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MHLW

Yoshikazu Uchikawa, head lawyer representing plaintiffs of a lawsuit demanding that cuts in welfare benefits be revoked, speaks at a news conference in Nagoya on Thursday following a Nagoya High Court ruling.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 1, 2023
Japan high court revokes welfare benefit cuts
The plaintiffs argued that there was an error in the method for calculating the price index used as the basis for the reductions.
Customers look at products on display outside a drug store in Tokyo on Friday. As part of a trial, 145 stores nationwide will be allowed to sell morning-after pills until the end of March.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 27, 2023
Japan to start trial of over-the-counter sales of morning-after pills
The health ministry will allow 145 stores nationwide to sell morning-after pills until the end of March.
Lanterns with messages at a "memorial service" for unused paid leave in Osaka in December 2019
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2023
Japanese workers took 62% of the paid leave they were given in 2022
While the total ratio was a record high, the results showed the government still has a considerable way to go if it hopes to achieve its goal of 70%.
The health ministry's drug enforcement officials investigate a retailer in the city of Osaka on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2023
Japan to ban marijuana-derived substance found in gummy candies
An expert panel at the health ministry decided to officially add the HHCH synthetic compound to a drug list, with the ban taking effect from Dec. 2.
The health ministry in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 20, 2023
Japan eyes banning cannabinoid HHCH after gummies make many ill
Once HHCH is designated as a psychoactive drug, its possession, use and distribution will be illegal.
The labor ministry is planning to review the workers' accident compensation program to cover all freelancers commissioned to work for companies.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2023
Japan to expand workers' accident compensation for freelancers
The measure is aimed at creating an environment in which freelancers can work with a sense of security.
Japan’s policy came under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic, when vaccines approved overseas needed additional testing prior to their approval in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 14, 2023
Japan set to scrap rule requiring testing of new drugs on Japanese
To sell a drug in Japan, pharmaceutical firms are required to conduct additional trials specifically targeting Japanese participants.
The government aims to have 50% of new fathers take child care leave by 2025 and 85% by 2030.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 13, 2023
Japan panel proposes child care plan covering 100% of income
The 100% allowance would only be offered for up to 28 days, with the amount for any further leave being around 80% of income.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 9, 2023
Drug shortages create challenge for Japan as influenza cases rise
Amid an earlier-than-usual start of the flu season, a type of flu medicine for children is experiencing a supply shortage as cases rise.
Japan's latest report on death by overwork delves into the amount of sleep both self-employed and corporate workers are getting and how that affects workers' health.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 13, 2023
Report on overwork highlights Japan's work-life balance issues
Over 90% of self-employed and corporate workers in Japan feel they need at least six hours of sleep, but only about half are getting it, the report said.
A meeting to discuss how to prevent the use of kiken drugs (hazardous drugs), is held at the health ministry on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 29, 2023
As drug use rises in Japan, government eyes prevention plans
The ministry reported that by the end of August, around 300 stores in the country were found to be selling quasi-legal products known as “kiken drugs.”
Demonstrators during a Women's Day march in Tokyo on March 8
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 28, 2023
Consent issue casts shadow on safe abortion in Japan
The law stipulates that abortion must be carried out in the early stages of pregnancy with the consent of one's spouse.
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Japan will roll out an updated version targeting the XBB variant on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Sep 19, 2023
Japan to begin COVID vaccine drive targeting XBB subvariant
The free shots will be offered until March next year to prepare residents for an expected uptick in infections during the winter.
A nurse puts on protective clothing in front of an isolated hospital room to examine a person who tested positive for COVID-19 at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture in July 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 16, 2023
Japan to reduce public funds for COVID-19 treatments from October
The health ministry's decision is part of a broader plan to return the health care system to normal by next spring.
New health minister Keizo Takemi is the son of Taro Takemi, a prominent physician who was dubbed “Emperor Takemi” due to the enormous and often dictatorial power he wielded over health care policy as president of the Japan Medical Association.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 15, 2023
Critics worry about new health minister's ties with lobby group
Keizo Takemi is the son of a former president of the Japan Medical Association, a political lobby mostly made up of doctors in private practice.
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination  at Aoyama University in Tokyo in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 9, 2023
Japan to end free COVID-19 vaccinations in March
From fiscal 2024, the country will provide a COVID-19 shot once a year between to people aged 65 or over who are at high risk of severe symptoms.
Products seized in July from a store selling items related to e-cigarettes during a search by narcotics control department investigators
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 4, 2023
Japan to up response to quasi-legal drugs amid rising health fears
Some of the products, which include a partially-altered form of cannabis, have reportedly been confirmed to be more harmful than cannabis itself.
A reader for My Number cards doubling as health insurance cards is set up at a clinic in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, this month.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 25, 2023
Linkage of My Number and insurance cards faces delays
A survey found that the linkage work was incomplete for 770,000 people across the country for whom the process was underway.
Koichi Hagiuda (center), the policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visits a dispatching agency for foreign trainees in Hanoi and talks to students there last month.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2023
Illegal practices found at 7,247 firms employing foreign trainees
The most common violations involved breaches of safety rules, with the second most common being unpaid wages.
Foreign workers take notes during a meeting at a nursing care facility operator in Nagoya.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 24, 2023
Ministry panel starts talks to ease foreign care worker rules
The panel of experts will examine whether to allow foreign workers to engage in home-visit care services, currently not permitted partly due to concerns about language barriers.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces