Search - health

 
 
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 5, 2021

Suga announces two-week extension to state of emergency in Tokyo area

The move is understood to be aimed at easing burdens on hospitals — and wrestling back prominence as a leader, in the public eye, from Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2021

Cities and towns face language barriers as they prepare to vaccinate Japan's foreign residents

With their hands already full, some municipalities are less prepared than others and many have been forced to put the issue on the back burner.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 26, 2021

India beats China at its own game in vaccine diplomacy fight

India's pharmaceutical industry had already made the South Asian nation the main supplier of essential medicines to the developing world.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2021

Japan keeps COVID-19 emergency in place as hospital occupancy remains high

A health ministry advisory board warned that while new cases were declining in most areas, clusters at hospitals and care facilities could propel death tolls to high levels.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 12, 2021

Is Japan's national payment for childbirth sufficient?

While the country provides a lump sum for mothers to assist with childbirth costs, some are finding it doesn't stretch far enough as a result of pandemic pressures.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2021

Japan urged to link up private and public testing to better grasp pandemic's extent

The recommendation, included in a health ministry report, calls for the government to vet testing companies and merge their figures with those compiled by public clinics.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 22, 2021

Diet in review: Suga defensive on virus response but steadfast on Olympics

Japan's prime minister took heat from one opposition lawmaker after another during three days of question-and-answer sessions.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 21, 2021

Mongolian prime minister submits resignation after COVID-19 protests

Mongolia's Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa submitted his resignation to parliament on Thursday after protests in the capital Ulaanbaatar over the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state news agency Montsame reported.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Great Reset
Jan 19, 2021

Trade in personal data is here to stay

Japan is well-placed to be a leader in data trading, but technical hurdles need to be overcome and mindsets need to be changed.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 18, 2021

Thailand sold itself as a paradise pandemic retreat. No one came.

The economy is estimated to have contracted 6% in 2020, the biggest decline since the Asian financial crisis.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jan 14, 2021

Japan bars entry for new arrivals and business travelers due to new COVID-19 strains

Authorities will name and shame returnees who breach quarantine restriction, and rescind the residency status of foreign nationals if they fail to adhere to controls.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 31, 2020

A New Year's resolution for the world: Find a common path to recovery

The 2020 crisis has shown us that we need even more global cooperation in order to face this century's toughest challenges.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 30, 2020

Astra-Oxford coronavirus vaccine gets its first clearance with U.K. approval

AstraZeneca PLC and the University of Oxford's Covid-19 vaccine won U.K. clearance, marking the first approval worldwide for a shot that will be key to mass immunizations.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 29, 2020

America’s post-Trump reckoning

As the Biden administration re-engages with U.S. partners and allies, it will have to provide assurances that arrangements made in the next four years will survive into the future.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2020

Suga urges caution over New Year's break as COVID-19 cases keep rising

Officials say the surge in new infections is already affecting local health care systems and overwhelming hospitals at a time of the year when staffing is limited.
Morgan Stanley analysts estimate the top five makers of hearing aids hold roughly 99% of the global market, which they predict will be worth over $14 billion by next year rising from about $12 billion in 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 15, 2025

Trump’s tariffs spare Europe-dominated hearing aid industry

An ecosystem developed over more than a century has given three Danish companies and a Swiss rival a quasi-monopoly on the market for devices that help people hear better.
Ocean plastic pollution is a systemic crisis that cannot be solved by a few sustainability-minded citizens recycling but requires an economy-wide solution.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 19, 2025

The true cost of ocean plastic pollution

The problem of maritime plastic-waste pollution first became apparent in the 1970s. In the half-century since then, the problem has become ever more widespread, as scientific expeditions conducted by the Tara Ocean Foundation (of which I am executive director) have shown.
A mother takes her child to kindergarten in Hanoi on Wednesday. Vietnam's birth rate fell from 2.11 children per woman in 2021 to 1.91 last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 4, 2025

Vietnam scraps two-child limit as birth rate declines

The birth rate fell from 2.11 children per woman in 2021 to 1.91 last year, below replacement level.
Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jun 6, 2025

Hamas says ready for 'serious' Gaza truce talks, as rescuers say scores killed

Talks aimed at brokering a new ceasefire have failed to yield a breakthrough since the last brief truce fell apart in March.
An Israeli armored personnel carrier near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel on Saturday
WORLD
Jun 8, 2025

Israeli airstrikes kill 55; body of Thai hostage retrieved from Gaza

Thai agricultural worker Nattapong Pinta was abducted from a small Israeli community near the Gaza border during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a news conference about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest autism survey in Washington on April 16.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Kennedy dismisses all 17 members of U.S. CDC vaccine panel

All sitting members were appointed under former President Joe Biden's administration.
An Afghan woman carries away food aid donated by the Indian government in Kabul on May 18.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 10, 2025

Trump's cuts are 'devastating' for vulnerable women worldwide, U.N. says

Though it is too soon to estimate the impacts of the U.S. cuts, they will likely result in increased maternal mortality and more unintended pregnancies.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Committee on Appropriations hearing on the Department of Health and Human Services budget in Washington on May 20.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2025

Kennedy replaces fired U.S. CDC vaccine panel members

His appointments include several who have advocated against vaccines.
A DJ performs for attendees drinking coffee at an alcohol-free clubbing event in Singapore.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2025

Sober clubbing brews fresh beat for Singapore's Gen Z

Not into an environment filled with alcohol? Try hitting up a coffee rave in Singapore.
Taiwan is strengthening its capacity to produce blood bags domestically in preparation for emergencies.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 17, 2025

Taiwan targets blood-bag production as China steps up pressure

President Lai Ching-te has made preparing the self-ruled archipelago for a possible conflict with China a central part of his policymaking.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers