Graduate school students in Japan have developed a device to easily measure symptoms of orthostatic dysregulation, a disorder common among children that causes them physical difficulty getting up in the morning and dizziness when standing.
The team at Nagoya University’s graduate school hopes the device will help sufferers communicate their symptoms clearly when they need to skip classes due to their condition.
A 39-year-old woman in Tokyo has been working to help disabled people get jobs in an effort to create a society that recognizes the value of all people. In May 2018, Rie Usui, who now runs a talent agency for disabled people, welcomed a young woman in a wheelchair to her home doubling as a nail salon.
A child victim of forced sterilization under Japan’s now-defunct eugenics protection law said the surgery ruined his life, as he described his experiences at a U.N. event on disability rights on Tuesday 10th June in New York.
The Japanese government plans to introduce a “rigorous screening” system by June 2027 that will deny visa renewals to mid- and long-term foreign residents who have failed to pay medical expenses, taxes, or social insurance premiums. The move comes as the Cabinet prepares to approve policies aimed at creating “an orderly and harmonious society with foreign nationals.” A 2024 health ministry survey found that 65.3% of medical institutions accepting foreign patients had unpaid bills, with foreign nationals accounting for 29.3% of debtors but just 1.4% of the total amount owed. Despite these concerns, officials acknowledge there is no nationwide data on insurance payment compliance by foreign residents.
A child victim of forced sterilization under Japan’s now-defunct eugenics protection law said the surgery ruined his life, as he described his experiences at a U.N. event on disability rights Tuesday in New York. “Because of the surgery, my life was thrown completely off course,” the 82-year-old man, who uses the pseudonym Saburo Kita, said at the event linked to a United Nations conference on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In Japan, a growing number of people with dementia are going missing each year, with many tragically found dead close to where they disappeared—491 in 2024 alone. Efforts to prevent such outcomes include the promotion of GPS tracking devices and the introduction of an orange “dementia help mark,” designed to alert others that the wearer may need assistance. Despite these initiatives, individual cases like that of Yasuko Arakawa—a woman with rare semantic dementia who vanished in 2023 and remains missing—highlight the emotional toll on families and the urgent need for greater public awareness, early intervention, and nationwide support systems in a rapidly aging society.
Welcomed by the residents of the facility, which houses migrants from Japan and their descendants, the 30-year-old younger daughter of Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko asked how they are doing and called on them to look after themselves. Established in 1958 as the first nursing facility for the Japanese community, it is home to some 60 people aged from their 60s to 100
The Japanese government said Friday that it will deny entry of foreign tourists who have failed to pay medical expenses in the country in the past. The government also said that medium- and long-term foreign residents who have failed to pay national health insurance or pension premiums in Japan will not be allowed to renew their period of stay or change their status of residence.
The Diet, Japan’s parliament, enacted Thursday a bill aimed at strengthening measures to tackle child suicides at a societal level. The number of suicides among elementary, junior high and senior high school students in Japan reached a record high of 529 last year, based on National Police Agency data, according to the labor ministry.
A district court on Thursday partially nullified the Japanese government’s decision not to disclose documents regarding the procurement of”Abenomasks,” cloth masks distributed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Atsushi Tokuchi, presiding judge at Osaka District Court, also ordered the state to pay 110,000 yen in damages to the plaintiff, Kobe Gakuin University professor Hiroshi Kamiwaki whom had filed a suit demanding the revocation of the government decision, saying that it was illegal not to disclose the documents containing detailed information about the state’s procurement contracts.
Barrier Free Japan