Tag - health

 
 

HEALTH

Shintaro Matsue (right), head of the International Furikake Association, holds an enlarged package of <i>furikake</i> in Jakarta on July 9.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2025
'Furikake' app to help manage children's health in Indonesian
After downloading an app featured on furikake product packaging, children input data like their height and weight, then do academic drills, with the reward being manga.
The newly developed drug, Adriana, is a groundbreaking painkiller, which works on a completely different mechanism to morphine and other existing synthetic opioids.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2025
Kyoto University team develops pain reliever comparable to morphine
Morphine, often administered to cancer patients, can cause serious adverse effects such as breathing issues and addiction.
People cool off under water jets in Madrid on Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 5, 2025
'Silent killer': the science of tracing climate deaths in heat waves
Heat can claim tens of thousands of lives during European summers but it usually takes months to count the cost. Scientists are aiming to change that with faster studies.
Bill Gates in New York on May 8
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2025
Gates Foundation commits $2.5 billion for women’s health
The Gates Foundation announcement provides the most detail yet on one area where the foundation plans to use its remaining funds before it shuts down in 2045.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Chairman Yoshihito Ota speaks during an interview in Osaka last month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2025
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical chairman vows corporate culture reform
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical achieved net profit growth for over 20 years from its stock market listing until the beni kо̄ji scandal emerged last year.
Despite topping physical health rankings, Japan’s children face a worsening mental health crisis due to limited early education, inconsistent counseling support and poor awareness of their rights.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 3, 2025
It’s time to take children’s mental health seriously
Given these disparities, it is clear the government needs to build a consistent school system with appropriate emotional support mechanisms
The team of researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo has found that cells often labeled "villains" for their roles in atopic dermatitis and asthma can alleviate lung inflammation.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 1, 2025
Immune cells that worsen asthma can ease lung inflammation, Japan study shows
The surprise findings, published in the European Respiratory Journal, may pave the way for new treatments.
A nurse examines a malnourished child at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on July 25.
WORLD / Society
Jul 31, 2025
On Gaza malnutrition ward, a child’s arm is as wide as mother’s thumb
Gaza's food stocks have been running out since Israel, at war with Hamas since October 2023, cut off all supplies to the territory in March.
The government has approves expanded disaster relief to better support the elderly and people with disabilities during emergencies, including armed attacks.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 29, 2025
Japan expands aid for the elderly and people with disabilities in emergencies
There have been concerns about some evacuees dying due to their health deteriorating after evacuation, and the need to strengthen protections in the event of armed attacks.
Workers remove copper from industrial wiring inside a recycling shop in Manila on June 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 29, 2025
In the Philippines, informal e-waste dismantling poses health risks
Scavenging electronic waste for the nickel, aluminum and copper inside releases a toxic brew of chemicals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, into the air.
A screenshot of a health ministry website shows an application form to submit documents for approval of a regenerative medicine program.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 28, 2025
Health bureaus' inconsistencies on regenerative medicine plans spark outcry
In one case, a regional health and welfare bureau immediately approved a regenerative medicine program but a different bureau rejected the same treatment plan.
The average life expectancy of Japanese citizens in 2024 is 81.09 years for men and 87.13 years for women, according to the health ministry.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 25, 2025
Japan's average life expectancy in 2024 almost unchanged from 2023, data shows
The life expectancy of Japanese men was sixth globally in 2024, while that of Japanese women remained in the top spot.
Pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer death in Japan, has the lowest five-year survival rate of any cancer at just 8.5%.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 25, 2025
Kyoto University researchers find mechanism behind malignant pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in Japan.
Senate Republicans must undo their reckless confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, whose anti-vaccine crusade is fueling a deadly measles outbreak and putting more Americans at risk.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2025
RFK Jr. is making America sick again. Republicans need a cure.
Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science and the crackpot conspiracy theories that flow from it.
A coral reef in Okinawa in July 2022. Some jurisdictions around the world have moved to ban certain sunscreens in a bid to protect coral reefs, but some say the impact on reefs is far from clear.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / OUR PLANET
Jul 20, 2025
Japan’s top brands get tied up in the great sunscreen debate
The debate over the damage sunscreens cause to the marine environment is heating up as some regions ban certain chemical ingredients.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito is accompanied by Empress Emerita Michiko as he leaves the University of Tokyo Hospital on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2025
Emperor emeritus diagnosed with another heart disorder
In 2022, the emperor emeritus was diagnosed with right heart failure caused by tricuspid valve insufficiency.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building in Washington
WORLD
Jul 18, 2025
U.S. health department hands over Medicaid personal data to ICE
The move marks an escalation in U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies.
Researchers at the University of Osaka Hospital last year became the first in Japan to conduct surgeries of reducing the number of fetuses in multiple pregnancy as part of clinical research.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 16, 2025
Researchers in Japan conduct multifetal pregnancy reduction surgeries
It is the first time that the procedure has been carried out as clinical research in Japan.
Scientists say a recently published study could help explain why women are typically less prone to weight-related conditions. The research may lead to new therapies that target calorie-burning mechanisms.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 15, 2025
Japanese scientists discover clue to why women burn more fat than men
Scientists say their findings could help explain why women are typically less prone to weight-related conditions and may lead to new therapies.
Fifth disease spreads primarily through respiratory droplets and contact. It is usually not contagious by the time rashes appear.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2025
Fifth disease infections in Japan hit 26-year high
Fifth disease is a viral infection that primarily affects children up to 9 years old, though adults can also contract it.

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