Health and Social Issues

New Wave of Infections Threatens to Collapse Japan Hospitals

TOKYO (AP) — Hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses. In one recent case, an ambulance carrying a man with a fever and [...]

Are Japan’s Hospitals and Health Care System Ready for a COVID-19 Storm?

Ryusei Takahashi reports: With the number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo having nearly quadrupled in 10 days, it seems no longer a question of whether Japan will declare a national emergency, but when and how. Officials and experts fear the capital [...]

As Virus Cases Surge, Tokyo Governor says Lockdown May Be Only Way to Stem Rise

Ryusei Takahashi reports: Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Monday that a citywide lockdown may become “the only option left” if various measures fail to prevent an explosive rise in the novel coronavirus in the capital. “Cities around the world [...]

China Coronavirus is at Center of Hong Kong Protests

Mary Hui reports: Hong Kong’s leader has given another reason for people to be angry. As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across China and worldwide, with the number of confirmed cases growing at a rapid rate, Hong Kong is bracing [...]

Heat Wave Killed Record 65 People Across Japan Last Week as Over 22,000 Hospitalized

More than 22,000 people were taken to hospitals due to the heat wave across Japan last week and 65 of them died, both record-high figures since comparable information became available in 2008, preliminary government data showed Tuesday. The [...]

World’s Hottest Pepper Sends Man to the ER With Thunderclap Headaches

RCVS is known to cause thunderclap headaches, and can be brought on by reactions to drugs, including cocaine and certain antidepressants. No case of RCVS has ever been associated with pepper-eating. Ed Cara reports: For one brave man, eating [...]

‘Wild Wild Country’: Most Shocking Reveals From the Sex Cult’s FBI Informant

David Berry Knapp, aka Swami Krishna Deva, the former mayor of Rajneeshpuram, famously flipped on the cult. And his FBI testimony was eye-opening and very disturbing. Netflix’s Wild Wild Country is, so far, the must-see television event of 2018. [...]

To Combat Declining Birth Rate, Japan to Begin Offering ‘Breeding Visas’ to Foreigners

Scott Wilson writes: Later this year, Japan will attempt to induce its own baby boom. Japan’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate has been a problem for decades now. There have been several attempts by the government to try and [...]

Japanese Towns Struggle to Deal with an Influx of New Arrivals: Wild Boars

Anna Fifield reports: Rapidly shrinking towns and cities across Japan are experiencing a population explosion. Not an explosion of humans, though. An explosion in wild boar numbers. Across the country, wild boars are moving in as Japan’s [...]

Reality Check: There Is No Tokyo Restaurant Serving Human Meat

WASHINGTON – There are no Tokyo restaurants offering human meat on the menu and cannibalism has not been legalized in Japan, despite a false story circulating online, writes Thomas Mattingly, a spokesman at the Japanese Embassy in Washington. The [...]

Naked ‘Bunny Girl’ Freezes Tail Off in Olympic Fur Protest

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Alastair Himmer reports: A half-naked activist sporting bunny ears and a fluffy tail braved the Olympic chill in Pyeongchang to protest the fur trade Tuesday but, shivering on high heels, side-stepped the thorny [...]

Freezing Tokyo Sees Most Ambulance Calls for 80 Years

Tokyo’s ambulance service has experienced its busiest day in more than 80 years, officials said Thursday, amid icy conditions as the Japanese capital shivers through its coldest temperatures in decades. The Tokyo fire department, which [...]

So Many Japanese People Die Alone, There’s a Whole Industry Devoted to Cleaning Up After Them

As family dynamics change in Japan, more people are living by themselves — and dying alone. Anna Fifield writes: There was a putrid smell emanating from the apartment. There was an obvious brown stain on the futon where the body had been. The [...]

Fewer Japanese People Got Married Last Year Than Any Time Since the End of World War II

Casey Baseel reports: Bad news for the country’s declining birth rate is accompanied by rosier development about divorce. With Christmas being the biggest date night of the year in Japan, there’s still a lingering atmosphere of amour in the [...]

