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JAPAN
Oct 16, 2005

Airborne asbestos levels to be checked at 360 locations across Japan

The Environment Ministry has announced it will measure asbestos concentration levels in the air at 360 spots in 140 areas nationwide, for the first such study since 1995.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2005

Reporter can conceal source; first time since '79

The Niigata District Court ruled Tuesday that an NHK reporter was justified in refusing to reveal a news source in connection with a suit a U.S. health food company filed in the United States over the taxation of its Japanese subsidiary in 1997, it was revealed Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Ministry sees 85,000 asbestos deaths

Deaths caused by asbestos-related mesothelioma and lung cancer in Japan could reach 85,000, Environment Ministry sources said in an estimate Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2005

Cord blood stem cells reproduced

A health ministry team has developed technology to safely and effectively reproduce stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2005

Asbestos-linked cancer deaths doubled in last decade

Deaths from mesothelioma, a rare cancer often caused by asbestos exposure, almost doubled to a record 953 in 2004 from 500 in 1995, according to government statistics.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2005

Asbestos risk at 341 hospitals, 92 nurseries

People are at risk of asbestos exposure at 341 hospitals and 92 nurseries across Japan, according to an interim report on a health ministry survey released earlier this week.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2005

Lump-sum asbestos redress elusive goal

The government agreed Sept. 29 on the outline of a special bill to help asbestos victims, but officials admit the legislation provides no lump sum compensation.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

Researchers scam millions in subsidies

Four researchers, including a Keio University medical doctor, had fraudulently received a combined 85 million yen in government subsidies for scientific research as of the end of fiscal 2004, according to officials of the Board of Audit of Japan.
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2005

That new car smell -- a standard, harmful feature

Anyone who's pulled away from the dealer's lot in a shiny, new sedan knows the seductive scent of fresh plastic, paint and upholstery that evokes a rush of pride and consumer satisfaction.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2005

Beware the hype on antipsychotic drugs

NEW YORK -- A new study financed by the U.S. government sheds new light on the system that promotes and approves new drugs, and shows the need for strict- er guidelines to better protect consumers and reduce unnecessary government spending.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2005

State asbestos inaction blamed on 'red tape'

Bureaucratic red tape hindered Japan from taking a more aggressive stance against asbestos use in the past, the government said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2005

Ward delists 'missing' woman, 110?

Tokyo's Arakawa Ward has deleted the resident registry of a woman who has not been seen for 40 years and would be 110 years old if still alive, ward officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / LIFE LAB
Sep 27, 2005

Breathe deep, don't worry, it's only O2

As soon as I accepted the assignment I realized I had a problem. My task was to test Tokyo's latest fad, the oxygen capsule. The trouble is I'm claustrophobic. Elevators make me tense. When watching reruns of "Star Trek," I have to avert my eyes when anyone gets sealed into a stasis chamber. There was...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2005

After-lunch nap can perk up kids who get the nods in class: expert

It's an afternoon class and most of the pupils are trying to fight off drowsiness -- an experience most people perhaps can identify with.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Bill afoot to offer victims of asbestos-caused mesothelioma aid

The government plans to introduce a bill that will give financial aid to people with asbestos-related mesothelioma and the next of kin of those who have died from the disease, sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2005

Koizumi's next act to be his toughest yet

By MAYUMI NEGISHI and HIROKO NAKATA Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landslide victory has given him a broad mandate to privatize the postal services and downsize the bloated public sector.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 11, 2005

What price social equality since the ventriloquists' putsch?

On the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity, is it too early to talk of a Bush legacy? What vision has the administration of President George W. Bush bestowed on the United States as a result of the terrorist attacks that day?
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2005

Result of 'dealing with the devil'

The report on the investigation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program -- the international effort to oversee Iraq's oil sales and alleviate suffering in that country following the first Persian Gulf War -- excoriates the entire U.N. system for its failures. No one -- not the the U.N. bureaucracy,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2005

A historic scramble to rule

The Sept. 11 Lower House election will test Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's politics, giving voters a chance to choose the nation's leadership between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2005

Sumitomo unit ups output of mosquito nets for Africa

Sumitomo Chemical Co. has been cranking up production of mosquito nets in response to soaring demand in Africa, where Japan's traditional sleeping screens with a modern twist have gained recognition as an effective weapon against malaria.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2005

Medical expenses rose to all-time high in 2003

Medical expenses paid to medical institutions hit an all-time high of 31.538 trillion yen in the fiscal year ended in March 2004, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2005

Unhealthy fixation on 'miracle' growth

HONG KONG -- In the late 1970s, after China had emerged from the frenzy of the Cultural Revolution and it was again politically correct to talk about development, economists and officials focused on two principal economic indices: GVIO and GVAO, or gross value of industrial output and gross value of...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Tried to the limit and beyond

He was born in America, raised in Japan, and felt like a misfit in both societies. Had he lived somewhere else in some other time, he might have been a renowned scholar of Chinese classics, in which he was an outstanding student. Or an artist in the United States, like his daughter is now.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2005

Nomonhan Incident remains repatriated

The remains of eight soldiers who died in the 1939 Battle of the River Halka, known as the Nomonhan Incident, were repatriated and placed in a mortuary in the health ministry Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2005

A way to preempt labor disputes

I n recent years, labor disputes involving individual workers, particularly with regard to layoffs and wages, have increased rapidly in Japan. In the background are sweeping changes in the employment situation, as illustrated by sharp rises in the number of temporary and part-time workers. Current labor-related...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 7, 2005

Mao was closer to seventy percent bad

An elegant Georgian terrace house in London's Notting Hill Gate, perhaps the most upmarket area for Britain's chattering classes now that Prime Minister Tony Blair and his friends have deserted Islington, may seem an unlikely venue for a counter-revolution against Mao Zedong's revolutionary claims. Yet...

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