Only 10 percent of suspicious deaths in Japan underwent forensic autopsies in 2009, mainly because the government has failed to convince people of their importance, according to experts.
Japan’s autopsy rate is the lowest among advanced nations, compared with 100 percent in Finland and Sweden and 50 to 60 percent in Britain, the United States and Australia.
Chiba University Prof. Hirotaro Iwase, director of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, said people in other developed countries are aware of the public service role that forensic autopsies play in protecting bereaved families’ rights. (Yomiuri)

As no one seemed to think we TEFLers have much to learn from Evidence Based Medicine, I’ve been wondering for a while whether we can take something else from the knowledge of our medical friends and at least make sure we do no harm. Shouldn’t be difficult hey- a grammar explanation ain’t gonna lead to accuracy in the [...]

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As women in the United States and across the industrialized world get fatter, most Japanese women are getting skinnier.
Still, many view themselves as overweight. Social pressure - women looking critically at other women - is the most important reason female skinniness is ascendant in Japan, according to Hisako Watanabe, a child psychiatrist at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. (twincities.com)
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A 37-year-old woman diagnosed with premature menopause had a baby boy earlier this month from an egg grown through the administration of a hormonal agent, her doctors said Saturday.St. Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, stirred the formation of ovarian follicles by administering the hormonal agent to pick up eggs from it, and grew them using culture fluid for external fertilization. (Japan Times)
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