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Dogs are long-lived enough to serve as better models for human aging than mice, but short-lived enough that aging treatments can be tested in just a few years.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2024

Your dog will have an anti-aging drug before you do

Dogs are long-lived enough to serve as better models for human aging than mice, but short-lived enough that aging treatments can be tested in a few years.
In Japan, dizziness that results from an earthquake is called jishin-yoi (which roughly translates to "earthquake drunk,” or "earthquake sickness”). It is also sometimes called post-earthquake dizziness syndrome.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 6, 2024

How an earthquake can throw the body and brain off-balance

In Tokyo, one team found that some people still experienced balance issues for as long as four months after a big quake.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani needs to find a way to keep his eye on the ball as he plays his first 162-game season without his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 9, 2024

Can Shohei Ohtani achieve Michael Jordan-level mental resilience?

One expert says ensuring that he can pivot smoothly into a new support system is crucial for the player.
Tests for patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the disease is estimated to affect more than 6 million Americans.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 24, 2024

Alzheimer's drug adoption in U.S. slowed by doctors' skepticism

There is an entrenched belief among some doctors that treating the memory-robbing disease is futile.
Cold medicine packages at a drug store. Japan has faced unseasonal and larger-than-usual outbreaks of infectious diseases over the past year after the COVID-19's downgrade to the same level as flu.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 7, 2024

Anti-infection measures still needed, one year after COVID-19 downgrade

Despite the drop in COVID-19 cases, childhood infectious diseases and the flu have spread in the country over the past year.
Pasco Shikishima has recalled 104,000 packs of its white Chojuku bread after parts of a rat's body were discovered in two of them.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 9, 2024

Japan bread recalled after rat parts found inside packs

Pasco Shikishima has recalled over 100,000 packets of its processed white Chojuku bread and suspended the assembly line that produces it pending a probe.
The National Cancer Center Hospital in Tokyo
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 15, 2024

Rare kidney cancer mutation found in 70% of Japan patients, study shows

Its cause of the mutation, found in a type of cancer also prevalent in parts of Europe, is unclear, prompting scientists to consider unknown factors.

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2024

America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
Iranians gather to mourn the death of Ebrahim Raisi and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 21, 2024

Iran president’s death and Saudi king’s health spur succession bets

Focusing on transition in Iran and Saudi Arabia adds another layer of uncertainty, and potential instability, to months of regional turmoil triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.
Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome can be caused by bacteria called group A streptococcus.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 27, 2024

STSS infections growing at record pace in Japan

The patient tally this year had reached 851 as of May 12, with the figure being 2.8 times higher than a year before.
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson (left) and YouTuber Jake Paul face off during a news conference in New York on May 13.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
May 29, 2024

Tyson says he feels '100%' after plane health scare

The 57-year-old reportedly needed medical treatment on Sunday after feeling unwell during a flight.
An ambulance bearing a message calling for the appropriate use of ambulance services enters Matsusaka Municipal Hospital in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 10, 2024

City in Mie Prefecture starts charging some ambulance-borne patients

Matsusaka is targeting patients taken to any of its three core hospitals by ambulance but who are assessed as not needing hospitalization.
Tomomi Bitoh, 33, Japan's top ultrarunner, stretches as she takes part in a workout session around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 6, 2024

As Japan's birth rate drops, runner freezes her eggs to sustain motherhood dream

Last year Tokyo authorities started offering subsidies of up to ¥300,000 ($1,900) for women aged between 18 and 39 to have their eggs frozen for future pregnancies.
The percentage of working people who said they sleep seven hours or more has reached 52.4%, a significant increase from 27% in 1999, according to a survey conducted in April.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 10, 2024

Japanese with lack of sleep reduced by half from 25 years ago

36.3% of working adults said that they sleep six hours, followed by 36.0% who said they sleep seven hours.
Group A Streptococcus typically causes swelling and a sore throat in children, but some types of the bacteria can lead to symptoms developing rapidly.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 15, 2024

