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October 31, 2025
 

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HEALTH

Bontan Ame candies are promoted at a convenience store in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in August, with advertising slogans recommending concert and moviegoers to take the sweet with them.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Oct 27, 2025
Bontan Ame gains popularity for rumored powers to suppress the urge to pee
Articles compiling the locations in Japan where people can get Bontan Ame can be found on South Korean websites.
Medical workers treat a patient in a COVID-19 ward at Chiba University Hospital in Chiba in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 24, 2025
Japanese researchers link COVID-19 ‘brain fog’ to neural receptors
A study found that people who reported difficulty returning to daily life after contracting COVID-19 had a higher-than-usual density of a certain receptor.
Aska Pharmaceutical's emergency contraceptive pill Norlevo has been approved for over-the-counter sales by the health ministry.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 20, 2025
Japan approves emergency contraceptive pill for over-the-counter sales
Aska Pharmaceutical's Norlevo is the first emergency contraceptive pill to be approved for sale without a prescription in the country.
A health worker administers HPV vaccine to a student in Islamabad on Sept. 24.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 14, 2025
Spread of drug-resistant superbugs surging, WHO warns
The United Nations' health agency warned that one in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections worldwide in 2023 showed resistance to antibiotic treatments.
A recent survey by the Sports Agency found that women in their 30s and 40s were less physically fit in 2024 compared to 1998 levels as more women are busy working and/or raising children.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 14, 2025
Fitness levels fall for women in their 30s and 40s compared to 1998, survey finds
The survey from the Sports Agency suggested women are too busy working and/or raising children to do physical exercise, resulting in the decline.
Recent research shows obesity may be driven by ultraprocessed and hyperpalatable foods that disrupt fullness signals and lead to overeating.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2025
What if everything we think about obesity is wrong?
New research offers novel insight into the causes of overeating but it’s being lost to political posturing.
On a per capita basis, the expenses paid to medical institutions for the treatment of illness and injury in the year through March 2024 expanded 3.5% to ¥386,700, also an all-time high, according to a final report released Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2025
Medical expenses in Japan hit record ¥48 trillion in fiscal 2023
The rise in medical costs is attributed to an increase in influenza cases, an aging population and costly medical treatments using advanced technologies.
Shimon Sakaguchi, an immunologist and a distinguished professor of Osaka University, attends a news conference after winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in medicine, in Suita, Osaka prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2025
With medical breakthrough, Japan’s latest Nobel winner bucked convention
Shimon Sakaguchi’s unwavering conviction in the validity of his research paid off with the discovery of immune-regulating cells — and a Nobel Prize in medicine.
Shimon Sakaguchi, an immunologist and distinguished professor at Osaka University, attends a news conference after winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in medicine, in Osaka Prefecture on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2025
Japanese immunologist among three Nobel medicine prize winners
Japanese immunologist Shimon Sakaguchi was awarded the prize along with two other scientists for their discovery concerning peripheral immune tolerance.
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's drug Datroway extended survival in patients with a hard-to-treat form of breast cancer.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 7, 2025
Breast cancer patients lived longer on drug Datroway, says maker
The drug is said to have significantly improved survival and delayed disease progression in patients with a particularly hard to treat form of the disease.
Children play with the AED-themed Toy Cocoro.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 7, 2025
Hokkaido company president develops defibrillator toy to promote awareness
The toy sold out soon after going on sale last autumn, but it will be available for purchase again next March.
Boxes of single-use e-cigarettes are displayed for sale on shelves in a shop in Gardanne, France
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2025
Surging numbers of children using e-cigarettes, WHO says
In countries that have the data, children are on average nine times more likely than adults to vape, the organization said.
Employees select sheets of Green Virginia tobacco leaves for processing at a Japan Tobacco cigarette plant in Senta, Serbia. While rivals have set ambitious targets for "smoke-free” products, Japan Tobacco has focused more on conventional combustible tobacco products.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2025
Japan Tobacco is doubling down on cheap cigarettes
While rivals have set ambitious targets for "smoke-free” products, Japan Tobacco has focused more on conventional combustible tobacco products.
Flu season began earlier than usual this year, with Okinawa Prefecture reporting the largest number of cases per hospital in the week up to Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 3, 2025
Japan enters its second-earliest flu season in 20 years
Okinawa had the most cases on average by prefecture, at 8.98 patients per medical institution, followed by 1.96 for Tokyo, 1.68 for Kagoshima, and Fukuoka with 1.55.
Students suffering from food poisoning after eating a meal from the government's free meal program receive treatment at the Kadungora Public Health Center in Garut, West Java on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025
Indonesia free meals program under fire after thousands sickened
More than 1,300 children were rushed to health clinics last week after suffering from breathing difficulties, nausea and diarrhea.
Fatimata Madou shows a photo of Mohamat, her 9-month-old child who died of malaria.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 3, 2025
Babies' deaths in Cameroon show how U.S. aid cuts curtail malaria fight
Upon taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump paused all foreign aid, including the President's Malaria Initiative, launched in 2005 by George W. Bush.
Princess Aiko has tested positive for COVID-19, the Imperial Household Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2025
Princess Aiko tests positive for COVID-19
The princess underwent testing after reporting a fever of about 38.5 degrees Celsius and throat pain at noon Tuesday.
Pedestrians pass through a cooling mist in Tokyo's Ginza district in August.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2025
Japan saw record number treated for heatstroke in hottest-ever summer
Patients with suspected heatstroke over the period rose almost 3% to 100,143 from a year earlier as Japan saw its temperature record broken twice in a matter of days.
Smartphones help passengers pass the time on a train near Toyoake, an industrial suburb of Nagoya.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2025
Can this city make residents put down their smartphones?
The ordinance, which was approved in a 12-7 vote by the city assembly last week, is largely symbolic, but there is heavy social pressure in Japan to follow official guidelines.
Signage outside the Capitol Hill visitors center in Washington notifies the public of its closure due to the government shutdown on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2025
The U.S. government shutdown fight has life-or-death consequences
About 4.2 million people are expected to lose coverage if Congress fails to extend premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Takaichi buys time and builds trust with ‘near-perfect’ Trump summit
U.S. President Donald Trump walks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier during a visit to the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
Trump trims fentanyl-linked China tariffs after 'amazing' Xi meeting
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping greet each other as they arrive for talks at the Gimhae Air Base, next to the Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, on Thursday.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Kyushu banzuke sets the stage to cement 2025’s sumo narratives
Onosato ahead of his bout against Aonishiki at The Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 18
Takaichi pushed back on U.S. request to ban Russian gas imports, sources say
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reportedly turned down a request from the U.S. to cease imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia.
At Japan Mobility Show, BYD gears up to conquer Japan's EV market
BYD Auto Japan President Atsuki Tofukuji unveils the Racco at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Oasis returns to Tokyo: Rain, rapture and rock
Fans wait to get into the Oasis show at Tokyo Dome on Saturday. While lining up in the rain, some broke into impromptu versions of the British rock group's hits.
Kyushu banzuke sets the stage to cement 2025’s sumo narratives
Onosato ahead of his bout against Aonishiki at The Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 18
Tokyo Film Festival opens with global stars and a spotlight on Asian storytelling
Director Junji Sakamoto (left) walked the Tokyo International Film Festival red carpet with Sayuri Yoshinaga (center) and Non (right), who both play mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest, in the biopic "Climbing for Life."
Spanish artist and Japanese writer duos diversify the manga talent pool in Japan
"Menheim” is a dark fantasy manga with a story that centers on a girl’s quest to find a cure for her ill brother.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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