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September 16, 2024
 

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Tomoko Otake

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Tomoko Otake
Tomoko Otake is a senior writer with a strong interest in health, medical and social issues. A native of Nara Prefecture, she obtained an M.A. in journalism from The University of Montana.
Hiroyuki Mano, director of the National Cancer Center Japan's (NCC) research institute, explains on Wednesday the use of mice bearing patients' cancer tissues to screen drug candidates for their efficacy.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2024
New mouse models can boost Japan's drug development: National Cancer Center
The tumor-bearing mice retain many of the characteristics of the patients' cancer tissues, so favorable drug test results are likelier to be replicated in human trials.
A colony of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells established from fibroblasts. Kyoto University Hospital is looking to develop a treatment for Type 1 diabetes using iPS cells.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 3, 2024
Kyoto University Hospital seeks to treat Type 1 diabetes using iPS cells
Researchers will begin clinical trial of a treatment as early as next year, which they hope will become available in the 2030s.
Torrential rain in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Friday as Shanshan brought heavy precipitation to the capital.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 30, 2024
How climate change made Shanshan more likely and more devastating
The devastating winds of Shanshan were 26% more likely due to climate change, a rapid analysis has found, highlighting the impact of warming on severe storms.
A member of the Self-Defense Forces wipes away sweat as he conducts a search and rescue operation at a landslide site caused by heavy rain in Kumano, Hiroshima Prefecture, on July 11, 2018.
ENVIRONMENT / Boiling Point
Aug 29, 2024
Can Japan handle a heat wave and natural disaster at the same time?
Recent typhoons and the Nankai Trough megaquake alert have put the spotlight on how the country would deal with a dual disaster.
An ambulance is parked at the entrance of the emergency room of Saitama Hospital in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, on July 24.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Boiling Point
Aug 20, 2024
How Japan's health care system is gearing up for more heatstroke cases
Rising heatstroke cases are weighing on the nation’s health care system, which is already wrestling with the growing burden of a rapidly aging population.
Surgeons perform the world’s first genetically modified pig kidney transplant into a living human at Massachusetts General Hospital in March.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2024
Hurdles remain in Japan for transplants of pig organs into humans
Among the issues are the risk of previously unknown infectious diseases, animal welfare and the need to protect recipients from discrimination.
Health minister Keizo Takemi fields questions from reporters in March after a Cabinet meeting to deal with health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Health Minister Keizo Takemi on how to improve Japan's health care system
Digitalization, hiring high-skilled foreign workers and increasing wages are among the steps that Japan could take.
In the past 11 months, health minister Keizo Takemi has been charting his own path, seeking to make Japan's health care policies more global and digitalized.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Global mindset crucial for reform of Japan's health care, minister says
International strategies and domestic health care reform are inextricably linked, says health minister Keizo Takemi.
Passersby outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on July 29. A new analysis has found that Japan's extreme heat in July would have been "almost impossible" without climate change.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / Boiling Point
Aug 8, 2024
Japan's record heat in July 'almost impossible' without climate change
Heavy rainfall that caused severe floods the same month was also exacerbated by global warming, according to a new analysis.
Temperatures are soaring across Japan, making getting to sleep at night a constant battle between your body and the right setting for your air conditioner to help you nod off.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Boiling Point
Aug 2, 2024
An ideal AC temperature for sleep? Science says yes ... and no.
Keeping your room at 26 degrees Celsius can help you sleep through summer’s steamy nights — but how long should you leave the AC on?
Takeshita street in Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district on Wednesday, when temperatures reached 35.6 degrees Celsius.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2024
New 'most severe' category added to Japan’s heatstroke guidelines
The move is meant to stress the need for urgent medical attention in severe cases as the number of heatstroke cases soars amid record-high temperatures.
The latest research indicates that heat stress is likely to worsen the condition of people with Alzheimer’s disease — which accounts for over half of all dementia cases in Japan — by making them more irritated or exacerbating their cognitive decline.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Boiling Point
Jul 29, 2024
For aging Japan, a troubling link between heat and dementia
The latest research indicates that heat can exacerbate cognitive decline and worsen dementia symptoms.