Japanese TV Show Featuring Blackface Actor Sparks Controversy

Editorial note: This appeared on TV while I happened to be watching, here in Japan, and I was able to capture a few screen shots, as seen here. I didn’t get that he was portraying Eddie Murphy, but knew it would hit a nerve. Sure enough, only [...]

YouTube Vlogger Logan Paul Apologizes After Posting Corpse Video from Aokigahara, Japan’s ‘Suicide Forest’

Paul, brother of fellow vlogger Jake, was videoing his trip to Japan’s “suicide forest.” Lars Brandle reports: YouTube star Logan Paul has apologized after facing an avalanche of criticism for sharing the image of a suicide victim. [...]

Pregnant Subway Riders in Tokyo Can Request a Seat with their Phones

Cailey Rizzo reports: More than 40 years ago, social psychologist Dr. Stanley Milgram gave his students an assignment: Go on the New York City subway and ask fellow passengers to give up their seats. The majority of students reported high anxiety [...]

Funeral Home in Japan Offers Drive-Through Funeral Services

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Jailed for a Text: China’s Censors Are Spying on Mobile Chat Groups

Authorities scour private chats on messaging apps for blacklisted words, sensitive images. PUYANG, China—Eva Dou reports: One night this September, construction supervisor Chen Shouli fired off a joke in a chat group. “Haha,” he typed on his [...]

Osaka to Cut Sister-City Ties with San Francisco

Osaka will no longer use taxpayer funds for student and other exchange programs with San Francisco. The sister-city ties started in 1957. OSAKA (Jiji Press) — Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura indicated Friday that the city will decide in [...]

Chinese Officials Pay Poor to Swap Religious Images for Portraits of Xi

During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, religious intolerance and Mao’s dogma prevailed. Young people were encouraged to criticize their elders, including parents and teachers. People accused of spying for foreign powers were detained and beaten [...]

Illustrations by Dominic Bugatto. Yoonjung Seo assisted in the reporting.

Kim Jong Un’s North Korea: Life Inside the Totalitarian State

Recent North Korean escapees relate how the secretive country has changed under the “Great Successor.” “In North Korea, life only gets better if the state helps you. But these days, the state doesn’t help. We’re on our own.” — The [...]

Why Xi Jinping’s Chinese Dream is Nothing Like the American One

Michael Chugani says heated discussions among friends reinforced that the Chinese dream is essentially rooted in the Communist Party and the people of China, while the American version has for decades given hope to dreamers from around the world. [...]

To Stay Young, Kill Zombie Cells

An anti-aging strategy that works in mice is about to be tested in humans. Megan Scudellari, Nature magazine: Jan van Deursen was baffled by the decrepit-looking transgenic mice he created in 2000. Instead of developing tumours as expected, the [...]

[VIDEO] Young Japanese People are Not Having Sex

Nearly a third of Japanese people are entering their 30s without any sexual experience, leaving the country facing a steep population decline. Greg Wilford reports: Nearly a third of Japanese people are entering their 30s without any sexual [...]

How Japan Needs to Change to Welcome Immigrants

The country has to do more to assimilate foreigners and offset population decline. Noah Smith writes: The U.S. has been roiled by debates over immigration. Japan has the opposite problem — not enough debate. Immigration is happening, and no [...]

[VIDEO] SPOILER ALERT: What Caused Venezuela’s Tragic Collapse? Socialism.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and it was once Latin America’s richest country. Today, most grocery store shelves are empty, and Venezuelans are so hungry that they’re killing zoo animals for sustenance. [...]

A new study has found that cognitive health later in life correlates with moderate drinking on a regular basis.

Moderate Drinking Correlates with Cognitive Health, Longevity

The results of a new study point to a correlation between regular but moderate drinking in older adults, and a reduced risk of cognitive impairments. This research was based on a cohort study of middle-class adults in the United States. According to [...]