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1 December | • | JR West announced sales
of excursion ticket for foreigners visiting
Japan—Kansai Area Pass ¥2000 for 1 day
and ¥6000 for 4 days on ordinary trains,
and Sanyo Area Pass (including Sanyo
Shinkansen) for ¥20,000 for 4 days and
¥30,000 for 8 days
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|
3 December | • | Administrative Reform
Conference chaired by Prime Minister
Hashimoto announced government to be
consolidated into one office and 12 ministries/
agencies by 2001. Ministry of Transport
to be merged with Ministry of
Construction, National Land Agency,
Hokkaido Development Agency and other
organizations to form National Land and
Transport Ministry
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| • | Ground-breaking ceremony
for JR East 10-km line running between
Nippori Station to Toneri district in
Adachi Ward, Tokyo. New line to operate
rubber-tyred vehicles on elevated track
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4 December | • | Kyoto Station celebrated
completion of solar power generation system
generating 100 kW, or 5% of requirements
and reducing annual CO₂ emissions
by 62 tonnes
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6 December | • | Military Antonov 124 transport
plane of Russian Air Force crashed
near Irkutsk, east Siberia, hitting apartment
building and killing 57 including 23 crew
members
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| • | 4.4-km Abo Tunnel connecting
Gifu and Nagano prefectures
opened as part of Cross-Traverse Highway—previous route over Abo Pass closed
by heavy snow during winter
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10 December | • | Last part of Sanyo
Motorway opened, completing entire 419-
km route between Kobe and Yamaguchi
and marking completion of 26-year project
|
| • | Head-on collision between
passenger train and freight train carrying
fuel near Hanover, northern Germany,
injuring100
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|
15 December | • | Tajik Airlines plane
crashed in UAE on way from Tajikistan, killing
85, leaving one survivor
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|
16 December | • | Six JRs started printing
English on some tickets in expectation of
increase in foreign passengers visiting
Nagano Winter Olympic Games
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|
17 December | • | Commercial flight of
Ukraine Airlines, flying from Odessa in
southern Ukraine to Thessaloniki in northern
Greece, lost near Thessaloniki
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18 December | • | Tokyo Bay Aqualine, 15.1-
km trans-Tokyo Bay road connecting
Kisarazu City in Chiba with Kawasaki City
in Kanagawa opened. Road divided into
causeway and bridge on Kisarazu side and
submarine tunnel on Kawasaki side, taking
8 years 7 months and approximately
¥1.44 trillion to construct
|
| • | Technoport 3.7-km subway
line started operation between Osakako
Station of Osaka Municipal Subway and
Nakafuto Station of new tram system
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|
19 December | • | Shinjuku-Nerima section
(9.1 km) of Tokyo Metropolitan No. 12 Subway
opened (Photostory p. 64), completing
12.9-km linear-motor metro from
Hikarigaoka to Shinjuku
|
| • | Boeing 737-300 of
Singapore-based SilkAir crashed near
Palembang, Sumatra, on way from Jakarta
to Singapore, killing all 97 on board
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|
20 December | • | JR East introduced full
double-decker train on Tohoku Shinkansen
offering 1634 seats and mainly operating
between Tokyo and Nasu Shiobara in
Tochigi Prefecture
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|
24 December | • | MLX01 Maglev marked
550 km/h, breaking own world record of 531
km/h for unmanned vehicles established on 12 December
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25 December | • | Bus carrying 26 Japanese
tourists collided with truck in Dinar City,
Turkey, seriously injuring 11 passengers
|
| • | Passenger train slammed
into second train at station in eastern
Punjab, Pakistan, killing at least 35 people
and injuring 100
|
|
27 December | • | Passenger train derailed
and slammed into house after crash with
car in Andenne, Belgium, killing two and
injuring 30
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|
2 January | • | 1997 road death toll in Japan
reached 9640, decrease of 302 over
1996, and second consecutive year below
10,000, according to National Police
Agency
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|
4 January | • | Overcrowded bus burst into
flames after being hit by truck and slamming
into oil tanker near Jhelum, Pakistan,
killing more than 50 people
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|
5 January | • | Overcrowded bus veered off
winding road and crashed into slope in
eastern Zimbabwe, killing 40 people and
injuring 63
|
|
6 January | • | Two passenger trains collided
in thick fog in Uttar Pradesh, India, killing
49 people and seriously injuring 16
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|
10 January | • | 6.2 Richter earthquake
struck Hebei, northern China, killing 47
|
|
19 January | • | Four track workers hit and
killed by train at Aomori Station, Honshu,
while removing snow from railway switches
during snow storm
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|
22 January | • | Groundbreaking ceremony
for construction of Shibayama Railway Line
as extension of Narita Line of Keisei Electric
Railway, to be operated by Shibayama
Railways, a local company jointly established
by New Tokyo International Airport
Authority, Chiba Prefecture, Narita City,
Shibayama Town, three domestic airline
companies, and Keisei Railway
|
|
30 January | • | Japan National Tourist Organization,
announced that number of foreign
visitors to Japan totalled 4,226,000 in
1997, up 389,000 (10.1%) over previous
year. Number of Japanese going overseas
also grew slightly by 111,000 (0.7%) to
16,806,000
|
| • | US-Japan air navigation pact
settled leaving ANA as first-tier company
|
|
2 February | • | DC-9 passenger aircraft of
Cebu Pacific Air crashed on way from Manila
to Cagayan de Oro on Mindanao Island
killing all 104 on board
|
|
3 February | • | US Military airplane hit
cables of aerial cable car in Dolomite Mountains
of northeast Italy, killing 20 skiers on
board
|
|
4 February | • | Passenger train of Kobe
Electric Railway collided with 2-tonne truck
stalled on level crossing in Kobe City, injuring
8 passengers
|
| • | Major earthquake in northeast
Afghanistan near Tajikistan killed at
least 4000
|
|
7 February | • | Nagano Winter Olympics
opened with 3500 athletes and support staff
from 72 countries. During 16-day event,
655,000 passengers used Nagano-bound
Shinkansen, increase of 203% over same
section without shinkansen in previous
year. Total of 249,000 passengers also
used narrow-gauge Chuo Line (110% over
previous year) to visit Olympic site
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|
10 February | • | Site of former JNR headquarters
in front of Tokyo Central Station
auctioned by JNR Settlement Corporation
to Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. and Nihon Life
Insurance Co. for ¥300.8 billion
|
|
12 February | • | Pile up involving 250 vehicles
on fog-bound expressway between
Padua and Robigo, northern Italy, left 4
dead and at least 50 injured
|
|
14 February | • | Tanker train burst into
flames in Yaounde, Cameroon, killing more
than 100
|
|
16 February | • | Airbus A300-600R of
Taiwan's China Airlines failed on landing at
Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Airport, hitting
nearby houses and killing 196 on board and
7 residents on ground
|
|
22 February | • | Violent tornadoes struck
middle Florida killing at least 39
|
|
25 February | • | Japan Airlines and American
Airlines announced code-sharing
agreement to start on 15 routes in October
and expanding to more than 100 next summer
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