A few stories from an English language
e-rag. Enjoy.
Jeff
Mainichi Daily News
Address:http://www.mainichi.co.jp/englis
h/news/archive/199912/26/news06.html
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Time bomb
suspected in Osaka bin blast Mainichi
Shimbun SETTSU, Osaka - A trash bag that
exploded at a bullet train depot here
Friday night may have contained a
time-bomb made using a can from a
popular brand of cooking oil, police
said Saturday. Although police said they
have not found any explosives in the
Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai)
depot, they did say they found remnants
of the cooking oil can with a lead wire
running from it, as well as four
batteries.
No one was injured in the explosion,
which occurred at about 4 p.m. Friday,
but it scattered other bags of garbage
over a range of about 10 meters.
JR Tokai officials and counterparts from
the West Japan Railway Co. (JR West)
said Saturday that they planned to
tighten security measures on the JR
Tokaido and JR Sanyo bullet train lines
in the wake of the explosion.
JR Tokai officials added that although
it had started carrying out earlier this
month a special safety test on its
trains, employees had not checked trash
cans for any suspicious objects. In the
wake of the blast, however, JR Tokai
officials had quickly sifted through
trash cans on all its lines Friday
night, but did not find anything out of
the ordinary.
Police said the trash bag that exploded
was one of three bags of rubbish that
had been collected from the Kodama 415
bullet train that arrived at JR
Shin-Osaka Station at about 3:20 p.m.
JR Tokai officials say that the bag did
not explode immediately upon being
hoisted into the incinerator.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Gifu woman
kills husband, hangs self ENA, Gifu - An
elderly woman here may have killed her
ailing husband and herself after getting
tired of caring for him for more than
two years, police said Saturday.
According to police, a local doctor who
visited the home of Kazuo Koketsu, 86,
in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, at around 2:45
p.m., Friday, found him dead with a rope
tied around his neck and his 79-year-old
wife, Mitsue, hanging.
Mitsue left a suicide note saying,
"Exhausted. We will leave (for heaven)."
Investigators suspect that Mitsue
strangled her husband and later hanged
herself.
The couple were living with their son,
his wife and two grandchildren. Mitsue
had been caring for Kazuo, who had been
almost bed-ridden for 21/2 years.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Man poisoned
after downing soft drink HINO, Shiga - A
51-year-old man became ill here after
drinking a soft drink believed to have
been laced with a chemical, police said
Saturday. Police suspect that the drink
was laced with an agricultural chemical.
The Shiga Prefectural Police lab is
still examining the contents of the
drink.
The company employee from Kawanishi,
Hyogo Prefecture, whose name was not
immediately known, had drunk a canned
soft drink in Hino on Friday afternoon
and became ill. He was rushed to a
hospital where he underwent gastrolavage
because he showed symptoms of slight
chemical poisoning. The man bought the
drink at a discount shop in Toyonaka,
Osaka Prefecture, earlier Friday.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Slain pilot's
wife demands compensation The wife of an
All Nippon Airways pilot who was slain
by a hijacker last July filed a request
Saturday with a labor standards
inspection office for workers
compensation, claiming her husband's
deah was caused by his work.
The wife of Captain Naoyuki Nagashima,
the first person to be killed during a
hijacking in the country, filed the
application with the Ota Labor Standards
Inspection Office in Tokyo under the
Workers' Compensation Insurance Law.
Nagashima, 51, was stabbed to death by
Yuji Nishizawa, 29, who commandeered ANA
Flight 61 from Tokyo's Haneda to Sapporo
and broke into the cockpit.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Ex-child actor
extradited, busted for corpse-dumping
Mainichi Shimbun Mainichi Shimbun
Kazutaka Nishikawa NIIGATA - A child
actor turned local politician suspected
of involvement in the death of a
moneylender has been arrested after
being extradited from Thailand, police
said Saturday.
Kazutaka Nishikawa, 32, who from 1995
until earlier this year served a single
term as a member of the municipal
assembly in the Niigata Prefecture city
of Shirone, was arrested while on a
Japan Airlines flight from Bangkok for
the illegal disposal of a body. He was
taken to Niigata shortly after his
flight arrived at Narita Airport on
Saturday morning.
