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JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Panel to mull bids for 15 new colleges

The education ministry has asked an advisory panel to study applications to establish 15 new universities in fiscal 2003, according to ministry officials.
JAPAN
May 23, 2002

Police search firms linked to dumpling manufacturer

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police conducted a series of searches Wednesday after the discovery that the Mister Donut chain in Japan had been using an unauthorized antioxidant in its dumplings.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

What the label doesn't say

Scandals about deception in product labeling have been in the news of late, with both the expiry dates and the origins of dairy and meat products called into question. While not as big a news item, the labeling standards for whale meat take deception to further, murkier depths -- and to dangerous ones....
JAPAN
May 14, 2002

Fourth cow infected with BSE

A Hokkaido cow was confirmed Monday to be infected with mad cow disease, the fourth case in Japan since September, health ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2002

Rules sought on secondhand smoke

A citizens' group in Osaka campaigning for a smoke-free environment for children submitted a petition Monday to the health minister calling for stricter regulations to reduce secondhand smoke.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2002

Centers eyed to fight medical malpractice

A health ministry panel compiled a report Wednesday recommending that medical safety consultation centers be set up in all prefectures to fight malpractice and mediate between medical institutions and patients.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2002

Teen eating disorders increasing

About one in every 20 girls enrolled at high schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area suffers from anorexia nervosa, according to a government-funded survey.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2002

Mad cow losses put at 365 billion yen

Mad cow disease caused at least 365 billion yen in damage to the farming sector and related industries, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2002

Secure food safety

Never before, perhaps, has a government advisory panel made such a scathing attack on public policy. The final report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, popularly known as mad cow disease, submitted Tuesday by a 10-member investigative committee, points out that the government made a "grave...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2002

Artificially conceived children could get key to donor parents' identities

Children who were conceived via the use of donated eggs or sperm may be given access to information that would identify their biological parents, health ministry officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2002

Workshops for mentally ill feel fenced in

A newspaper article that called attention to the May 1981 opening of the Aoi Mugi No Ie workshop for the mentally ill, mainly schizophrenics, in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, sparked a 15-year campaign by local residents to drive the facility away.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Courts propose settlement in CJD case

Two district courts on Friday recommended that a total of 1.16 billion yen be paid to one person with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the families of 19 others who contracted the fatal brain disorder through transplants of imported dura mater and have died.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2002

An optimistic economic outlook

How will Japan's economy develop from fiscal 2002 through 2006? The official answer, in a nutshell, is that it will stage a slow but steady recovery led by private demand. Under the circumstances, that is probably the most the government can hope for. The big question is whether this scenario will come...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2002

HIV-positive blood donors hit record high rate in 2001

Seventy-nine of some 5,770,000 blood donations last year in Japan were from HIV-positive donors, making the rate of positive donors the highest ever at 1.368 per 100,000, according to a survey by the health ministry's special committee on AIDS.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2002

Population seen peaking at 127.74 million in '06

Japan's population is expected to fall to about 100.59 million in 2050 after peaking at roughly 127.74 million in 2006 -- a year earlier than in the last report -- according to an estimate released Wednesday by an institute affiliated with the health ministry.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Ministries working on food safety agency

The farm ministry and the health ministry are negotiating the establishment of a food safety agency in fiscal 2002, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Jobless rate in December rises to new high of 5.6%

Japan's unemployment rate climbed to a record-high 5.6 percent in December, pushing the average jobless rate for 2001 to a new high of 5 percent, the government revealed Tuesday in a preliminary report.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2002

How to check nosocomial infection

Yet another outbreak of hospital-acquired group infection caused by serratia bacteria has occurred. At a hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, a total of 12 inpatients on the same floor were infected, and seven of them died within a week. This is an extremely serious case of medical error.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2002

Labor bureaus asked to localize job aid

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi on Wednesday called on the ministry's 47 prefectural labor bureaus to tailor their unemployment measures to the needs of their respective areas.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2002

Hospital deaths share bacteria strain

The serratia bacteria detected in six patients who died at a Tokyo hospital appear to be from the same strain, tests results showed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2002

Conflicting statements point to hospital coverup

The director of a Tokyo hospital where 11 inpatients contracted an apparent serratia bacterial infection that killed seven of them told family members early on that he suspected one of the patient's symptoms were caused by a bacterial infection, not influenza as the hospital later claimed, family sources...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

Agencies seek help for Aral Sea

When top officials from dozens of nations and international organizations convene in Tokyo on Monday for two days of discussions on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, they may not be aware that their efforts could spark unintended environmental and political side effects, according to experts.
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2002

Assuaging threats to peace

LONDON -- The Taliban has been routed and, with the arrival of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Kabul, the prospects for Afghanistan are better than they have been for many years. But Osama bin Laden and his senior henchmen have not been accounted for. The search will have to continue, and terrorist havens,...
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2002

Dads take child-care leave at own risk

Minoru Omoishi, 35, took three months' leave in 1999 to care for his newborn triplets.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2001

Japan, U.K. to link up in mad cow study

The farm ministry will conduct a comprehensive survey of mad cow disease in fiscal 2002, in conjunction with a British research institute, it was learned Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2001

Marrow bank struggles to meet demand

More bone marrow donors are needed to save the lives of people with deadly blood diseases, according to the Japan Marrow Donor Foundation.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2001

Aid in works for hibakusha living abroad

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is considering earmarking about 500 million yen from the budget to help hibakusha living overseas come to Japan for treatment beginning in fiscal 2002, ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2001

Oysters blamed for west Japan dysentery cases

The number of people being treated for dysentery -- apparently after eating oysters -- has soared to 72 in 21 prefectures, mainly in western Japan, health authorities said Saturday.

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