In November 2025, the drug company Taisho Pharmaceutical surveyed 1,200 working people in their twenties to sixties who had caught a cold in the past year. On average, they said they wanted to stay home from work at a temperature of 37.70 degrees Celsius. On average, they actually stayed home at 37.84 degrees.
health
Self-Directed Study
A notice of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of July 1, 2019 deals with kensan, the study doctors do on their own outside scheduled hours. Study that is not essential to the work, done of free will, outside working hours, offered by the doctor on his or her own initiative, and without express or implied instruction from a superior is generally not working time, even at the hospital.
Preparation for treatment and follow-up work that is essential to treatment count as working time.
Death from Overwork
Karōshi (過労死) means death from overwork. In 1988, as deaths of overworked employees kept occurring, a telephone hotline opened, the Karōshi 110-ban, where lawyers and others gave advice. In 2002, the word entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
In June 2014, Japan enacted the Act on Promotion of Measures to Prevent Karōshi. Its first article states that karōshi has become frequent in Japan and a serious social problem. The act defines it as death from cerebrovascular or heart disease caused by an excessive workload, or suicide caused by a mental disorder brought on by strong stress at work. It also covers these illnesses themselves.
The Domestic Trial
On Sunday, February 14, 2021, Japan’s health minister gave special approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. The approval followed a phase 1 and 2 trial in Japan, planned for 160 healthy adults aged 20 to 85.
Two days later, at the press conference of the minister Kōno Tarō, a reporter’s question noted that the vaccine had been approved even though the number of Japanese in the trial was small.
Without a Letter of Introduction
In April 2016, Japan introduced a fixed extra fee at large hospitals for patients who come for a first visit without a shōkaijō, a letter of introduction from another doctor. Advanced treatment hospitals and regional medical support hospitals with 500 or more general beds were obliged to collect it.
When the rule was introduced, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare set the fee for a first visit at 5,000 yen, or 3,000 yen at a dentist. The amounts have since been revised.
Ridges on the Shampoo Bottle
In Japan, shampoo bottles carry small notches. They were added so that shampoo and conditioner bottles, which look alike, can be told apart by touch, for example by visually impaired people or by anyone washing their hair with eyes closed.
The notches were put into practical use in 1991. Other companies in the industry were then asked to adopt them.
Mother and Child Handbook
Under Article 16 of Japan’s Maternal and Child Health Act, a municipality must give a boshi kenkō techō, a maternal and child health handbook, to every woman who notifies it of a pregnancy. Each time she has a health check or receives guidance from a doctor, dentist, midwife or public health nurse, the necessary entries must be made in the handbook.
The handbook began in 1942 as a handbook for expectant and nursing mothers. It became the mother and child handbook in 1948 and took its present name in 1966.
The Annual Health Check
Article 66 of Japan’s Industrial Safety and Health Act requires employers to have a doctor examine their workers. The ordinance under the act sets the rhythm. Workers employed on a continuing basis must receive a periodic health examination once within every year.
In 1954, the National Tokyo First Hospital opened ningen dokku, the human dry dock. It was a new system of health examination for the early detection of adult diseases.
Tactile Paving
Japan laid its first tactile paving blocks, tenji burokku, in 1967. Over about twenty years, they spread to railways, roads and public buildings. Blocks laid in those years came in many shapes and sizes.
In 2001, the standard JIS T 9251 unified the shape and size of their raised dots and bars.
Use First, Pay Later
Toyama’s medicine sellers leave a box of household medicines with a family. A salesperson visits every six months to a year and collects payment only for the medicines that were used. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes this as the traditional Toyama method, sen’yō kōri , use first and profit after.
The seller keeps a kakebachō , a customer ledger. A magazine of JR West calls it detailed data for managing customers. The magazine Waraku writes that the sellers won the trust and confidence of their customers.