Nishikawa is alleged to have dumped the
body of Yukio Sato, 56, a moneylender,
in Asahi, Niigata Prefecture, on Nov.
30. Police suspect Nishikawa may have
been involved in Sato's death and placed
him on an international wanted list
after he fled the country on Dec. 1.
Nishikawa flew to Hong Kong and traveled
to Macao before INTERPOL officials
notified Japanese police on Dec. 22 that
the former child actor had been
apprehended in Thailand.
Nishikawa was arrested for conspiring
with Yuichi Kawahara, 30, manager of a
mah-jongg parlor that Nishikawa owned,
to wrap Sato's body in a blanket, shove
it into the trunk of his car, then
dispose of the body in a forest in
Asahi. Kawahara has already been charged
with illegally dumping Sato's body.
Police and sources said that Nishikawa
had eaten with Sato at a restaurant in
Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, on the night
of Nov. 29. Later that night Nishikawa
and Kawahara arranged to travel together
to Sato's office in Joetsu. Nishikawa
left Kawahara sitting in his car,
telling him that he was going to borrow
some money. Nishikawa then apparently
called Kawahara into the office.
Kawahara says that by the time he
arrived there, Sato had already
collapsed on the floor.
Police later discovered that 5 million
yen was missing from Sato's office.
Police believe that Nishikawa and Sato
had quarreled over money the one-time
actor wanted to open a mah-jongg parlor.
Nishikawa played Daigoro in the popular
1970s TV drama "Kozure-Okami," about a
wandering samurai accompanied on his
journeys throughout the country by his
young son ( the tv series followed the
release of six samurai films based on
the same story, collectively entitled
Sword of Vengeance, Lonewolf and Cub or
the Babycart movies). After retiring
from acting, Nishikawa held a number of
jobs, including a post as a manager of a
swimming school, before he was elected
to the Shirone Municipal Assembly in
1995.
e-rag. Enjoy.
Jeff
Mainichi Daily News
Address:http://www.mainichi.co.jp/englis
h/news/archive/199912/26/news06.html
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Time bomb
suspected in Osaka bin blast Mainichi
Shimbun SETTSU, Osaka - A trash bag that
exploded at a bullet train depot here
Friday night may have contained a
time-bomb made using a can from a
popular brand of cooking oil, police
said Saturday. Although police said they
have not found any explosives in the
Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai)
depot, they did say they found remnants
of the cooking oil can with a lead wire
running from it, as well as four
batteries.
No one was injured in the explosion,
which occurred at about 4 p.m. Friday,
but it scattered other bags of garbage
over a range of about 10 meters.
JR Tokai officials and counterparts from
the West Japan Railway Co. (JR West)
said Saturday that they planned to
tighten security measures on the JR
Tokaido and JR Sanyo bullet train lines
in the wake of the explosion.
JR Tokai officials added that although
it had started carrying out earlier this
month a special safety test on its
trains, employees had not checked trash
cans for any suspicious objects. In the
wake of the blast, however, JR Tokai
officials had quickly sifted through
trash cans on all its lines Friday
night, but did not find anything out of
the ordinary.
Police said the trash bag that exploded
was one of three bags of rubbish that
had been collected from the Kodama 415
bullet train that arrived at JR
Shin-Osaka Station at about 3:20 p.m.
JR Tokai officials say that the bag did
not explode immediately upon being
hoisted into the incinerator.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Gifu woman
kills husband, hangs self ENA, Gifu - An
elderly woman here may have killed her
ailing husband and herself after getting
tired of caring for him for more than
two years, police said Saturday.
According to police, a local doctor who
visited the home of Kazuo Koketsu, 86,
in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, at around 2:45
p.m., Friday, found him dead with a rope
tied around his neck and his 79-year-old
wife, Mitsue, hanging.
Mitsue left a suicide note saying,
"Exhausted. We will leave (for heaven)."
Investigators suspect that Mitsue
strangled her husband and later hanged
herself.