Rare tissue-damaging bacteria spreads in Japan

At the current rate of infections, the number of cases in Japan could reach 2,500 this year, with a mortality rate of 30%.
Mayumi Kitakata uses "CatsMe!," an AI-driven smartphone app that purports to tell when a cat is feeling pain, near her 14 year-old male pet cat Chi at her home in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2024

Japan's beloved cats get health care help from AI

The CatsMe! app has been used on 6,000 pictures of cats and by more than 230,000 customers since its launch last year.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi and others at a news conference in Osaka in March.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 3, 2024

492 people hospitalized for 'beni kōji' supplements

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical says it has received consultations about a further 170 deaths possibly linked to its supplements.
A nursing home in Ishikawa Prefecture. Wage increases in other industries have made the nursing care sector less attractive.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2024

Over 80 nursing homes in Japan went bankrupt in first half

Rising costs and a severe manpower shortage are the main reasons driving care providers out of business.
The health ministry is calling for people to take infection control measures thoroughly as cases of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases are rising in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 24, 2024

Japan battling 11th COVID wave, data shows, as KP.3 variant evades immunity

New infections have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks amid the rise of the highly transmissible new coronavirus variant.
A housing exhibition like the one worked at by a Polus employee in Chiba Prefecture who died by suicide in 2020 following harassment by a customer.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 24, 2024

Customer harassment caused Chiba worker's suicide, labor office says

After explaining to a customer who was building a new house that additional costs were required, the employee began facing relentless complaints from him.
A decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy for Japanese men and women to rise for the first time in three years in 2023.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 26, 2024

Japan's average life expectancy rises for first time in three years

The rise in life expectancy may possibly be a reflection of a drop in fatality rates for COVID-19 patients.
As of March 2023, there were 86 medicines that had been approved in Europe or the United States but remained unavailable in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2024

Japan unveils plan to improve access to foreign drugs

The road map to address what is known as "drug loss" envisions that development of in-demand medicines will start by April 2026.
Forced sterilization plaintiff Sumiko Nishi at her home in Hino, western Tokyo, on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 31, 2024

First settlement reached for forced sterilization plaintiff in Japan

The state has agreed to pay ¥16.5 million — the same amount awarded to plaintiffs in a related Supreme Court case.
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?
English actress Daisy Ridley is seen arriving for the world premiere of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in Hollywood on Dec. 16, 2019.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Aug 8, 2024

'Star Wars' star Daisy Ridley diagnosed with Graves' disease

The actress said she initially dismissed her symptoms, attributing them to residual stress from a role in the 2023 thriller "Magpie."
Participants of Shomeikai’s Type B employment support workshop take part in a training session at a rental meeting room in the city of Fukuoka in May.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 26, 2024

Welfare workshop helps people with disabilities become IT engineers

Shomeikai leverages on a cutting-edge software development methodology that lets users work in a team and support one another.
A government survey has found that 31.7% of men age 20 and older in Japan and 21% of women can be classed as obese.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 28, 2024

Obesity among Japanese men continuing to rise, government survey shows

The 2022 survey found that 31.7% of men age 20 and older had a body mass index, or BMI, of 25 or higher.
The government's new proposed plan for supporting dementia calls for a society in which people with dementia can continue to live as they like in places where they are used to living.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2024

Japanese government to promote 'new perception of dementia'

The number of dementia cases is rising due to the rapid graying of the Japanese population.
The government is considering asking more people age 75 or over to pay 30% of their medical costs.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 13, 2024

Japan may require more elderly people to foot 30% of their medical costs

Currently, those age 75 or older pay in principle 10%, while those with preretirement levels of income pay 30%.
From October, patients who choose the original versions of drugs with expired patents over their generic counterparts will shoulder higher costs.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2024

Out-of-pocket costs for off-patent drugs to rise in October

Moisturizing ointments and patches are among the 1,095 items to be affected by the revision.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person