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JAPAN
Dec 19, 2003

One in three abused kids turn to teachers

Roughly one in three sexually abused children in Japan choose to seek help from their schoolteachers, and more than half of all cases come to light when the victims decide to disclose their ordeals, according to a recent study.
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2003

Bush rightly responded to Chen's tactics

SINGAPORE -- U.S. President George W. Bush got it just about right last week when he publicly criticized Taiwan's leader during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Washington. Accusations from "friends of Taiwan's democracy" notwithstanding, Bush was not kowtowing to China; he was merely expressing...
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2003

Pension reformers give short shrift to the bigger picture

The political battle over public pension reforms may have subsided, but it's only a temporary lull.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2003

Ministry panel calls for only limited drug reform

A health ministry study panel called on the government Tuesday to give the green light to the sale of about 350 kinds of over-the-counter drugs at convenience stores and other retailers as part of deregulation efforts, but cold and pain medications will not be among them.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2003

Ministers, party execs agree on local subsidy cuts

Following weeks of turf battles, Cabinet ministers and ruling coalition executives finally reached agreement Wednesday on how the national government will cut its subsidies to local government projects by 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2004.
BUSINESS
Dec 10, 2003

Curbs eyed for nonprescription drugs

A health ministry advisory panel plans to urge the government to place sharp limits on the scope of nonprescription drugs to be sold by convenience stores and other retailers that do not employ pharmacists, including cold and allergy medicines.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

60% want to call the shots when the end is near

A record 60 percent of people recently surveyed by the health ministry said they favor preparing advance documents to refuse artificial life-support in the event they become terminally ill.
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2003

Mr. Bush and the Almighty

It is not often that U.S. President George W. Bush finds himself in trouble with his evangelical Christian base. On the whole, the president, an avowed Christian of a fundamentalist bent, has won praise from that community for his policies on everything from the Middle East to abortion and gay marriage....
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2003

Probe ties WWII poison gas to 138 sites

Poison gas may have been abandoned at 138 sites in 41 prefectures at the end of World War II, according to the results of a nationwide study released Friday by the Environment Ministry.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2003

Japan to study ties between raw food, listeriosis

An estimated 83 people a year become seriously ill in Japan with listeriosis, a potentially fatal encephalitic disease caused by listeria bacteria found in soil and rivers, according to a recent study by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2003

Ex-military doctor decries use of depleted uranium weapons

The depleted uranium rounds the U.S. and British forces were believed to have used in the war on Iraq may have subjected parts of the country to heavy radioactive contamination, a visiting U.S.-based doctor of nuclear medicine has warned.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2003

Worlds apart: a tale of two Asian cities

LONDON -- I have spent most of the last two months traveling in the poor areas of western China (the mountain areas in south Ningxia, Qinghai and Gansu) and in Uzbekistan. What a contrast! You could describe the development process in western China as two steps forward and one step back, while in Uzbekistan...
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2003

Public cancer tests 'waste of money'

The health ministry wants to review public cancer screening tests by local governments because an increasing number of them are performing examinations of unconfirmed effectiveness, according to ministry sources.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Japan to ban certain beef items

A health ministry panel on Friday recommended a ban on the use of cattle backbones in food products, as a safeguard against the human variant of mad cow disease.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Future pension benefits, premiums depend on who does the calculating

Four government entities are bracing for a policy showdown that could dictate the financial state of future generations and could influence the country's economic vitality for years to come.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2003

Corporate pension plans on the verge of collapse

Faced with huge investment losses brought on by depressed stock prices and the prospect of baby boomers nearing retirement, corporate pension funds are on the verge of collapse.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2003

Democracy: a most contentious ideal

MANILA -- No other philosophical or political idea is as contentious as the concept of freedom. All principal writings of political philosophers deal with the issue of freedom in one sense or another, leading to an enormous -- and at times confusing -- body of sources. Freedom defines the relationships...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2003

Ministries eye chemical substance database

The health, industry and environment ministries will compile a database on the toxicity and other features of some 28,000 chemical substances over a three-year period starting in fiscal 2004 in line with a new law, officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2003

Ninth mad cow case confirmed by ministry

A slaughtered 21-month-old cow in Hiroshima Prefecture has been confirmed to be infected with mad cow disease, the health ministry said Tuesday. It is the ninth such case in Japan.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 4, 2003

Pension cash payments and house-buying

Nenkin Dear Lifelines; I am American, my late husband was Japanese. We lived in Japan throughout our marriage, but for various reasons it became prudent to bring the kids back to the U.S. after he died at age 42.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2003

Single moms find favor with ministry

The health ministry plans to give preferential treatment to single mothers when hiring part-time workers, officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2003

Abused kids need loving home environment: panel

The government should revise its policy on abused children and place more emphasis on securing homelike environments in which they can receive individual care, including smaller group homes, a panel of experts advising the health ministry recommended Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 26, 2003

Fostering the will for a better way

MYSORE -- On the outskirts of historic Mysore -- city seat of maharajas until Indian independence in 1947 -- is a settlement called Kuduremala. A community of just 800 people, its name is testament to the former rulers of Mysore -- which occupies about a third of present-day Karnataka State -- who took...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

Government to impose overtime limits

The government will impose a limit on overtime work in excess of 45 hours per month for up to six months within one year, according to officials of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Database eyed to counter rising tide of drug mixups

In an effort to curb the growing number of hazardous drug mixups, the health ministry plans to compile an online database in which medicines will be classified according to their names and packaging, ministry sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Outside watchdog needed to monitor prisons: U.N. expert

An independent entity comprising nongovernmental organizations and experts is needed to monitor human rights conditions in prisons, according to Dr. Ole Rasmussen of the United Nations Committee Against Torture.

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