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Kanoko Matsuyama
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2021
Japan leads the G7 in COVID shots without a mandate in sight
The country this week pushed ahead of Canada, which previously had the highest rate among the G7 major advanced economies.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 16, 2019
Drug devised to replace chemotherapy may reshape cancer care
A class of drugs is emerging that can attack cancer cells in the body without damaging surrounding healthy ones. They have the potential to replace chemotherapy and its disruptive side effects, reshaping the future of cancer care.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 29, 2019
Blood test can predict dementia, but Japanese developers urge caution: There's still no cure
Nobel Prize winner Koichi Tanaka says the predictive blood test for Alzheimer's disease he and colleagues spent almost a decade developing is a double-edged sword.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2017
Opioids demand rises in Japan as seniors use drugs to ease pain and improve quality of life
Selling painkillers in Japan used to be like pulling teeth. That was until baby boomers discovered how analgesics could take the sting from arthritis, diabetic nerve damage and the ravages of cancer.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2017
Pill-popping is a business worth watching for Japan's drugmakers
To eke out growth in one of the developed world's most sluggish pharmaceutical markets, Japanese drugmakers are turning to the pill-popping behavior of their customers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2017
Japan's corporate chiefs face more scrutiny over cushy retirement roles
For decades, boards allowed former executives to linger on as highly paid advisers, without offering shareholders much detail about their roles. Now, there are signs that cushy retirement gigs may no longer be a sure thing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2017
Japan pushes for tighter control on drug pricing, crimping big pharma profits
President Donald Trump has pledged to reverse what he describes as "astronomical" drug prices in the United States. Thousands of kilometers away, Japan, long a profit sanctuary for multinational pharmaceutical companies, is taking a similar tack.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jun 16, 2015
Nobel laureate Yamanaka allies with Takeda in hunt for blockbuster drugs
When Christophe Weber went after his first deal as head of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., he veered off the well-worn path to the U.S. and Europe and went to Japan's Kyoto University instead.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Apr 16, 2015
Some prisons in Japan becoming 'like nursing homes' amid surge in elderly offenders
Most prisons spend a lot of time and effort keeping inmates from escaping, but a greater challenge is convincing some convicts to leave.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 24, 2015
Tokyo's elderly turned away amid labor crunch, funding cuts
Tokyo's elderly population is ballooning, waiting lists for nursing homes run a mile long, and there's a fierce scramble for free beds. So why are these businesses catering to the city's aging denizens scaling back?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2015
Growth concerns loom for Daiichi Sankyo on drug warning
Daiichi Sankyo Co. risks losing a slice of revenue to generic-medicine competition next year. Now, the drugmaker's plans to fill the gap have hit a roadblock and investors worry that growth may flounder.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jan 6, 2015
Help at hand for dementia patients
They would enter the bank and ask for their cash. Yuriko Asahara, behind the counter, would check where they would stash it — in the side pocket of a handbag or perhaps deep down in a shoulder bag.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2014
Delay of tax hike will hit elderly hardest: experts
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to postpone the second stage of the sales tax hike is likely to wreak havoc on health care provisions for the elderly.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Nov 4, 2014
Japan wakes up to reality of dementia, seeks unique solutions
Asayo Sakai banged on the front door, demanding to be let out. She was at her daughter's apartment, where Asayo has lived for the past six years. She has no memory of how she got there or what she's doing there.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 8, 2014
U.S. experts eye Japanese drug in race for Ebola cure
The FDA acts to expedite the approval of experimental drugs, including one made by Fujifilm, to counter the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2014
Government plans to cut number of elderly kept alive on feeding tubes
For the first time, Japan is trying to hold down the number of bedridden elderly people kept alive by feeding tubes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2013
Doctor helps his grandma die to avoid feeding tube
Kojiro Tokutake wanted to be a doctor since he was a teenager. His grandmother bought him his first stethoscope when he was in medical school. A decade later, he helped her die.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2013
Takeda breaks tradition with outsider at helm
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., the more than 230-year-old drugmaker, is starting to make a practice of breaking with tradition.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2013
Long-living Japanese society needs better 'quality of death'
A quarter of a million bedbound elderly people are kept alive in Japan, often for years, by a feeding tube surgically inserted into their stomach. A few months ago, my 96-year-old grandmother became one of them.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 21, 2013
'Abenomics' lifts biotech ventures
Japanese biotech ventures promising to make jet fuel from algae and to produce synthetic cartilage are soaring in Tokyo trading as cash pumped into the economy by the central bank cascades into speculative investments.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?