The couple were living with their son,
his wife and two grandchildren. Mitsue
had been caring for Kazuo, who had been
almost bed-ridden for 21/2 years.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Man poisoned
after downing soft drink HINO, Shiga - A
51-year-old man became ill here after
drinking a soft drink believed to have
been laced with a chemical, police said
Saturday. Police suspect that the drink
was laced with an agricultural chemical.
The Shiga Prefectural Police lab is
still examining the contents of the
drink.
The company employee from Kawanishi,
Hyogo Prefecture, whose name was not
immediately known, had drunk a canned
soft drink in Hino on Friday afternoon
and became ill. He was rushed to a
hospital where he underwent gastrolavage
because he showed symptoms of slight
chemical poisoning. The man bought the
drink at a discount shop in Toyonaka,
Osaka Prefecture, earlier Friday.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Slain pilot's
wife demands compensation The wife of an
All Nippon Airways pilot who was slain
by a hijacker last July filed a request
Saturday with a labor standards
inspection office for workers
compensation, claiming her husband's
deah was caused by his work.
The wife of Captain Naoyuki Nagashima,
the first person to be killed during a
hijacking in the country, filed the
application with the Ota Labor Standards
Inspection Office in Tokyo under the
Workers' Compensation Insurance Law.
Nagashima, 51, was stabbed to death by
Yuji Nishizawa, 29, who commandeered ANA
Flight 61 from Tokyo's Haneda to Sapporo
and broke into the cockpit.
Sunday, December 26, 1999 Ex-child actor
extradited, busted for corpse-dumping
Mainichi Shimbun Mainichi Shimbun
Kazutaka Nishikawa NIIGATA - A child
actor turned local politician suspected
of involvement in the death of a
moneylender has been arrested after
being extradited from Thailand, police
said Saturday.
Kazutaka Nishikawa, 32, who from 1995
until earlier this year served a single
term as a member of the municipal
assembly in the Niigata Prefecture city
of Shirone, was arrested while on a
Japan Airlines flight from Bangkok for
the illegal disposal of a body. He was
taken to Niigata shortly after his
flight arrived at Narita Airport on
Saturday morning.
Nishikawa is alleged to have dumped the
body of Yukio Sato, 56, a moneylender,
in Asahi, Niigata Prefecture, on Nov.
30. Police suspect Nishikawa may have
been involved in Sato's death and placed
him on an international wanted list
after he fled the country on Dec. 1.
Nishikawa flew to Hong Kong and traveled
to Macao before INTERPOL officials
notified Japanese police on Dec. 22 that
the former child actor had been
apprehended in Thailand.
Nishikawa was arrested for conspiring
with Yuichi Kawahara, 30, manager of a
mah-jongg parlor that Nishikawa owned,
to wrap Sato's body in a blanket, shove
it into the trunk of his car, then
dispose of the body in a forest in
Asahi. Kawahara has already been charged
with illegally dumping Sato's body.
Police and sources said that Nishikawa
had eaten with Sato at a restaurant in
Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, on the night
of Nov. 29. Later that night Nishikawa
and Kawahara arranged to travel together
to Sato's office in Joetsu. Nishikawa
left Kawahara sitting in his car,
telling him that he was going to borrow
some money. Nishikawa then apparently
called Kawahara into the office.
Kawahara says that by the time he
arrived there, Sato had already
collapsed on the floor.
Police later discovered that 5 million
yen was missing from Sato's office.
Police believe that Nishikawa and Sato
had quarreled over money the one-time
actor wanted to open a mah-jongg parlor.
Nishikawa played Daigoro in the popular
1970s TV drama "Kozure-Okami," about a
wandering samurai accompanied on his
journeys throughout the country by his
young son ( the tv series followed the
release of six samurai films based on
the same story, collectively entitled
Sword of Vengeance, Lonewolf and Cub or
the Babycart movies). After retiring
from acting, Nishikawa held a number of
jobs, including a post as a manager of a
swimming school, before he was elected
to the Shirone Municipal Assembly in
1995.