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Longform
Jul 14, 2024
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Great pianists aren't made overnight, it takes years of practice. It can all be undone in a matter of days, however, due to a medical condition called dystonia.
A man takes a break under a cooling mist as the government issued a heatstroke alert in Tokyo and other prefectures in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 9, 2024
Number of heatstroke patients in Japan jumps fourfold amid sweltering temperatures
By prefecture, Tokyo had the most heatstroke-related transports at 907. Aichi came in second with 763 cases.
Naoto Ohtake, president-elect of the Institute of Science Tokyo, said it aims to have international students make up 30% of all undergraduate science and engineering majors by 2050.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2024
Institute of Science Tokyo will reapply for grant from ¥10 trillion fund
Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, which will merge to form the new university, had jointly applied before but failed.
While the education ministry recently introduced a new subject called “logic and expression” in its new curriculum guidelines, experts say that many teachers, in practice, are still focusing on grammar acquisition.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 19, 2024
Japan study downplays complex grammar in improving English writing skills
English learners are better off focusing on making good arguments, according to the Kobe University research.
Soyo Hinata (right) and Lillian Ono, members of Climate Case Japan, with a petition for human rights relief before submitting it to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2024
Activist group asks Japan's bar association for help on climate action
It will likely take more than a year for the association to scrutinize Climate Case Japan's petition before deciding what steps to take next.
About 1 to 1.8 out of 1,000 people in Japan are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 6, 2024
Japan researchers develop drug to visualize Parkinson’s disease in living patients
The study could help better our understanding of such neurodegenerative diseases, for which there are currently no cures.
As the world marks World No Tobacco Day on Friday, debate is growing over passive smoking in one crucial space that remains unregulated: private homes.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 30, 2024
In Japan, neighborly debates light up over secondhand smoke
Passive smoking has become a concern because many people live in multiunit apartment buildings or small houses with little space between them.
The health ministry says it will conduct its first survey on how much foreign residents are paying in health insurance and pension premiums.
JAPAN / Society
May 28, 2024
Health ministry to collect data on insurance premium payments by foreign residents
The ministry currently has no data on how much foreign nationals are paying in terms of health insurance payments and pension premiums.
Japan jumps to No. 2, from sixth place, in Best Countries index
Pedestrians cross an intersection in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Japan has experienced a postpandemic travel boom, with tourists pouring back in after restrictions closed the country’s borders to travelers.
South Korea is facing deepfake porn crisis
Activists hold up symbolic eye masks during a protest against deepfake porn in Seoul on Aug. 30.
North Korean missiles rain down on Ukraine despite sanctions
Part of the tail section of a North Korean Hwasong-11 short-range ballistic missile in Kyiv earlier this year.
Japan's elderly population grows to record 36.25 million
The proportion of people aged 65 and over has risen since the 1950s and is expected to hit 34.8% by 2040, when the second baby boomers (born 1971-1974) will join that group.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa urged to retire after latest concussion
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa passes against the Bills at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Thursday.
Chris Broad's new bar puts cocktails first, YouTube second
A self-proclaimed lover of great cocktails, YouTuber Chris Broad says his new Shibuya watering hole is more a place to get yourself a solid drink than it is anything related to his social media career.
LDP presidential hopefuls outline approach to U.S. and China concerns
Candidates for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election stand together onstage at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Saturday.
Tokyo’s top fashion showcase pushes rising stars to the world stage
A model displays a creation by Japanese designer Norio Surikabe during a runway show on Sept. 6 for the latest edition of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo.
New mouse models can boost Japan's drug development: National Cancer Center
Hiroyuki Mano, director of the National Cancer Center Japan's (NCC) research institute, explains on Wednesday the use of mice bearing patients' cancer tissues to screen drug candidates for their efficacy.
Scientists win Ig Nobel for discovering anal breathing in mammals
Takanori Takebe (behind the lectern) speaks after his team of researchers and he were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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