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JAPAN
Jan 12, 2006

Insurance may cover new hearts

The health ministry may expand medical insurance coverage to include heart and pancreas transplants, ministry officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2005

Major effort launched to cut suicide rate

The government set a target Monday of reducing the number of suicides to around 25,000 a year over the next decade, adopting 47 measures centered on boosting counseling services.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 25, 2005

Political 'capital' like dust in the wind

WASHINGTON -- What a year! When 2005 began, there was so much hope and optimism in Washington, even among us Democrats.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2005

Poverty collides with U.S. children's rights

NEW YORK -- The haunting images of African Americans stranded in New Orleans are powerful evidence of the fate of the dispossessed in the United States. The extent of the divide between rich and poor was clearly shown during a recent visit to the U.S. by Arjun Sengupta, an independent expert on human...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2005

Suit over taxi smoke rejected

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday rejected a 13.6 million yen lawsuit filed by taxi drivers and customers who accused the government of damaging their health by failing to curb passive smoking in cabs.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 19, 2005

Time to remove life support: Government should heed BOJ

To end or not to end. That is the question. The Bank of Japan says yes. The government says no. The BOJ feels the time is ripe to do away with the policy of "quantitative easing." The govern- ment feels it is premature to do so. Dueling time is here again over the conduct of monetary policy.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2005

Panel calls for ban on asbestos use in buildings

An infrastructure ministry task force called Monday for revising the Building Standard Law to impose an outright ban on the use of construction materials containing asbestos in new buildings.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2005

Desertification on the march

To the average person, "desertification" likely conjures up images of sandstorms sweeping across the Sahara. While this is one manifestation, desertification is a global process that persistently reduces the benefits people get from nature -- collectively termed "ecosystem services." This happens as...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2005

DU vet: 'My days are numbered'

Gerard Matthew has broad shoulders and beefy hands. He's built like a bear. Yet as sturdy as this 31-year-old may look, he is a very sick man.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2005

Brokers pitch the 'affluent life' to baby boomers

An increasing number of financial institutions are offering seminars on health care, travel, wine tasting and food, targeting baby boomers now approaching mandatory retirement age with money to spend and invest.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2005

Tamiflu linked to teens' deaths

Two teenage boys who took the antiviral drug Tamiflu exhibited abnormal behavior that led to their deaths, with one jumping in front of an oncoming truck last year and the other falling from the ninth floor of a building earlier this year, health ministry and other sources said Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 13, 2005

Companies fixing sights on elite as 'lower class' refuse to spend

Boosters of corporate-led globalization like to say that markets are more efficient economic equalizers than governments are. Whether or not you believe this, it only makes sense if you also believe that everyone in the world has the same desire to buy things.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2005

Ministry to hike Tamiflu stockpile

The health ministry plans to expand the nation's stockpile of influenza-fighting Tamiflu and come up with measures to deal with any shortages, including prioritizing drug recipients, ministry sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

Cutting deficit still top priority: Yosano

Debate over proposed tax hikes will not keep the government from trying to trim the budget deficit, according to Kaoru Yosano, the new economic and fiscal policy minister.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 23, 2005

A more dignified way to die

Many of us struggle with difficult decisions regarding, say, our careers or relationships. But one decision that many of us avoid is "How do I want to die?"
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2005

Ministry drafting plan for new flu strains

The health ministry is compiling a guideline to prevent the spread of new types of influenza and deal with potential outbreaks amid concerns a global flu pandemic may soon emerge.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 18, 2005

Ministry missive wrecks reception

Between Oct. 7-11, the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Japan's largest convocation of language educators, held its annual meeting in Shizuoka, a pleasant city between Tokyo and Osaka.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2005

Help for victims of asbestos

The government has drafted an outline of a bill to provide financial aid to sufferers of asbestos-caused cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the membranes surrounding the lungs, and to bereaved family members of victims. The government hopes to have the Diet enact the bill next year.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2005

Labs not storing anthrax and resistant TB properly, study finds

Samples of anthrax and drug-resistant tuberculosis that could be used for bioterrorism are kept in at least 114 medical and research facilities in Japan, half of which do not have manuals on how to handle the dangerous pathogens, a government study showed Wednesday.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

Election provides steam for cutting medical costs

The political football of how to curb Japan's snowballing medical expenses was high on the agenda Tuesday as the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy accelerated discussions on the fiscal 2006 budget.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2005

Sting units making dent in narcotics trade on Internet

The health ministry set up special units in January to crack down on illegal drug trade on the Internet, with investigators arresting about 60 people in the seven-month period through July, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Asbestos in Bridgestone bike brakes

Bridgestone Cycle Co. said Wednesday it has discovered about 19,500 children's bicycles sold between October 2004 and last month have asbestos in their brakes and is offering to change the components for free.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 28, 2005

Privacy of sperm donors leaves lives in limbo

Emi Nishimura's identity quest began the hard way.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2005

Population may begin decline in '05

2005 may see Japan's population shrink for the first time, according to health ministry figures released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2005

Phone bills, drop in adult smoking help teens quit

The percentage of junior high and high school students who smoke dropped sharply in fiscal 2004, apparently due to a decline in adult smokers and expensive cell phone bills, a health ministry research team said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 26, 2005

Cleaning the body

Summer is upon us, and spring-cleaning of your body may be long overdue.

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