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JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Forum mulls risks of chemicals

The effect that long-term, chronic exposure to chemicals and other substances has on the health of children must be scrutinized, participants at an international symposium agreed Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2004

Panel floats suspension for surgeons

A health ministry panel recommended Wednesday that two surgeons involved in a fatally botched prostate cancer operation in November 2002 be suspended from practicing medicine for two years.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2004

Japan to ink tobacco control treaty

Japan will sign the first global treaty aimed at reducing the health hazards of smoking.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2004

Water, water everywhere

Water is not what it once was, a synonym for simplicity and transparency. We used to bathe in it unthinkingly, admire it in our scenic views, drink it straight from the well or tap, and generally take it for granted. It soothed us by its very plainness: "Meditation and water are wedded forever," said...
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2004

Whistle-blower law in the pipeline

Three decades after Hiroaki Kushioka exposed a price-fixing cartel involving his employer in the trucking industry, the government is working on what would become Japan's first-ever law to protect whistle-blowers in private-sector firms and government organizations.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2004

Lessons unlearned in Asia

In the aftermath of the devastating SARS outbreak in Asia last year, Asian governments loudly proclaimed that they had learned their lesson. Governments and health authorities must be quick to acknowledge when diseases appear and move rapidly to disclose pertinent information to the public and their...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2004

U.S. oil firm leaves toxic legacy in Ecuador

NEW YORK -- Drilling for oil without adequate safeguards is one of the most destructive industrial activities both for people and for the environment. This danger has been particularly stark in the case of oil exploration and exploitation in the forested areas of the Amazon basin.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2004

Pro-U.S. stance on the line

U.S. political scientist Francis Fukuyama once predicted that the end of the Cold War would usher in an age when economic power would be the source of national strength. It seems his prophesy was off because of the policy stance of the Bush administration.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2003

A disquieting waste of money

A national audit report makes for dismal reading, since it is always a reminder of waste in government. So it is with the latest report, which says that government offices and agencies "mismanaged" about 45 billion yen in 2002 -- the largest amount in 20 years. That is particularly disquieting at a time...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2003

Japan's refusal to embrace sex education fuels spread of AIDS

U.S. President George W. Bush may be the best example of how ignorance can be wielded as a weapon, but most people who take advantage of their ignorance prefer to use it as a shield. Tadao Eguchi, the president of the hotel company that operates the hot-spring resort that canceled the reservations of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Balanced diet eludes kids of junk food age

Getting kids to eat their vegetables is not easy. And in fast-paced urban Japan, where both parents usually work and the landscape is dominated by convenience stores overflowing with junk food, the chore is ever more difficult.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2003

Debate needed on pension reform

Japan's underfunded public pension system -- which was a major issue in the Nov. 9 general election -- is in need of urgent reform. As expected, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's plan for 2004, unveiled Monday, calls for drastic changes that would impose a greater burden on both the younger and...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2003

Graying Japan needs a road map

Falling birthrates and aging populations -- largely consequences of affluence and longevity -- are a common phenomenon in industrialized countries. Japan is no exception, yet it stands out as an extraordinary case, historically as well as globally. To our knowledge, few countries have experienced such...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 31, 2003

The humble Pacific-Rim fruit that roared

When ripe, the tropical fruit noni turns the kind of yellow-green most people associate with nasal congestion -- and gives off an odor pungent enough to clear that congestion away. Accordingly, noni's profile has long been low compared with that of more popular Pacific Rim fruits.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

Matsumoto Kiyoshi finds train stations bring in customers

Ginza, Shibuya and Tokyo's other well-known commercial districts are coveted by retailers for their ever-present shopping crowds.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2003

Myanmarese dying to get out of Japan

On July 28, a 39-year-old man from Myanmar died alone in the International Medical Center of Japan in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2003

France's long, hot summer

PARIS -- Fifty-three thousand deaths in August against 40,000 the same month in 2002: This has every chance of being the minimum toll of the unprecedented heat wave France has known this summer, with daytime peaks of more than 40 degrees Celsius vs. a seasonal norm of 27 degrees.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Study hopes to dampen boozing

In a bid to reduce drinking in Japan, a health ministry team is conducting the country's first nationwide study on the hazards of alcohol consumption on health and human relations, researchers said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Smoke lingers in government buildings

Efforts to ban smoking in central government buildings in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district are having little effect as old habits prove tough to break.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Cemetery for war dead has identity crisis

Summer for many Japanese is a time that conjures up bitter memories of the nation's Aug. 15, 1945, defeat in the war -- a conflict that claimed millions of lives and left a number of cities devastated.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

Ministry plans home-use ban on carcinogenic oil

The health ministry will ban creosote oil for home use because it contains carcinogens, ministry sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Taiwan protests SARS info on Web

Taiwan authorities lodged a protest Thursday with Japan's health ministry over a report on the World Health Organization's Web site that a man diagnosed in Tokyo as a probable SARS case is from Taiwan, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Taiwan protests SARS info on Web

Taiwan authorities lodged a protest Thursday with Japan's health ministry over a report on the World Health Organization's Web site that a man diagnosed in Tokyo as a probable SARS case is from Taiwan, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2003

Taiwan protests SARS info on Web

Taiwan authorities lodged a protest Thursday with Japan's health ministry over a report on the World Health Organization's Web site that a man diagnosed in Tokyo as a probable SARS case is from Taiwan, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2003

2002 a record-breaking year for side effects caused by drugs

There were a record 28,400 reported cases of side effects caused by drugs in fiscal 2002, health ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2003

2002 a record-breaking year for side effects caused by drugs

There were a record 28,400 reported cases of side effects caused by drugs in fiscal 2002, health ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2003

2002 a record-breaking year for side effects caused by drugs

There were a record 28,400 reported cases of side effects caused by drugs in fiscal 2002, health ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2003

Fish fingered for mercury content out of favor

The health ministry is trying to prevent damage to the fisheries industry after prices of broadbill swordfish and alfonsin, a sea bream-like species, plummeted following a ministry advisory to pregnant women to limit consumption of the fish due to their mercury content, according to ministry officials....

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