Jan 6, 2005

Efforts under way to stem abuse of elderly

While Japan’s aging population is usually talked of in terms of rising welfare expenditures and the financial burden it will impose on future generations, recently a new problem has emerged: abuse of the elderly. Lawyers and other experts handling the issue say that compared ...

NGO fostering Afghan female literacy

Aug 28, 2004

NGO fostering Afghan female literacy

Studying was the last thing most women in Afghanistan spent time on until a couple years ago, after the Taliban regime was ousted. But now they have a chance to become literate, and a Japanese nongovernmental organization is helping. Although religious and social challenges ...

Antinuclear plea the stuff of lip service

Aug 11, 2004

Antinuclear plea the stuff of lip service

People in Hiroshima and Nagasaki once again called for the total elimination of nuclear arms at this year’s memorial services marking the 59th anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of their cities. But the gap appears to be widening between what they seek ...

Aug 5, 2004

A-bomb survivors abroad get help at snail's pace

The government has come under growing pressure to be more flexible in supporting foreign survivors of the August 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The government began in 2001 to study how to treat survivors living abroad as most of them had ...

Apr 15, 2004

Sexually abused kids suffering in silence

The girl remained silent for four years before telling her mother that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather since she was 10 years old. But her mother refused to believe what she claimed. The girl then sought help at a child consultation ...

Sex scandal to be Yamasaki's electoral undoing?

Oct 31, 2003

Sex scandal to be Yamasaki's electoral undoing?

No one is admitting it yet, but there is a definite sense of crisis looming in Taku Yamasaki’s district office that a sex scandal may cause the Liberal Democratic Party veteran to lose the seat he has held for more than three decades. Yamasaki, ...

Jul 24, 2003

Rail staff taking passenger violence on chin

A drunken man gets up from his train seat and suddenly decks a railway employee, whose only offense was to wake him up at the end of the line. Another passenger, sober this time, wallops a station worker talking on the phone after being ...

North Korea hiding health crisis: UNICEF doctor

Apr 5, 2003

North Korea hiding health crisis: UNICEF doctor

About 8 percent of North Korean children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to Danielle Deboutte, a Belgian physician and health project officer with UNICEF’s office in Pyongyang. “The most important assistance for North Korea is food,” Deboutte said in a recent interview. In ...

Mar 20, 2003

Japan urged to train more aid workers for Asia

Japan is being encouraged to move away from its much- maligned approach of handing out cash for refugee relief and to instead deal with the shortage of trained aid workers in Asia. A three-week international training program for relief workers is being held in ...

Nov 14, 2002

Health expert seeks fresh approach to refugee aid

Dr. Etsuko Kita doesn’t hesitate to respond when asked what is lacking in Japan’s assistance to the Third World — understanding and confidence. Kita, 63, a pediatrician and public health specialist, has worked to help Afghan refugees as part of UNICEF. Avon Products Co. ...

Aug 30, 2001

Sea balance argument used by scientist to justify whale killing

Arguing that whales consume several times more fish than humans and that their growing population runs the risk of tilting the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem, professor and food scientist Kohmei Wani is leading a grassroots push for the relaxation of worldwide bans ...