has begun considering changing the alloy used to make 500 yen coins following repeated discoveries of modified South Korean 500 won coins and others in vending machines around the nation, ministry officials said. The...

Emerging nations need steady flow of funds.
November 23, 1999... Haruhiko Kuroda Special to The Yomiuri Shimbun This is the second installment of a three-part series on "third way" reform of the international financial system. Though the Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed on reforms of...

Editorial: USSR's death changed Japan's politics.
November 23, 1999... It is said nowadays that the younger generation in Japan cannot believe that there was once a time when many Japanese viewed the principles of socialism and communism positively. This social phenomenon indicates the rapid changes since...

A balanced appraisal of Japan's environmental policies.
November 23, 1999... The idea that Japan was responsible for a pollution miracle would, at first sight, seem laughable given its deserved reputation as one of the world's consummate wreakers of environmental havoc, both at home and abroad. However, in his...

JEF suffers setback: Bid to stay in top tier fades with loss to Vissel.
November 23, 1999... Jeremy Walker Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter ICHIHARA Chiba JEF United Ichihara, a founder member of the J.League in 1993, skidded toward J2 on Saturday after losing 1-0 at home to Vissel Kobe. It was JEF's second such setback in...

Blackhawk ready for miracle mile.
November 23, 1999... Black Hawk, with leading jockey Yutaka Take in the irons, will go for his first Grade-1 race victory on Sunday in the 16th Mile Championship at Kyoto racecourse. It is the first time for Take to ride the five-year-old horse, who has won...

Jottings: Nov. 22 issue.
November 23, 1999... The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column of The Yomiuri Shimbun's Nov. 22 issue. For salaried workers, the most favorable tax break available is for taxes imposed on their retirement allowances. For a wage earner who...

Archives cut due to internal LDP opposition.
November 23, 1999... Liberal Democratic Party opposition has led the government to reduce the volume of historical documents to be collected by the Asian Historical Materials Center, which is scheduled to open in April 2001, political observers said Monday. ...

Ex-Yamaichi Securities staff meet mixed fortunes.
November 23, 1999... Two years have passed since Yamaichi Securities Co. announced it was voluntarily closing after 100 years in business. Yamaichi officially went bankrupt in June, and filed for court protection from creditors. The company, once one of...

Father, daughter publish book on elephants.
November 23, 1999... A father and daughter, both avid photographers and both obsessed with wild animals in Africa, have just published a book of photographs on African elephants at their own expense. To mark the release of the book they are displaying their...

Regional finance right direction for Asia.
November 23, 1999... Haruhiko Kuroda Special to The Yomiuri Shimbun During the process of reforming the international financial system it has become clear that the free-market economic system, once touted as a cure-all, does not always run like a well-oiled...

Editorial: Okinawa governor's decision hailed.
November 23, 1999... Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine has chosen the coastal area of the Henoko district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, which is located near the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, as the new site for the heliport functions of the U.S. Futenma Air Station,...

Matters of Opinion: Controversy marks squad's big battles.
November 23, 1999... Yumiko Miyai Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer In the fight to expose corruption in politics and illegal financial dealings, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office only has at its disposal about 30 prosecutors, a number of assistant...

Matters of Opinion: Ex-prosecutor explains creaks in wheels of justice.
November 23, 1999... Yumiko Miyai Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer Since its inception five decades ago, the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has exposed cases of the worst corruption involving prime ministers, Diet...

Assembly Line: Long-popular Boston bag's sales decline.
November 23, 1999... AP1 A Boston bag is a bag with a rectangular bottom, roomy body and two handles on top. The name is believed to have been derived from its former popularity among students of Boston University, located in the city with an active...

Customers benefit as banks, post offices integrate services.
November 23, 1999... Akiyoshi Yamane Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Tie-ups between private financial institutions and post offices are on the increase. People with cash cards issued by the postal service or private banking institutions can now use them at each...

Killer microbes linked to fish kills in U.S.
November 23, 1999... Yutaka Ishiguro Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer RALEIGH, N.C.--Scientists in the United States have detected a disturbing explosive proliferation of "killer plankton" on the bottoms of estuaries along the Atlantic coast. The microorganism is...

ASDF sends 1st team to W. Timor.
November 23, 1999... An advance team of the Air Self-Defense Force left for West Timor, Indonesia, on Monday morning as part of a humanitarian mission for refugees from East Timor. The 11-member team, led by Lt. Col. Atsushi Nishino, left Narita airport...

Saga police hid punishment of 20 officers over bribes.
November 23, 1999... SAGA Saga Prefectural Police Headquarters did not make public the fact that 20 officers were punished for dubious links with companies and were not indicted in connection with the ties, it was learned Monday. A 50-year-old former...

ASDF plane crashes, killing 2.
November 23, 1999... An Air Self-Defense Force training aircraft crashed Monday afternoon around 1:40 p.m. into a riverbed in Kashiwabara of Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, killing two ASDF officers on board. Police said the jet severed power lines as it crashed,...

Wood inscription from year 648 found.
November 23, 1999... OSAKA A strip of wood that is believed to be the oldest in the country to bear an inscription designating a particular year has been unearthed during excavation work on the first stage of the Naniwanomiya Ruins in Chuo Ward, Osaka, it...

