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WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 23, 2013

'Rotten egg gas' hydrogen sulfide may allow us to live longer

In the hunt for ways to extend life, scientists are turning to an unlikely source: the gas that gives rotten eggs their foul smell.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2013

Silver Linings Playbook

Sometimes life falls off its dreary grid and takes on the texture and flavor of strawberry chiffon cake. That's kind of what happens when watching "Silver Linings Playbook": The more this romantic comedy-drama about an ex-teacher with mental-health problems and the people around him progresses, the more...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 19, 2013

Millions of dogs and cats coddled, 200,000 gassed each year in pet-mad Japan

Cast in bronze, Hachiko sits in a position of prominence befitting a storied daimyo or prime minister, right next to the busiest intersection in Japan, if not the world.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 16, 2013

Will new 'golden rice' revolutionize the world?

Scientists say they have seen the future of genetically modified foods and have concluded that it is orange or, more precisely, golden.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 11, 2013

'Good seed' versus 'evil weed': Hemp activists eye legalization

In the cannabis plant family, hemp is the good seed. Marijuana, the evil weed. Michael Bowman, a gregarious Colorado farmer who grows corn and wheat, has been working his contacts in Congress in an attempt to persuade lawmakers that hemp has been framed, unfairly lumped with the stuff people smoke to...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2013

'Abenomic' hopes and fears

"Abenomics" is now a buzzword at home and abroad. Even before taking office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had strongly demanded that the Bank of Japan take action to end deflation and set an inflation target that would drive the yen lower.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2013

Smaller pieces of the pie

The Abe administration is slicing ¥390 billion off last year's budget for central government grants to local governments, and calling for lower wages.
MULTIMEDIA
Feb 7, 2013

England players offer Gascoigne help

Distressed by the sight of Paul Gascoigne's renewed battle against alcoholism, England players offered Tuesday to help the troubled star's recovery as he receives treatment in the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2013

Ending the international war against women

According to the United Nations, one in three women worldwide will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 4, 2013

Russians cast wary eye on volunteerism

A country doctor, a tiny, dilapidated village hospital, an indifferent health bureaucracy — and now, coming to the rescue, volunteers from distant Moscow, bringing furniture, equipment, money and, maybe most important, good cheer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 3, 2013

Japan's competitiveness

Japan's world ranking in 'economic competitiveness' is slipping. The nation came in 10th in 2012, continuing its slide from the sixth spot in 2010.
WORLD
Feb 3, 2013

Obama offers deal on birth control

The Obama administration proposed new rules Friday that would guarantee widespread access to contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act, but seemed unlikely to head off legal battles that could return a part of the health care law to the Supreme Court.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2013

Budget shows old LDP stripes

The nearly ¥93 trillion initial general-account budget for fiscal 2013 approved by the Abe Cabinet shows that the old Liberal Democratic Party is back.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2013

Odd response to student's suicide

The Osaka City Board of Education is more intent on engaging in political gimmicks than on enacting meaningful reform in the wake of a student's suicide.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013

Solar lanterns brighten future for Afghans

Where would we be without light when night falls? It is hard to imagine all of the constraints during the long hours of darkness before the sun rises again — no work, no study and no recreation.
Reader Mail
Jan 23, 2013

Unsurprising radiation results

In his Jan. 20 letter, "Radiation results beggar belief," Giovanni Fazio expresses dismay that doctors working in Fukushima are not finding dangerous levels of radiation in children.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2013

Cut state funding to terminal patients so they "can die quickly": Aso

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso caused a stir Monday in talks on social security reforms when he said the medical system should be changed so that the many terminal patients now using "government money" for expensive treatment "can quickly pass away."
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2013

Drug sales over the Internet

The Supreme Court's Second Petit Bench ruled 4-0 on Jan. 11 that the health and welfare ministry's ban on the sale of nonprescription drugs over the Internet is null and void. Two firms had filed the lawsuit. While maximum priority should be given to drug safety, a balance must be struck between safety...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2013

Generic drug prescriptions

The Liberal Democratic Party would like to get doctors and medical organizations, in principle, to prescribe generic drugs, instead of proprietary drugs, to people on welfare with their consent. Behind the idea is the hope of curbing the rising costs of livelihood assistance, known as seikatsu hogo,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 1, 2013

Osaka: What are your hopes for yourself, Japan and the world in 2013?

I argue with my husband a lot, so I hope that diminishes next year! And I hope everyone stays healthy, especially my four grandkids and new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, since he previously quit for health reasons. I worry about Japan's conflicts with our neighbors, and hope that the country can use its brainpower and high-tech knowhow to figure out ways to solve the various island disputes. Can't we all just get along nicely?

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