Tokyo DispatchJapan, in EnglishA union says decades of gendered work patterns leave most Japanese women drawing under ¥100,000 a month, and an 84-year-old who worked 35 years told a Tokyo press conference she cannot keep up with prices.
Police arrested 12 people over a scheme that used a real repatriated orphan's identity to bring relatives to Japan and claim benefits for more than 10 years.
EFS says a supplier's cooling equipment was targeted and temperatures climbed to an "extremely high level" before staff intervened. Supermarket fridges and freezers in several European countries have been hit too.
The health ministry is considering requiring operators of group homes for people with disabilities to undergo external evaluation and publish the results, as cases of poor management at service providers draw scrutiny.
The free telephone consultations run during this month's campaign against death from overwork, but the ministry's advice line carries no power to penalize employers.
The health ministry wants workers to stay enrolled longer before they qualify for a retirement payout, a change that lands as social welfare operators struggle to hold on to staff.
Shiho Zahebu was turned away by 40 group homes before a one-to-one visiting care scheme let her son Yuto live on his own. Six years on, her station supports six such households and is short of helpers.
A flat monthly fee for home-visit nursing in depopulated mountain areas would count gasoline, vehicle upkeep and travel time, the ministry told a welfare panel. Providers could still choose the current per-visit rate.
A University of Washington-led team projects 1.08 million new cases a year by mid-century, and points to Japan's years of suspending active HPV vaccination recommendations as an example of the barriers it faces.
The health ministry is working out the conditions under which recipients can own a vehicle, mainly for commuting and school runs, and will brief local governments once they are settled.