Nago officially named as Futenma relocation site.
November 23, 1999... NAHA Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine on Monday announced that the city of Nago in the prefecture had been selected officially by the prefectural government as the relocation site for the heliport functions of U.S. Futenma Air Station. ...

Ministries get tough on imports of monkeys.
November 23, 1999... In a bid to prevent fatal diseases carried by monkeys from entering the country, the Health and Welfare Ministry and the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry announced Monday that from January they will implement new safeguards. The...

Nichiei issued threats to clients, letter says.
November 23, 1999... KYOTO A 59-year-old man who guaranteed loans from Kyoto-based Nichiei Co. for his brother, whose company filed for bankruptcy after receiving the loans, submitted a letter of complaint to police Monday, claiming he had received telephone...

Former officer used false name in scam.
November 23, 1999... NARA A former assistant inspector with the Nara prefectural police, who was arrested Saturday on suspicion of passing confidential data about cellular phone users to an acquaintance, allegedly used a colleague's name when requesting the...

Japan, France ink working-holiday pact.
November 23, 1999... A working-holiday visa program between Japan and France will begin Dec. 1, enabling youths aged between 18 and 30 to work in each other's countries for up to a year without the need to apply for a work visa. The two governments are...

Papers filed over cop hit-and-run cover-up.
November 23, 1999... YOKOHAMA The Kanagaawa prefectural police sent papers to prosecutors Monday on former Kanagawa Assistant Police Inspector Shigeo Shibata, 53, on suspicion that he forged a public document. Shibata is suspected of falsifying a report...

Govt plans to deregulate ATM use.
November 23, 1999... The Finance Ministry and the Financial Supervisory Agency plan to allow each category of financial institution to use automatic teller machines (ATMs) run by other categories of financial businesses to provide services to customers, agency...

China not expected to attend.
November 23, 1999... BEIJING Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao has indicated that China would not take part as an observer at the Okinawa Group of Eight summit next July because leaders of the G-8 nations had not reached a consensus on Beijing's...

Poll: Support rate falls for Obuchi Cabinet.
November 23, 1999... The public support rate for Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's Cabinet plunged to 46.5 percent, a slip of 5.2 percentage points from last month and below the 50-percent level for the first time in five months, according to a nationwide Yomiuri...

Kanagawa cops kept 'manual' to hide scandals.
November 23, 1999... YOKOHAMA The Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters had an internal document that could only be described as an "instruction manual" for the concealment of scandal involving police officers, it was learned Tuesday. The B-5 size,...

Govt to deregulate weather forecasts by 2001.
November 23, 1999... The Meteorological Council, an advisory panel to the director general of the Meteorological Agency, will deregulate weather forecasts made by private meteorological services with regard to the areas and time periods covered, according to the...

Natl health insurance 102 billion yen in the red.
November 23, 1999... The national health insurance system, which covers self-employed workers such as business owners and farmers, had a deficit of 102 billion yen in fiscal 1998, the Health and Welfare Ministry said. In a preliminary report released Monday,...

ASDF pilots may have tried to avoid hitting built-up area.
November 23, 1999... Lt. Col. Hirofumi Nakagawa and Maj. Yoshihiro Kadoya, who died in Monday's crash of an Air Self-Defense Force training aircraft in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, may have waited too long to bail out of their aircraft safely because they were...

Govt to spend 4.5 tril. yen to cut air pollution.
November 23, 1999... The Construction Ministry plans to spend 4.5 trillion yen by 2020 to reduce air pollution at 125 locations along national routes, where vehicle exhaust contaminants now exceed allowable limits, officials said Monday. To ease traffic...

Alondra Rainbow almost scuppered.
November 23, 1999... MUMBAI Damage from a blaze set by pirates and from seawater that entered through its damaged hull have left the hijacked Alondra Rainbow freighter in almost scrap condition, it was learned Tuesday. The ship, hijacked Oct. 22 and...

Panel agrees on steps linked to deposit guarantee system.
November 23, 1999... The Financial System Council, an advisory panel to the finance minister, essentially reached an agreement Monday on additional measures related to the investor deposit guarantee scheme, which April 2001 will be limited to 10 million yen per...

Tokyo primary school adds kabuki poses to curriculum.
November 23, 1999... Hiroshi Sugiyama Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Ahead of the formal launching by the Education Ministry of a comprehensive study program for primary and middle school students in the 2002 school year, students in an experimental class at...

Patients want more details from doctors on gene testing.
November 23, 1999... Gene testing, which helps doctors determine whether a person has a hereditary disease or is likely to become a victim of an incurable disease, has become a growing source of concern to patients who receive inadequate explanations from their...

Lawmakers in dark about timing of Diet dissolution.
November 23, 1999... Masayuki Mizuno Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Staff Writer Many signs seem to point to the dissolution of the current Diet session, and some candidates have already put up posters in anticipation of a general election either this year or early...

Political PULSE: Question time to show what leaders are really made of.
November 23, 1999... Yoshimichi Hironaka Yomiuri Shimbun Political News Editor A vocational school instructor in his 60s sent a letter to the Kiryu letters-to-the-editor section of The Yomiuri Shimbun. It was carried in the Nov. 7 issue as part of the...