The number of new influenza patients in Japan remained above the warning level of 30 per medical institution last week, the health ministry said Friday. New flu cases reported by 3,000 regularly monitored hospitals and clinics across the country stood at 32.73 on average in the week through Sunday.
Japan’s ruling parties agreed Friday to seek to reduce the country’s medical costs by 188 billion yen per year, by revising the eligibility of certain drugs for insurance coverage. The agreement was struck between the policy chiefs of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai). The government plans to hammer out the details of the revised medical insurance system for pharmaceuticals based on the two parties’ agreement for implementation in the fiscal year beginning next April.
Shimon Sakaguchi, distinguished honorary professor at the University of Osaka, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, underscored the significance of medical science at a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden on Saturday.
With his Nobel prize win, Sakaguchi said at a press conference, “I hope…our society will recognize the importance of medical science and medical research.” Sakaguchi attended the press conference with his two co-winners, ahead of the award ceremony to be held on Wednesday local time.
A Japanese government subcommittee on public health insurance on Thursday basically agreed to ask patients for additional payment for prescription medicines whose ingredients and effects are similar to over-the-counter drugs while maintaining insurance coverage for them.
A 53-year-old doctor at the University of Tokyo Hospital was arrested Wednesday for allegedly taking about 700,000 yen in bribes from a medical equipment maker official in return for using the firm’s devices on a priority basis. Arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department of Tokyo was Takehiro Matsubara, a doctor at the hospital’s Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine.
The five-year survival rate for male and female patients in Japan who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between 2012 and 2015 came to 10.7 percent and 10.2 pct, respectively, the lowest among all cancer types except for childhood cancers, the National Cancer Center said in a survey report on Tuesday.
Japan’s health ministry is planning to deny in principle the renewal or change of residential status for foreign citizens who refuse to pay national health insurance premiums, it was learned Tuesday. “We’re preparing to start it in June 2027,” health minister Kenichiro Ueno told a press conference. Ueno also said that his ministry will strengthen measures against foreign residents who do not pay medical expenses. The ministry will collect nonpayment information from medical institutions and share it with the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.
A Japanese court on Monday ordered the government to pay some 300,000 yen in damages over verbal abuse and other illegal acts by prison guards against an inmate in Aichi Prefecture. Presiding Judge Akira Chino denied the causal relationship between his death and medical treatment provided by Nagoya Prison in the Aichi city of Miyoshi. he man was sent to a hospital for a possible heart attack on Feb. 22, 2022, when he was serving his sentence for an assault. He died of multiple organ failure on March 1 that year at the age of 71 after coming back to the prison. The ruling by Tokyo District Court came after the bereaved family of the inmate sued the government for some 40 million yen, accusing it of failing to offer proper medical treatment to him.
Unicharm Corp. announced on Wednesday 15th October it will begin a trial installation of free sanitary pad dispensers at 22 public facilities in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, in partnership with the local government. Running until Dec. 26, the initiative aims to support individuals who cannot afford menstrual products. While Unicharm provides the dispensers, Shibuya Ward will supply the sanitary napkins. The company, which has already introduced the dispensers in schools and businesses, expressed hopes of expanding the program through further cooperation with local governments.
Unicharm Corp. announced on Wednesday 15th October it will begin a trial installation of free sanitary pad dispensers at 22 public facilities in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, in partnership with the local government. Running until Dec. 26, the initiative aims to support individuals who cannot afford menstrual products. While Unicharm provides the dispensers, Shibuya Ward will supply the sanitary napkins. The company, which has already introduced the dispensers in schools and businesses, expressed hopes of expanding the program through further cooperation with local governments.
Barrier Free Japan