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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2013

Odds of mother-child survival in north Nigeria

Nigeria is the second-largest contributor to the under-5 and maternal mortality rate in the world. And most of the deaths could be prevented with simple, low-cost interventions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 9, 2013

'Nutritious' claims need to be taken with a pinch of salt

During a recent visit to the United States, I was impressed by several advertising campaigns. The American Beverage Association (ABA) is running a series of spots that alternatingly complain of what it deems the over-regulation of soft drinks and promote the efforts of member manufacturers to make their...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2011

Low-level radiation questions spur anxiety

For residents of Fukushima Prefecture, anxiety over their exposure to low levels of radiation has been palpable since the March 11 twin disasters crippled the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2011

Beating noncommunicable disease

Why do most people die? That was the question addressed by a special summit meeting of the United Nations in New York City in mid-September. The final report from the first-time summit identified noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) as the leading cause of death worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2011

Global drug industry announces action plan against threats of noncommunicable disease

Behind the scenes the past 10 years, the pharmaceutical industry has been going through some important changes in how it responds to the need for medicines and vaccines in developing countries.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2008

Psychological help for kids

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has announced a plan for a new network to support young people who need psychological help. Commendable as it is, that announcement may prove to be a case of too little too late. Young people needing help with problems have increased over the past decade to near...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2008

Reaching a resolution on 'balance billing' won't come soon

The government's ban on health insurance coverage of medical treatment provided in combination with uninsured therapy creates unnecessary financial problems for patients who need the uninsured but advanced treatment, critics charge.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2007

Feeling low exacts an extremely high cost

PRAGUE — Depression is, according to a World Health Organization study, the world's fourth worst health problem, measured by how many years of good health it causes to be lost. By 2020, it is likely to rank second, behind heart disease. Yet, not nearly enough is being done to treat or prevent it.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 27, 2007

Is this a poisons coverup?

Mariners say the oceans reveal their secrets only grudgingly. Shelly Parulis would say the same of the U.S. Navy.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2003

Stub out the smoking habit

The Tokyo District Court has rejected a damage suit filed against Japan Tobacco Inc. and the national government by seven former smokers who said they developed cancer and other health troubles from long years of smoking. The suit, filed by victims of lung cancer, cancer of the larynx and emphysema,...
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2003

Tighten Japan's tobacco controls

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adopted at the latest annual assembly of the World Health Organization is the first multilateral pact in the field of public health. The harmful effects of tobacco on health are well-known, but its use remains widespread. The fact is that while the health dangers...
COMMUNITY
Aug 27, 2000

SHARE and help the world

SHARE is Japan's version of Medecins Sans Frontieres, a small nongovernment aid organization that sends volunteer doctors, nurses and health workers to assist in stricken areas abroad. It also helps those in need on the domestic front -- women involved in the sex industry and people who have overstayed...
Japan Times
GLOBAL INSIGHT / Malta report 2023
Mar 20, 2023

Mediterranean nation turns investment hotspot for leading tech sectors

Less than three years after Malta opened its inaugural diplomatic mission in Japan, bilateral relations are at an all-time high as the world’s third-largest economy and the ambitious Mediterranean country bolster trade, political and cultural bonds for many mutual benefits.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 24, 2022

Will the world abort women's rights after death of Roe v. Wade?

Women and girls around the world will suffer a knock-on effect from the U.S. decision to roll back abortion rights, experts say, predicting a global clampdown on hard-won female freedoms.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / EXPLAINER
Jun 28, 2022

Abortion legal and apolitical in Japan, but cost and consent present barriers

Only expensive surgical procedures are currently available, and in most cases married women must also get spousal consent.
Japan Times
Special Supplements / Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021
Dec 7, 2021

Over a century of nutrition research and practice

The world is facing a new nutrition reality where persistent undernutrition and escalating overnutrition coexist even within individual populations. This double burden of malnutrition imposes a set of new challenges for policy and program development. With less than five years left to achieve the World...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Nov 8, 2021

Why Japan won't say the coronavirus is transmissible over long distances

There is a growing scientific consensus that the virus is more airborne than many originally thought, but the government claims the jury is still out.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 5, 2021

COVID-19 forecasters warn India deaths may double in coming weeks

The coronavirus wave that plunged India into the world's biggest health crisis has the potential to worsen.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2021

How India’s vaccine push faltered and left a country in chaos

India has fully vaccinated less than 2% of its 1.3 billion-strong population, inoculation centers say they're running short of doses and exports have all but stopped.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 20, 2020

An endless first wave: How Indonesia failed to control the virus

Only last week Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s maritime minister and close confidant of the country’s president, touted herbal mangosteen juice as a coronavirus remedy.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 1, 2019

Nancy Pelosi guides House Democrats down careful 'Medicare for all' path

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is guiding House Democrats along a narrow path as she seeks to convince party progressives that the idea of providing Medicare for everyone in the U.S. is being taken seriously, while assuring moderates that the House won't move too far, too fast.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2017

Breaking down the barriers to peace in the Middle East

Peace between Israelis and Palestinians will not be achieved overnight, and it is only through a massive effort involving the citizenry that reconciliation and cooperation can occur between both peoples.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 7, 2017

Threshold level for lead exposure may be cut

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering lowering its threshold for elevated childhood blood lead levels by 30 percent, a shift that could help health practitioners identify more children afflicted by the heavy metal.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DAVOS SPECIAL 2016
Jan 20, 2016

Japan takes on global role under 'Vision for Tomorrow'

Vision for Tomorrow is a regional partner community project of the World Economic Forum in collaboration with consulting firm Accenture Japan Ltd. In short, the project aims to contribute to the world by Japan's experience together with today's advanced technology.
WORLD / Society
Oct 15, 2015

Falling pregnant by touching boys? Africans confront sex taboos with education

When Sokhna Aminatou Sarr started menstruating, as a young girl in Senegal who had not yet reached her teenage years, her mother warned that she would become pregnant if she went near any boys.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2014

Ebola threatens Africa's development

The World Health Organization's dramatic warning that the Ebola epidemic threatens the 'very survival' of societies has a public health consultant wondering where all the millions of dollars in aid to African countries to improve their health systems have gone.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
May 23, 2014

Is Mideast xenophobia stalling cure for MERS virus?

In a north London laboratory one Saturday in September 2012, an email arrived from a team of virologists in the Netherlands that spooked even some of the world's most seasoned virus handlers.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 23, 2013

Why are so many Nepalese in Japan taking their own lives?

Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Minister of Education Hakubun Shimomura and Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Norihisa Tamura,

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