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Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2009

Little alternative to risky flu drugs

Many may wonder at the use of Tamiflu to treat young victims of the H1N1 flu, given reports in recent years of teen deaths linked to the antiviral drug. But experts say prescribing Tamiflu is inevitable because there are only limited alternatives for combating the latest virus.
JAPAN
May 30, 2009

Ruling coalition rams through record ¥14 trillion extra budget

A record ¥14 trillion extra budget for fiscal 2009 was enacted by the Diet on Friday as the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc used its right to override the opposition again and force the legislation through.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 24, 2009

Explaining Oya's break for 'rest' and ban on balloons

Yokohama manager Tatsuhiko Oya took a "kyuyo" on Monday, the eve of opening day for Japan pro baseball's interleague season, replaced by Tomio Tashiro, previously manager of the BayStars farm club, the Shonan Searex.
JAPAN
May 17, 2009

Kobe officials start limited measures to halt flu spread

KOBE — As Kobe confirmed the nation's first domestic swine flu infections, city officials instituted a limited number of measures to prevent further infections from developing, prompting Kansai-area residents to prepare for further possible outbreaks.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2009

Responsibility stops with Mr. Aso

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike resigned Wednesday "for health reasons." Clearly behind his resignation was Shukan Shincho weekly magazine's disclosure, with photos, of his April 28-30 rendezvous with a woman at an Atami resort in Shizuoka Prefecture. For the trip, he used a free JR...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 14, 2009

Cabinet member exits after tryst

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike resigned Wednesday for "personal reasons" after a magazine hit newsstands with a full account of a trip he and a lover took to a hot-spring resort, during which he used a special JR pass that lets Diet members ride shinkansen for free.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2009

Here comes a downsized 'norm'

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Markets are bubbling over signs of "green shoots" in the global economy. An increasing number of investors see a strong rebound coming, first in China, then in the United States, and then in Europe and the rest of the world. Even the horrible growth numbers of the last couple quarters...
JAPAN
May 9, 2009

Lawmakers urged to act now to revise organ transplant law

People in need of organ transplants and their supporters urged lawmakers Friday to revise the transplant law during the current Diet session, despite the World Health Organization's decision to delay until next year enacting a resolution to restrict overseas travel for transplants.
JAPAN
May 6, 2009

Calls to revise organ law grow as lawmakers debate various plans

When Yasuto Katagiri asked New York's Columbia University in February to perform a heart transplant on Hoku, his 2-year-old son suffering from a rare form of heart disease called restrictive cardiomyopathy, the university had to turn him down because its 5 percent limit for accepting foreign transplant...
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2009

Tuberculosis remains a threat

Tuberculosis (TB) was once dreaded in Japan, with fatalities reaching a peak of 171,474 in 1943. Recent news about new TB cases, including a midwife in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, and Ms. Haruka Minowa of the popular female comic duo Harisenbon, has reminded people and medical professionals that TB...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2009

Taiwan gets a U.N. invite

The World Health Organization has invited Taiwan to take part in the May 18-27 meeting of the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing body, as an observer. The invitation came just after Beijing and Taipei signed agreements April 26 to deepen ties, signaling that relations across the Taiwan Strait...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2009

Mexico and Japan make beautiful music together

I n September 1609, when a Mexican sailboat ran ashore in a typhoon near the village of Onjuku in today's Chiba Prefecture, local fishermen and ama (female divers) rescued 317 souls from the angry ocean. That was Japan's first contact with Mexican people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 23, 2009

Serial blood donor Wataru Takekuma

Wataru Takekuma, 36, is a government worker in Toyama Prefecture's Kurobe City. With a population of 43,000, Kurobe is one of the four areas in Japan that made it to the 2008 UNESCO list of the 12 most abundant subsurface water resources in Asia. Takekuma was born and raised in this town where people...
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2009

Alcoholism remains a taboo issue

OSAKA — He seems to have it all. A tenured university professor in the Kansai region, fluent in English and partially conversant in Chinese, he is consulted by senior local business leaders seeking advice on doing business in the United States and Europe and has served on local government committees...
Reader Mail
Apr 16, 2009

Way to victory in Afghanistan

While I was reading Ted Rall's April 4 article "U.S. can't afford Afghan war," I had an epiphany of what was needed to be done for Afghanistan. The United States needs to provide the people of Afghanistan with something that the "insurgents" cannot provide: a way out of poverty (40 percent unemployment...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 15, 2009

'Human Eraser' battled demons until the end

NEW YORK — Rarely a day goes by anymore that sickness and death isn't on my lips and in my ear, or dialing or e-mailing.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2009

Breathing easier at JR stations

Tokyo became just a little less smoky from April 1 this year. As new students and employees began their first days of school or work, East Japan Railway began its first day of a smoking ban at all JR stations within a 50 km radius from Tokyo station. The ban is a welcome one for non-smokers, a hassle...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-CHINA-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Apr 11, 2009

Can Japan, U.S., China work together?

Japan, China and the United States — the world's three largest economies — all face long-term challenges even after they successfully emerge from the current global crisis, Chinese and Japanese scholars told a recent symposium in Tokyo.

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