Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Sep 7, 2013
Fukushima: health disaster or PR fail?
by Rowan Hooper
One thing about having a nuclear accident in a rich country is that at least there is going to be good medical care and long-term monitoring. The repair and clean-up operation is another matter, of course — which is why Japan is currently under ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Aug 10, 2013
In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales
by Rowan Hooper
Final arguments from the defence and prosecution were heard in mid-July, and the world court is now considering its judgment. At issue is Japan’s right to conduct its seasonal “scientific” whaling program in Antarctic waters. But the case has involved arguments about how to ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Jul 13, 2013
Effects will become more obvious as Japan's climate changes
by Rowan Hooper
Residents of Japan’s big cities, and of Tokyo in particular, are well aware of the heat-island effect — especially now with the onset of summer. The effect occurs because concrete and asphalt retain radiant energy, making the whole city a vast absorber and then ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Jun 9, 2013
Unraveling the mystery of male birds' missing members
by Rowan Hooper
How the chicken lost its penis: It sounds like a weird cousin of one of Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories for Little Children" from 1902, which featured "How the Leopard Got His Spots" and "How the Camel Got His Hump."
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS May 12, 2013
Japan's Suzaku satellite shows how all bets are off around Cygnus X-1
by Rowan Hooper
This month, the Vermillion bird of the South — which is currently flying 550 km above Earth — meets an astronomical swan some 6,000 light-years away. In Eastern mythology, the Vermillion bird of the South represents fire — it is a spirit creature renowned ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Apr 14, 2013
Casting a little light on fireflies
by Rowan Hooper
If dragonflies are the insects of Japan’s day, then the mysterious, magical fireflies are its bugs of the night. About now, firefly grubs will be emerging from rivers around the country. They’ve been living in the mud in larval form for the last year, ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Mar 10, 2013
Embrace the DNA that makes you a mongrel
by Rowan Hooper
This month, we celebrate the mongrel, a word that means different things to different people. For some, it may bring to mind nonpedigree dogs, mutts that don't belong to a specific breed; in Japanese, the word is daken, which has the definite negative connotation ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Feb 10, 2013
Fugu reveals its simple gender switch
by Rowan Hooper
It’s the most celebrated and notorious fish in the world, certainly in culinary circles. Now the puffer fish — one of Japan’s most enigmatic creatures — meets some of biology’s deepest questions: Why did sex evolve? Why are there two sexes? Why is the ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Jan 13, 2013
How Japan's teens can avoid sleep demons
by Rowan Hooper
Have you ever woken up but been unable to move; felt a powerful pressure holding you down, gripping you tight? Haruki Murakami has, and he describes it like this: “I was having a repulsive dream — a dark, slimy dream. … After I awoke, ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Dec 9, 2012
World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling
by Rowan Hooper
It was hardly the result the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hoped for, or expected. In a survey of 1,200 Japanese people across the country, conducted in October 2012 by the Nippon Research Center, more people supported the hunting of whales than opposed ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Nov 11, 2012
Japan's live organ donors enjoy better health than 'normal' citizens do
by Rowan Hooper
At age 56, Toshinobu Horiuchi was a desperate man. He had suffered kidney failure and needed a transplant. As a doctor, based in Tokyo, he knew better than most that he faced a long wait. In Japan, nearly 13,000 people, according to the Japan ...
Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Oct 14, 2012
Why stem-cell science thrives in Japan
by Rowan Hooper
It’s easy to take for granted the epic scale of what some scientists are attempting these days. When the news broke a couple of weeks ago that Japanese scientists had turned normal cells from a mouse into eggs, and then fertilized them and seen ...