Tag - medicine

 
Menu
Search
 
July 02, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

MEDICINE

Gray wolves and ancient dire wolves diverged millions of years ago, yet groundbreaking efforts to resurrect the extinct species by modifying modern wolves cannot replace the lost ecosystems that once sustained it.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2025
Science still made incredible breakthroughs while under attack
Scientists around the world produced amazing discoveries every day — some of which made a big splash while others didn’t get nearly the attention they deserved.
Shoko Kizaki, an obstetrician and gynecologist who runs a youth clinic in Yokohama, says she wants to make women's health clinics more accessible.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 28, 2025
Youth clinics aim to address sexual concerns in Japan
As of fiscal 2022, Japan had about 60 such facilities, which provide free or low-cost consultation services.
Lawson President Sadanobu Takemasu speaks during an interview in Tokyo earlier this month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2025
Lawson may start over-the-counter drug delivery in 2026
The service, which allows customers to order OTC drugs for home delivery, will be introduced after an easing of drug sales regulations for convenience stores.
For fiscal 2026, the government plans to lower drug fees by 0.87% but raise medical service fees by 3.09%, the first increase above 3% in 30 years.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2025
Efforts to reduce burden on Japan’s working generation still limited
The budget bill allocates a record ¥39.06 trillion for social security-related expenses, up ¥760 billion from fiscal 2025, reflecting a rise in medical and nursing care costs.
Last month, U.S. regulators laid out a pathway for approving gene-editing treatments for individual patients, removing requirements for repetitive studies that turned off drugmakers.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 26, 2025
Gene editing superstars team up to make cheaper rare disease cures
For a technology that costs millions, a collaborative approach may improve efficiency and allow the science to live up to its potential.
New research suggests the shingles vaccine may not only reduce the risk of developing dementia but could also slow its progression, though more rigorous trials are needed.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2025
Fighting dementia could be as easy as the shingles vaccine
Over the past several years, a growing body of research has suggested that immunization against shingles may reduce the risk of dementia by up to 20%.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on a deal with drugmakers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 20, 2025
Nine drugmakers strike deals with Trump, with more to come
The agreements are the latest in a series of pacts designed to lower drug prices for some Americans in exchange for a three-year reprieve from threatened tariffs.
Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes rashes marked by itchy, scaly rashes and afflicts more than 125 million people worldwide.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2025
Takeda’s psoriasis pill developed with AI assistance succeeds in trials
If approved, zasocitinib would stand out as one of the first drugs discovered with the help of artificial intelligence.
Over-the-counter sales of emergency contraceptive pill Norlevo will begin in February.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 18, 2025
Japan to start OTC sales of emergency contraception in February
Daiichi Sankyo’s drug, Norlevo, will mark the first time such a pill will be available without a prescription in Japan.
A hospital in Osaka Prefecture in 2021. The government plans to raise the copayments for all people undergoing expensive care to reflect the rising medical costs.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 16, 2025
Health ministry panel agrees to raise medical fee caps, but with refined approach
Income threshold categories determining patient burdens for high-cost medical care will be fine-tuned to ensure that those who earn more pay more.
Princess Aiko makes a speech at Chiba University's School of Nursing on Sunday in the city of Chiba.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2025
Princess Aiko attends ceremony for Chiba University’s school of nursing
Chiba University is the country’s only national university with a nursing department. Some 400 people, including students and university staff, attended the ceremony.
A clinical trial by a Tokyo-based venture company has confirmed that transplanting cardiac muscle cell clusters created from iPS cells into patients with severe heart failure improved their cardiac functions and symptoms.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 13, 2025
Tokyo startup confirms efficacy of iPS cell-derived heart muscle transplants
According to Friday’s announcement, the transplant was performed on 10 patients, and no major safety issues were confirmed.
A scientist looks at hypometabolic and hypoperfusion patterns at the single-subject level from a patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease at a hospital in Geneva in June 2023.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 12, 2025
Alzheimer’s drug hunt learns from cancer fight’s multi-target playbook
Just two drugs are widely approved to slow Alzheimer’s — Eli Lilly’s Kisunla and Leqembi from Eisai and Biogen.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta on Dec. 5 where it voted to revoke the longstanding recommendation that all babies receive hepatitis B shots. 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 11, 2025
CDC panel’s hepatitis B vaccine vote undid decades of progress
The plan is simple: demand proof of the unprovable, set impossible safety and data standards and distort risk by focusing on the individual instead of the collective.
Shimon Sakaguchi, one of the three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, speaks during an interview in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, on Nov. 13.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2025
Nobel winner Shimon Sakaguchi aims for effective cancer treatment
The University of Osaka professor has established startup RegCell in the United States to develop a therapy using regulatory T cells.
Demonstrators outside the Center for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta on Thursday
WORLD / Science & Health / ANALYSIS
Dec 8, 2025
Disease prevention has taken a hit from U.S. vaccine advisers, experts say
Since 1991, U.S. health officials have recommended universal vaccination for infants against hepatitis B. The move has cut infections dramatically and saved lives.
Shimon Sakaguchi (left), winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, speaks during a news conference in the suburbs of Stockholm on Saturday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 7, 2025
Nobel winner Sakaguchi stresses importance of medical science
Developing new treatments takes time, but he remains optimistic that his work will someday help those with various cancers and other health issues.
Members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's committee on immunization practices in Atlanta on Friday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 6, 2025
U.S. vaccine panel upends hepatitis B advice in latest Trump-era shift
The move to end the decades-old recommendation is the panel’s latest contentious about-face on vaccine policy.
With concerns rising over babies whose genetic makeup has been altered to accommodate the parents' preferences, the government aims to submit related legislation during next year's ordinary parliamentary session at the earliest.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2025
Japan eyes ban on gene-edited babies
The government aims to submit related legislation during next year’s ordinary parliamentary session at the earliest.
To address the economic burden on expectant and nursing mothers, the health ministry plans to set a nationwide uniform amount for childbirth expenses, then fully cover it with health insurance.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 4, 2025
Japan to give full insurance coverage for childbirth costs
Childbirth costs have continued to rise due to factors such as inflation, with the nationwide average in fiscal 2024 hitting ¥519,805.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency
New Logistics Consortium baton to accelerate trucking efficiency

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER