Japan Government Officials

In a scandal likely to rock Japan's unsteady financial sector, two key Ministry of Finance officials were arrested Monday for allegedly accepting bribes from the banks they regulate.

Commandos stormed the diplomatic compound Tuesday where leftist rebels were holding 72 captives, ending Latin America's longest such standoff with a daring daylight attack that liberated 71 hostages and left one dead, along with two soldiers and all the rebels. The raid by 140 commandos of the Peruvian marines, navy and army began at 3:20 p.m. at the residence of the Japanese ambassador.

Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Eiji Toyoda on Monday appeared to edge away from what seemed to be commitments to buy more American autos and auto parts, setting off acrimonious debate and new accusations of duplicity in the United States.

Kiichi Miyazawa was elected Japan's 49th prime minister on Tuesday and appointed as his foreign minister an outspoken politician who has offended blacks, Chinese, women and others with his off-the-cuff remarks. Highlighting Miyazawa's 20 Cabinet selections, the appointment of Michio Watanabe, 68, to serve as Japan's face to the world raised some eyebrows on both sides of the Pacific.

Amid mounting criticism at home and abroad, a member of Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita's Cabinet resigned Friday over his remark that Japan was not an aggressor in World War II but was fighting Asian colonization by the "white race." Seisuke Okuno, who has served in the ministerial post of land agency chief since November, left the Cabinet reluctantly after China and South Korea condemned the comment and opposition parties in Japan demanded his dismissal.

At 76, Kiharu Nakamura, a resident of New York City for 33 years, lectures on Oriental philosophy and poetry, serves as an opera adviser and has written seven books, one of which has been made into a movie and a stage play. But the wives of Japanese businessmen she meets from time to time still speak in gossipy disdain of her. " 'Oh, she's a geisha,' they say," Nakamura, a former geisha, complained during a visit here.

Once again, a top Japanese official declared that the nation's brutal colonial rule of Korea did some good, and once again he was skewered for it. The difference is, this official, Takami Eto, head of Japan's Management and Coordination Agency, made his remarks off the record. The ensuing fiasco had threatened to derail a weekend summit between Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and South Korean President Kim Young Sam, and resulted in Eto's resignation this week.

After 34 hours of obstructionism and an invalid round of balloting, lawmakers late Friday finally elected Morihiro Hosokawa as Japan's new prime minister. The balloting in the lower house of Parliament ended 38 years of rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, launched an opposition-led coalition into power and ushered in a new generation of leaders. Hosokawa, 55, is a rebel from the Liberal Democrats who formed a grass-roots reform party only 15 months ago.

Next month, the French ambassador's venerable chateau here will still flow with champagne and the ancient friendship brought during the American Revolution by the Marquis de Lafayette. The koi in the garden pool at the Tokyo Modern Japanese ambassador's residence will continue to grow fat and fancy, and the sake will be poured as freely. Even so, with the mid-month departure of the French and Japanese ambassadors, the parties and the people will be different in those bastions of embassy row.

Think of it as the "Nikkei 18,000" horse race. With extraordinary bluntness, officials of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party have openly and repeatedly declared that they want the Tokyo stock market's widely watched 225-share Nikkei index to finish above the 18,000 line next Tuesday, the final day of Japan's current fiscal year. Taku Yamasaki, the ruling party's policy chief, said weeks ago that he would rack his brain to find ways to push the index to that level.