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July 09, 2025
 

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PREGNANCY

Expectant parents Masataka and Saki Ohita look at ultrasound images of their unborn twins.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 23, 2025
Childbirth facilities disappearing from Fukushima towns
With just 26 facilities in the prefecture that can handle deliveries, there is concern that the trend could accelerate population decline.
A ball kid holds tennis balls during a women's quarterfinal match at Wimbledon in July 2023.
TENNIS
Jun 12, 2025
WTA players undergoing fertility treatments to receive protected ranking
Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, said the rule will reduce the pressure on players to return to the court too quickly.
The Children and Families Agency will conduct a survey in an effort to offer better assistance measures for expectant mothers in trouble.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 9, 2025
Japan to study ways to help more pregnant women in danger
As of January, 23 prefectural and municipal governments have taken part in a program to offer temporary housing, meals and medical services to struggling women and their babies.
Save the Children Japan in May 2022 began its Hello! Baby Box initiative to provide essential items for newborns, with the aim of reducing the burden of child care costs for women in dire situations.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2025
Most expecting and new mothers in poverty lack funds for basic necessities: survey
State support is often diverted to cover essential day-to-day costs and consumables needed for child-rearing, a survey found.
A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
May 25, 2025
Are microplastics hurting our fertility?
While a lot remains unknown about how microplastics affect our health, scientists in Japan and around the world broadly agree there's an urgent need to reduce plastic production.
Tomomi Bitoh, seen crossing the finish line in Antarctica, on the first stop of the World Marathon Challenge, is one of the very few Japanese athletes to speak publicly about her experience with egg freezing.
MORE SPORTS
May 19, 2025
The race for more time: Japanese runner decided to freeze eggs for her future
More women in Japan are expressing interest or following through with freezing their eggs in recent years, but only a few athletes in Japan have spoken about it publicly.
The government should "design a specific system by around fiscal 2026 to make standard childbirth expenses free of charge,” an expert panel said, as the aging nation seeks to reverse its declining population and shrinking pool of tax-paying workers.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025
Expert panel suggests Japan’s government make childbirth free
The proposal follows a child care policy package adopted in 2023 to reverse Japan’s declining birthrate by supporting families with young children.
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025
Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years
Heat stress can raise the risks of stillbirths, miscarriages, preterm births and low-weight births, as well as congenital abnormalities for the babies.
Of the 721,000 childbirths reported in 2024 in Japan, 13.8% involved the use of an epidural, according to the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 22, 2025
Cases of epidural use in labor rise in Japan alongside concerns
More demand for epidurals may place a strain on the nation's anesthesiologists, who are already facing staffing shortages.
Sachiko Ishizuka, who was born via artificial insemination by donor (AID), tells her story to lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on April 9.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 15, 2025
Privacy and transparency clash in debate over bill on artificial insemination
At stake is the thorny question of when children conceived through artificial insemination by donor can access information on their biological parents, and to what extent.
A research team found that brown fat, which encourages the body to burn fat, tended to be more active among those conceived during the colder months, meaning they are less likely to gain weight.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 9, 2025
Japanese team finds people conceived in winter less likely to be overweight
The team analyzed the brown fat of 356 men between the ages of 18 and 29.
Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy or smoking by pregnant women increase the risk of placental abruption by more than double, a study has found.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 31, 2025
Secondhand smoke more than doubles placental abruption risk, study shows
Toxic substances in tobacco have been found to reduce blood flow to the placenta, according to the Tohoku University research group.
Midwife Tabita dos Santos Moraes prepares cassava flour in Tefe in Brazil's Amazonas state last October. Tabita's great-grandmother taught midwifery to her aunts, who taught her mother, who taught her, starting at the age of 15.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 21, 2025
In the remote Amazon, midwives care for women stranded by drought
Years of extreme droughts in the Amazon rainforest have made river journeys to and from remote communities perilous.
A maternal handbook used by Heba Jibril in northern Gaza
JAPAN / Society
Mar 21, 2025
In Gaza, Japan-backed maternal handbooks a vital source for child care
The health handbooks provide crucial information for women at a time when medical facilities are closed and digital information is scarce.
Hiroko Nagano, a former member of the assembly of Tokyo's Toshima Ward, speaks during an interview in Tokyo in January.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 7, 2025
Female assembly members with children seeing better work conditions
As of July 2024, there were 5,187 female municipal assembly members in the country, or only 17.9% of the total, however.
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.
Keio University in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The university's ethics committee has approved clinical research that would lead to the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 28, 2025
Keio University ethics panel OKs uterus transplant clinical trial
The university will consider whether to carry out the research, which would be the first uterine transplant procedure in Japan.
Anti-abortion demonstrators take part in the annual March for Life rally in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 25, 2025
Trump targets abortion access at home and abroad
Trump revoked two executive orders signed by Joe Biden protecting abortion access.
Epidurals during childbirth have long been uncommon in Japan, though they have been growing more popular in recent years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 14, 2025
Tokyo plans to subsidize epidurals, but are hospitals ready?
If all goes to plan, Tokyo will be the first to offer prefecture-level financial support for epidurals.
A subsidy for epidural childbirths was one of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's campaign promises when she ran for her position last year.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 7, 2025
Tokyo looks to ease the pain — both physical and financial — of childbirth
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is looking to begin offering a subsidy for epidural childbirths in fiscal 2025.
Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
Trump announces new tariff rate on Japan — and extension of deadline to Aug. 1
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a trade letter sent by the White House to Japan during a news conference at the White House in Washington on Monday.
China’s housing crisis is worse than it seems
Residential buildings under construction in Shanghai in July 2022. The Chinese government risks long-term decline by repeating Japan’s policy mistakes in handling its real estate and demographic crises.
Japan braces for more quakes as authorities dismiss doomsday hype
Evacuees from Akuseki Island, located in the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecuture, arrive at Kagoshima Port on Friday.
Japan stands its ground after Trump letter delivers 25% U.S. tariff shock
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at Morristown Airport, New Jersey, on Sunday. Trump on Monday sent letters to 12 countries notifying them of new "reciprocal" tariff rates effective Aug. 1.
From the Abes to the Ohtanis: How siblings shape athletic development
Olympic judoka Uta Abe (second from left) and Hifumi Abe (second from right) with their brother Yuichiro (center) and their parents. “I’m always consciously trying to be a good older brother,” Yuichiro said.
Foreign nationals' presence in Japan emerges as key issue in Upper House poll
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a campaign speech next to a Liberal Democratic Party candidate for the Upper House (top center left) in Yokohama on Sunday.
Scams involving police impersonation surge
A video by the National Police Agency warns about fake scams.
Lawson to let visitors use larger parking lots as paid car campsites
A Lawson convenience store in Yachiyo, Chiba Prefecture. A new service from the company comes amid the rise in inbound tourists, making hotels and inns harder to book and more expensive.
The future is bright inside the visionary mind of architect Sou Fujimoto
The exhibition of Fujimoto’s architecture surveys his career to date, as well as looks ahead as shown in his proposal of a future floating city designed in collaboration with data scientist Hiroaki Miyata.

Podcast

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

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By Alex K.T. Martin

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