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Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 13, 2013

Running may actually protect against osteoarthritis, keep joints healthy

While out on a run recently, I passed a hiker on the trail. "My knees hurt just watching you," he told me, shaking his head. It was a variation on a comment I hear over and over: Keep running like that, and you'll give yourself arthritic knees.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2013

Japan social security reform proposal seeks to double contributions from seniors

A government panel's social security system reform proposal calls for greater contributions from the elderly and high-income earners as well as other reforms to make the system more sustainable.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 31, 2013

Can low-nicotine smokes end addiction?

Beverly Anusionwu, a smoker for three decades who favors Maverick menthols, was enticed to the small lab inside the University of Pittsburgh's psychology department by an ad promising free cigarettes and a few bucks for her time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 28, 2013

Fukushima: evolving fear into fact

Misinformation and flawed reporting about Fukushima radiation levels and reactor stability persisted even when scientific data had become readily available.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2013

Wave of state abortion laws returns issue to national prominence

As a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly years ago, Republican Scott Walker pushed two key measures to limit abortions. Neither was successful.
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2013

Violence against women

The finding that more than one-third of women worldwide suffer physical or sexual violence during their lifetimes must be understood as a devastating crisis.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 5, 2013

Children of the 1960s will pay a higher price

To some, it must have been a very long time coming but here it is at last. That smug, gold-plated, bloated slice of the population, whose main preoccupation appears to be, on the one hand, continually bragging about their unique birthright of rock 'n' roll, flower power, feminism and the sexual revolution...
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2013

JT sues Thailand over pack warnings

Japan Tobacco Inc. has sued the government of Thailand over a plan to increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packages, claiming the move is unconstitutional.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 22, 2013

U.S. top court backs free speech of funded groups

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that it is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution for the federal government to force groups to endorse the government's views in order to receive funding to combat AIDS overseas.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2013

Online drugstore chief cheers Abe on in deregulation fight

Genri Goto, CEO and founder of online drugstore Kenko.com, senses victory after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in his growth strategy earlier this month that the government would relax rules for online sales of nonprescription drugs.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WEEK 3
Jun 16, 2013

Insecticides pit trees against bees

"That's where they're going to spray."
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2013

Alcohol addiction could doom Putin's dreams

Russians' love for vodka has a long history. Legend holds that vodka arrived in Moscow in the 14th century, brought by Genovese merchants to Prince Dmitry Ivanovich.
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Weighing the costs and benefits

Judging from Chris Flynn's May 16 response, "Secondhand smoke is the enemy," it appears that the debate on the socialization of health care costs is off the table. Flynn states: "The main thrust behind banning smoking in most places is to reduce the harmful effects of secondhand smoke on nonsmokers."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2013

Thaemlitz's mix tackles antidancing law

It's fitting that I should be meeting Terre Thaemlitz on May 1, International Workers' Day — she wryly refers to herself as a "feminist Marxist" before we begin our interview in proper.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 15, 2013

Chinese prostitutes 'routinely extorted, abused'

Police raids on brothels in China have a pattern, sex workers say, often occurring a few days ahead of politically sensitive events or whenever someone in government orders an antipornography campaign to please the leadership.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 9, 2013

Fukushima activist fights fear and discrimination based on radiation

Sachiko Banba aches for children in Fukushima Prefecture, who worry whether they can lead a normal life.
Reader Mail
May 2, 2013

Australia's declining smoking rate

Joseph Jaworski, in his April 21 letter, "Consequences of health planning," claims that the Australian public health campaign to reduce smoking and drinking has "resulted in an Australian public that is perhaps less heathy (or at least, no healthier) than it was before the campaign." He links the increased...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 28, 2013

An avian flu outbreak in Japan could kill 'Abenomics'

No one has ever fully explained why, in 2002-3, the virulent pathogen known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ran rampant in mainland China (5,328 cases, 349 deaths) but only infected four people in South Korea, with no fatalities, and none in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2013

A welcome nudge for doctors to wash their hands

Hand hygiene is the No. 1 contributor — and the most fixable — to the almost 2 million hospital-acquired infections each year that kill 100,000 people in the U.S.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 13, 2013

Aichi tries to hang on to female doctors

Starting from April, female doctors with children at Fujita Health University Hospital in Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture, who need shorter working hours to care for their young will have the option of working 20 or 30 hours a week, instead of the regular 40 hours.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 13, 2013

Catholic priests unmasked: 'God doesn't like boys who cry'

March 13, 2013. The world is waiting. Television screens show days-old footage of cardinals in red and white, processing past Vatican guards into the magnificence of the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2013

Appliance makers get serious about beauty products

'Beauty' may not be the first thing that pops into people's heads when they think about electronics, but struggling Japanese home electronics manufacturers see a great deal of promise in a range of beauty gadgets targeting women, from high-tech hair dryers to steam skin moisturizers.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 30, 2013

U.S. to set new rules for cleaner gasoline

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was to move ahead Friday with a rule requiring cleaner gasoline and lower-pollution vehicles nationwide, amounting to one of President Barack Obama's most significant air pollution initiatives, according to people briefed on the decision.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

Citing side effects, group criticizes Diet OK for HPV vaccine for girls

A bill to approve vaccines to help prevent cervical cancer in girls is expected to clear the Diet this week but reports of serious side effects have prompted mothers to form a nationwide victims' support group.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

New noninvasive test gives clue but not full diagnosis

Although media reports emphasize the accuracy of a new noninvasive prenatal screening test, raising expectations among expectant mothers, it does not definitively diagnose three types of chromosomal abnormalities, including Down syndrome, warned Haruhiko Sago, head of the Center for Maternal-Fetal and...
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2013

Rules for online drug sales

The government panel tasked with regulation reform will give top priority to considering the merits of nonprescription drug sales over the Internet.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 12, 2013

Do dire predictions for Japan factor in a rush for the exits?

Within two hours of the massive earthquake that jolted Japan at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, the Japanese government received notice that an “Article 15 event” had occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 5, 2013

Down syndrome blood test draws interest and ire

Last summer, news that Japan was getting ready to introduce a new type of prenatal examination that requires only a simple blood test to detect whether a fetus has Down syndrome made headlines. News reports suggested hospitals were ready to start using the test in September.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2013

Ownership-society ideal stymies conservatives

U.S. conservatives continue a healthy debate over how they can reconnect with voters and channel their ideals and goals into policies relevant for the 21st century. But a specter haunts these conversations — a ghost called the ownership society.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past