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Deaths Linked to Japanese Supplement Suddenly Rise to 80
The case, involving a supplement intended to reduce cholesterol, has put attention on how companies are allowed to self-report claims about their products.
By River Akira Davis and Hisako Ueno
I report on news and features on a wide range of topics in Japan, including politics, business, labor, gender and culture. I’ve also focused on how the society has changed and how it has responded to the declining birthrate and the change in its population, which is aging at the fastest pace in the world.
I started my journalism career as a researcher at the Tokyo bureau of The Los Angeles Times in 1999, when the Japanese started to suffer after the bubble economy’s collapse in the 1990s, and I reported on changes in people’s lifestyles, social systems and business practices. I joined The Times in 2012. I majored in English at Shikoku Gakuin University, and I was born and raised in Kurashiki, Okayama.
As a Times journalist, I share the values and adhere to the standards of integrity outlined in The Times’s Ethical Journalism Handbook. I’m committed to protecting my sources and writing fairly and accurately. I do not accept gifts from businesses or individuals who may appear in my articles. I do not pay for information or interviews. I do not belong to a political party. Nor do I make political contributions or participate in political or other causes.
Email: [email protected]
X: @hudidi1
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The case, involving a supplement intended to reduce cholesterol, has put attention on how companies are allowed to self-report claims about their products.
By River Akira Davis and Hisako Ueno
Three bodies were discovered near the mountain’s crater, the local media reported. Separately, a professional climber fell unconscious and died.
By Hisako Ueno and Yan Zhuang
Akio Toyoda ran Toyota for 14 years before handing the reins to a new C.E.O. last year, but some have grown concerned about the control he still wields.
By River Akira Davis
The Japanese biochemist found in the 1970s that cholesterol-lowering drugs lowered the level of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, in the blood.
By Hisako Ueno and Mike Ives
Employers have taken steps to change a male-dominated workplace culture. But women still struggle to balance their careers with domestic obligations.
By Motoko Rich, Hisako Ueno and Kiuko Notoya
Born in Hawaii, he moved to Japan in 1988 and won 11 grand championships. His success drove a resurgence in the sport’s popularity.
By Victoria Kim, Hisako Ueno and Yan Zhuang
Taiwan’s semiconductor giant, TSMC, is quickly remaking a farm town in Japan into Asia’s next hub of chip manufacturing with enormous government support.
By Meaghan Tobin, Hisako Ueno and John Liu
Activists want to replace a variety of cherry tree associated with the Japanese colonial era with one they say is Korean. The science is messy.
By John Yoon, Mike Ives, Hisako Ueno and Chang W. Lee
The animal fell into a tank of chemicals at a plating factory in Fukuyama and then wandered off into the night.
By Kiuko Notoya and Alan Yuhas
The Japanese company hoped to become the country’s first private business to put a satellite into orbit. The failed launch was its inaugural flight.
By Hisako Ueno and Yan Zhuang
Experts say the country’s first lawsuit about police discrimination against foreign-born residents highlights a systematic problem.
By Victoria Kim and Hisako Ueno
The trend lines may be grim, but the Japanese aren’t sweating them.
By Motoko Rich, Hisako Ueno and Kiuko Notoya
A slowdown in consumer and business spending held Japan back at the end of last year, with the economy contracting for the second straight quarter.
By Hisako Ueno and Daisuke Wakabayashi
Karolina Shiino, a naturalized Japanese citizen who was born in Ukraine, resigned two weeks after winning the Miss Japan crown.
By Victoria Kim and Hisako Ueno
Moscow may be trying to help Pyongyang with access to the international financial system in exchange for missiles and ammunition, U.S.-allied intelligence officials suggest.
By Motoko Rich
A unit of the company used software that made horsepower “values appear smoother.” It’s the second production problem to hit the company in two months.
By Hisako Ueno and Andrés R. Martínez
The SLIM spacecraft survived its trip to the surface, but ended up pointing in a direction that now limits the duration of its mission.
By Kenneth Chang and Hisako Ueno
The SLIM spacecraft made a successful soft landing on the lunar surface, but a problem with its solar panels means it will soon run out of power.
By Kenneth Chang
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi has been one of Japan’s best-known entertainers for seven decades. At 90, she’s still going strong.
By Motoko Rich
In addition to a well-trained crew and an advanced plane, the safe evacuation of 367 passengers came down to a relative absence of panic.
By Motoko Rich and Hisako Ueno
Japan Airlines said all 367 passengers and 12 crew members had safely evacuated the jet. But five crew members on a Japanese Coast Guard plane that collided with it were killed.
By Motoko Rich, Hisako Ueno, Kaly Soto and Emma Bubola
The authorities continued to look for people buried in the rubble of collapsed and burned buildings in the coastal epicenter of the disaster.
By Motoko Rich and Hisako Ueno
There were reports of collapsed buildings and people being trapped underneath them. The quake disrupted electricity and phone service, and initially raised fears of a tsunami.
By Motoko Rich
The country is moving to curb the industry’s punishing work hours. But that could leave a shortfall that disrupts Japan’s entire logistics system.
By Hisako Ueno, John Yoon and Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
The arrest of the 50-year-old driver highlighted the strict law in Japan against harming the birds, even if they take over balconies or get in the way of traffic.
By Hisako Ueno and Yan Zhuang
The policy change could shore up American supplies of the weapon, allowing Washington to send more to Ukraine to help in its war against Russia.
By Motoko Rich and Hisako Ueno
Tokyo appears ready to adjust rules to allow the export of the weapons to the United States, a move that could help Washington support Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
By Motoko Rich
The incident comes three months after three Marines died in an Osprey crash in Australia.
By Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida and Hisako Ueno
An ongoing eruption from the volcano has created a small land mass less than a mile off Iwo Jima island. It’s a great case study of how volcanoes work.
By Hisako Ueno and Mike Ives
The Bank of Japan said it would be more flexible in how it managed government bond yields, citing rising inflation.
By Rich Barbieri and Joe Rennison
The assassination of Shinzo Abe, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, shed light on the fringe group’s political ties and manipulation of its followers.
By Motoko Rich, Hisako Ueno and Hikari Hida
Under “Cool Biz,” salarymen and government workers don short-sleeved shirts in the summer as offices are kept above 82 degrees Fahrenheit to save energy.
By Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno
This was featured in live coverage.
By Motoko Rich
The world’s largest carmaker dominates the sales of hybrid cars but has been slow to sell all-electric vehicles, alienating some customers and hurting sales.
By Jack Ewing and Ben Dooley
A new report confirmed hundreds of cases of sexual abuse going back five decades by Johnny Kitagawa, a giant in the world of J-Pop who died in 2019 without ever facing any charges.
By Hisako Ueno and Ben Dooley
By exaggerating the risks from Japan’s discharge of treated wastewater, Beijing hopes to cast Japan and its allies as conspirators in malfeasance, analysts say.
By Motoko Rich and John Liu
Sushi is among several shunned foods as Japan dumps treated radioactive water into the Pacific. Experts say the fear is irrational but understandable.
By Mike Ives, John Yoon, Hisako Ueno and Olivia Wang
China said it would suspend imports of Japanese seafood in response to what it has called an unsafe plan to dispose of the wastewater.
By Motoko Rich
Kohei Saito says the country should seize this moment of demographic and economic challenge to reinvent itself through “degrowth communism.”
By Ben Dooley and Hisako Ueno
In the face of regional and domestic objections, the country plans to proceed with a discharge at Fukushima that will eventually reach more than a million tons of water.
By Motoko Rich and Hisako Ueno