Tag - health

 
 

HEALTH

A stick-sized container containing an egg and a tank used to freeze eggs
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Mar 5, 2025
More women in Japan turn to egg freezing amid increase in financial support
Although the practice is emerging as a new option for women, experts are urging individuals to carefully weigh its benefits and drawbacks.
The health ministry issued a business improvement order to a medical clinic in Fukuoka, saying a range of stem cell treatments it offers violate the law on the safety of regenerative medicine.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 5, 2025
Fukuoka clinic issued business improvement order over stem cell treatments
The clinic offers various stem cell treatments without the prior submission of its plans to the authorities, the health ministry said.
Keiko Honda (center) poses with her teammates before an NFL game in London in October 2023.
SPORTS
Mar 4, 2025
In battling cancer, Keiko Honda channeled her cheerleading strength
The former NFL cheerleader is now making a return to professional cheerleading after overcoming breast cancer.
An event marking World Obesity Day in Brussels on March 6, 2024. Without a serious change, researchers estimate that 3.8 billion adults will be overweight or obese in 15 years — or around 60% of the global adult population in 2050.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 4, 2025
60% of adults will be overweight or obese by 2050, study says
Data from 204 countries paints a grim picture of a major health challenge facing the world.
A new study analyzing organs from deceased individuals found plastic particles accumulating primarily in the brain, with the highest concentrations in recent autopsies, raising concerns about long-term exposure despite unclear health effects.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2025
You might have plastic in your brain. Don’t panic — yet.
It’s unsettling, but the amount of plastic in your brain is probably less than the plastic spoon’s worth grabbing the headlines.
The Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses for the settlement.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025
Canadian units of Japan Tobacco and others agree to settle litigation
For the settlement, the Canadian unit of Japan Tobacco plans to record nearly ¥400 billion in loss allowances as sales expenses.
Blackstone said it agreed to purchase 60% of Tokyo-based CMIC, a contract research organization, in a deal that values the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2025
Blackstone buys Japan drug trial firm, adding to private equity health deals
Blackstone has been increasingly active in Japan’s life science sector amid a wider buyout boom in the country.
Shinsuke Kimura, head of the Recovery Support Center, talks about the group's activities during an interview in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2025
Nonprofit supporting victims of 1995 Tokyo sarin attack to disband
The Recovery Support Center was created as many victims complained of problems with their eyes even years after medical examinations began to be offered.
The government will raise the out-of-pocket expense cap for expensive medical treatments this August as planned, but will reconsider plans for further increases, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told parliament on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 2, 2025
Japan to reconsider medical expense cap hike plan: Ishiba
The expense ceiling hike is slated to be conducted in three stages from this year to 2027.
AIREC, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven humanoid robot, demonstrates a maneuver for changing diapers or preventing bedsores in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 1, 2025
AI robots may hold key to nursing Japan's aging population
Japan is the world's most advanced aging society with a falling birth rate, dwindling working-age population and restrictive immigration policies.
A sign directs people to a measles testing center in Gaines County, Texas, on Tuesday. A measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico is sparking fears of worsening public health crisis in the United States. 
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2025
Texas measles outbreak was entirely avoidable
"It’s more contagious than COVID, more contagious than the flu, more contagious than Ebola,” says Paul Offit, of Philadelphia's Vaccine Education Center.
America's leading spokesperson on matters of public health, the surgeon general, has issued an advisory linking alcohol consumption to cancer, urging greater awareness and policy changes.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025
It's time to rethink how safe alcohol is
Raising awareness about the risks is key to helping people make decisions about drinking.
Excess sugar intake — especially of sucrose, or table sugar — can lead to ailments such as obesity and diabetes.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 17, 2025
Researchers discover bacteria that can limit body’s sugar absorption
Researchers hope the findings will contribute to developing a new treatment method for obesity and diabetes.
The Trump administration has fired scores of the Centers for Disease Control's "disease detectives," the researchers are hired annually through a competitive process that each year whittles down hundreds of applicants — including doctors, nurses, scientists and more — to a class of a few dozen.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 15, 2025
Trump admin fires CDC 'disease detectives' as bird flu fears rise
Established in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year post-doctoral training program whose officers have been on the front line of investigating outbreaks.
Leaders of patients' groups submit signatures opposing the move by the government to raise the medical copayment ceiling on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / EXPLAINER
Feb 14, 2025
Japan to rethink medical copayment hike amid patient outcry
Many patients, especially those undergoing costly but effective cancer therapy, say a hike might force them to abandon their treatments.
Too many people die from treatable diseases in places with little access to health care. To prevent this from happening, affordability, availability and acceptability considerations must be at the core of medical products' lifecycles, starting with R & D.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2025
To stop preventable deaths, start with the fundamentals
Treatable diseases like malaria are still causing too many deaths in places with poor health care. To prevent these, accessibility must be baked into medical development.
By cancer type, the 10-year survival rate was 57.9% for stomach cancer, the most common cancer among the patients surveyed.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 13, 2025
Japan's 10-year cancer survival rate stands at 54% in latest survey
The rate was 57.9% for stomach cancer, the most common cancer among patients surveyed.
The proportion of children with tooth cavities in Japan in fiscal 2024 hit the lowest level since the survey began in fiscal 1948.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025
Children with tooth cavities at record low in Japan
The cavity rate stood at 20.74% at kindergartens, 32.89% at elementary schools, 26.50% at junior high schools and 34.70% at high schools.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President and CEO Satoshi Yamane apologizes for the company's health hazard scandal involving its supplement products during a news conference in Osaka on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 11, 2025
Kobayashi Pharma logs first net profit drop since 1999 listing
The company's net profit plunged 50.5% in the aftermath of a health scandal involving its supplements, which emerged last year.
Social loneliness contributes to the development of mental illness, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, a study finds.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 9, 2025
Social loneliness found to worsen arteriosclerosis in mice
A team from Keio University and others said that loneliness without social connections contributes to the development of mental illness, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

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