Japan reported its first bird flu outbreak of the season on Wednesday, raising concerns that egg prices could rise further.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 23, 2025
Bird flu outbreak in Hokkaido raises concerns over rising egg prices
About 459,000 laying hens at poultry farm in Hokkaido will be culled to prevent further infections.
Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki attends a meeting to tackle bird flu held in Sapporo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 22, 2025
Bird flu season begins in Japan with infection confirmed at Hokkaido farm
The Hokkaido government has started to cull some 459,000 laying hens at the farm and imposed a ban on the transportation of hens within a 10-kilometer radius.
Aska Pharmaceutical's emergency contraceptive pill Norlevo has been approved for over-the-counter sales by the health ministry.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 20, 2025
Japan approves emergency contraceptive pill for over-the-counter sales
Aska Pharmaceutical's Norlevo is the first emergency contraceptive pill to be approved for sale without a prescription in the country.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, has postponed Tuesday's planned launch of its seventh H3 rocket due to a poor weather conditions.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 19, 2025
Bad weather forces postponement of JAXA H3 rocket launch
According to JAXA, strong winds and heavy rain are expected to continue around Tanegashima, with weather conditions unlikely to improve until at least Thursday.
Tohoku University researchers say a band of underground solidified magma that collapsed may have supercharged the 2024 earthquake on the Noto Peninsula.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 16, 2025
Ancient magma may have supercharged Noto quake, Japan researchers say
The findings help explain why a series of small earthquakes over a period of about three years suddenly culminated in the magnitude 7.6 Noto Peninsula quake in January 2024.
A recent survey by the Sports Agency found that women in their 30s and 40s were less physically fit in 2024 compared to 1998 levels as more women are busy working and/or raising children.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 14, 2025
Fitness levels fall for women in their 30s and 40s compared to 1998, survey finds
The survey from the Sports Agency suggested women are too busy working and/or raising children to do physical exercise, resulting in the decline.
Susumu Kitagawa speaks to reporters at Kyoto University on Wednesday after receiving the news that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry the same day.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 9, 2025
Chemistry Nobel winner Kitagawa says downtime helped him think up new material
Waiting on a supercomputer to analyze the structure of a new crystal gave him time to come up with the idea for a kind of material that could, for example, capture carbon dioxide.

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Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell