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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (2183)	2/16/1998 6:55:00 AM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Thomas, Bernie, All re: Malaysian economy CNBC had a correspondent on the news from Kuala Lumpur tonight who quoted some interesting figures. Apparently in the last six months between 12,000 and 15,000 jobs have been lost, primarily from the property, construction, and building materials sector. But over the next several months as much as 500,000 jobs are expected to be lost, including many factory workers. While this is going on food prices have risen as much as 20% in the last six months in spite of the tight controls Malaysia exercises on staples. Doesn't sound good. But it isn't Indonesia either. Best, Stitch

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (2183)	2/16/1998 9:06:00 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Two more of Japan's big banks were implicated Monday in a widening bribery scandal involving officials at the powerful Ministry of Finance (MOF). Tokyo prosecutors issued fresh arrest warrants against two ministry inspectors, who are already in police custody, on suspicion that they accepted lavish entertainment from Sumitomo Bank and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (BTM) in exchange for confidential information. The issue of the warrants meant that six of Japan's ten major city banks have now been implicated in the scandal. The officials were arrested last month on suspicion of taking similar favors from four other banks - Asahi, Dai-Ichi Kangyo, Sanwa and Hokkaido Takushoku. Prosecutors indicted the two on bribery charges involving these banks Monday. Koichi Miyakawa is accused of receiving about 1.3 million yen ($10,300) worth of bribes in the form of wining and dining from Sumitomo Bank, Asahi Bank and Sanwa Bank, while Toshimi Taniuchi was suspected of receiving more than two million yen ($15,800) worth of bribes from BTM, Sumitomo and Dai-Ichi Kangyo, prosecutors said. Banks have pledged to abolish their so-called "MOF handler'' system, under which officials are assigned to wine and dine ministry officials in return for confidential information such as the schedule of the supposedly surprise inspections. Japan also enacted two laws Monday to provide up to 30 trillion yen ($238 billion) to help prop up the banking sector, but still unresolved was the issue of what standards would be employed in deciding which banks get public funds. Who bribes the best??/ That issue became murkier with the latest allegations against the two top banks, as some legislators have said banks linked to the scandal should not get any funds. Yet with six top banks now involved, such a rule would make it difficult to carry out the program effectively. The scandal has jolted the powerful Finance Ministry and led to the resignation of Hiroshi Mitsuzuka as finance minister last month, as well as some of the ministry's top bureaucrats. The ministry belatedly fired the two bank inspectors on Monday, and the new finance minister, Hikaru Matsunaga, said that possible punishments for supervisors of the two suspects would be considered after investigations were completed. "Such acts by inspectors are impermissible and I find them very regrettable,'' Matsunaga said in a written statement. Sumitomo and BTM issued separate statements saying they regretted the situation but declined comment on the details of the case on the grounds that investigations were still going on. "We take the situation seriously and will continue to offer our cooperation with the investigation,'' Sumitomo said. Meanwhile, the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Satoru Kishi, BTM president and the chairman of the Federation of Bankers Associations of Japan, may resign over the allegations.

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (2183)	2/16/1998 1:36:00 PM
From: Bucky Katt	Respond to of 9980

Germ warfare survivors demand Japan face its past and apologize 1.01 p.m. ET (1802 GMT) February 16, 1998 By Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press TOKYO (AP) - In late October 1940, Hu Xianzhong saw a Japanese military plane dump wheat over his village in southeastern China. Within a few weeks, his parents and two siblings all died of bubonic plague, making him an 8-year-old orphan. On Monday, Hu, now 66, appeared in Tokyo District Court to demand the Japanese government acknowledge using germ warfare in China during World War II. He also asked for $79,400 in official compensation - and apologies to him and each of 106 other plaintiffs from six towns in southeastern China. The testimony was the first in a Japanese courtroom by survivors of the Japanese Imperial Army's alleged use of biological warfare. Two other Chinese plaintiffs, who lost their families in the outbreak, also testified. The Japanese government has refused to say whether its wartime military ever conducted germ warfare in China. In a statement submitted to the plaintiffs' lawyers, the government argued the case should be dismissed, saying individuals cannot sue a state under the Hague Convention for laws of war. The statute of limitations for filing a damages lawsuit also has expired, it said. The trial follows a series of court cases demanding compensation and apologies for Japan's wartime atrocities, including massacres, forced labor and forced prostitution in army-run brothels. The plaintiffs said Monday that the germ warfare was the work of the Japanese Army's Unit 731, a detachment in Manchuria in China's northeast that conducted frequently lethal medical experiments on thousands of prisoners of war and civilians. They say that the grain dumped on the villages was intentionally contaminated with plague-infected fleas, in an experiment to see how fast the deadly disease would spread. "The activity was as inhuman as the atomic bombing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Nazi holocaust,'' said Kazuki Kayano, a lawyer representing the Chinese plaintiffs. Hu said his sister was the first in the family of five to develop a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and slip into unconsciousness. She died within a few days, followed by his brother. His father and mother also succumbed to bubonic plague, which had never been seen in his village of Ningbo until the Japanese dropped the wheat, he said. Japanese troops also burned the homes of the infected, including his own, he said. "Words can't describe the misery of my life as an orphan,'' Hu said. "I cannot forgive the germ warfare that changed my life.'' At least 2,104 people, including 109 from Hu's village, died of bubonic plague, typhoid or cholera as a result of Japan's "germ bombs'' in six southeastern Chinese cities alone during World War II, plaintiffs and their lawyers told judges. "The Japanese troops not only spread plague all over our village, but treated us as guinea pigs,'' said Wang Lijung, 59, who also testified Monday. Wang lost two of her siblings in a 1942 plague outbreak in Songshan, a village in Zhejiang province. "The Japanese completely denied our dignity as human beings.'' For decades, Unit 731's work in Manchuria, northeastern China, was one of Japan's greatest World War II secrets. Several years ago, Japan's government finally admitted the group existed, but it has refused to confirm the extent of its activities. Japan has contended that all wartime claims were settled in postwar peace treaties. The government has set up a private fund for women forced into brothels for Japan's World War II soldiers, but it has continued to refuse to provide official compensation in individual claims. "In this lawsuit, we are not fighting for money,'' Wang told the court. "We simply want the Japanese government to acknowledge the fact and take responsibility for it, and officially apologize.''