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Welfare ministry official acquitted in postal abuse case

OSAKA, Japan, Aug. 24 Kyodo - Atsuko Muraki (L), former director general of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau, holds a press conference in Osaka on Sept. 10, 2010, with her lawyer Junichiro Hironaka after the Osaka District Court acquitted her of instructing a subordinate to fabricate and issue an official document for an organization in an attempt to abuse a mail discount system for people with disabilities.(Kyodo)

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Seized cannabis in Tokyo

Photo taken in Tokyo on Aug. 14, 2025, shows approximately 1 ton of cannabis confiscated by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Narcotics Control Department, marking Japan's largest-ever single-raid illegal drug haul.

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Timee president

TOKYO, Japan, July 31 Kyodo - Ryo Ogawa, president of Timee Inc., a Tokyo-based company providing a side job matching service, speaks during a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Tokyo on Dec. 6, 2024.(Kyodo)

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Entrance ceremony for new ministry officials

New recruits at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare attend an entrance ceremony at the ministry in Tokyo on April 1, 2024, the first day of the new business year. (Pool photo)

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Japan formally decides to downgrade COVID-19 to flu level on May 8

A Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry panel convenes a meeting in Tokyo on April 27, 2023, where it found no issues with the government's plan to downgrade the legal status of the novel coronavirus to a level on par with seasonal influenza on May 8.

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Japan formally decides to downgrade COVID-19 to flu level on May 8

A Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry panel convenes a meeting in Tokyo on April 27, 2023, where it found no issues with the government's plan to downgrade the legal status of the novel coronavirus to a level on par with seasonal influenza on May 8.

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Japan to downgrade COVID-19

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare holds a meeting of medical experts in Tokyo on Jan. 27, 2023, as the government mulls reclassifying the novel coronavirus to put it in the same category as common infectious diseases such as seasonal influenza.

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Japan to downgrade COVID-19

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare holds a meeting of medical experts in Tokyo on Jan. 27, 2023, as the government mulls reclassifying the novel coronavirus to put it in the same category as common infectious diseases such as seasonal influenza.

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Japan to downgrade COVID-19

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare holds a meeting of medical experts in Tokyo on Jan. 27, 2023, as the government mulls reclassifying the novel coronavirus to put it in the same category as common infectious diseases such as seasonal influenza.

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Interview with career female bureaucrat

TOKYO, Japan - Noriko Kawamura, deputy chief of the Equal Employment Policy Division at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, speaks during an interview in Tokyo, Japan, on June 11, 2014.

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Japan to export beef to Canada for first time

MAEBASHI, Japan - Japan will begin exporting beef to Canada next week for the first time, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare officials said Aug. 8. Photo shows a ceremony held at a meat processing center in the town of Tamamura, Gunma Prefecture, to mark the first shipment of Japanese beef to Canada. The beef will be shipped by air from Narita airport Aug. 13.

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Kids play in nursery room opened at health ministry

TOKYO, Japan - Small children play in a nursery room opened at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Tokyo on Dec. 1, 2014. It is the third nursery opened at Japanese ministries.

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Man who traveled from W. Africa tests negative for Ebola

TOKYO, Japan - Photo taken Oct. 28, 2014, shows the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, to which a man, who traveled from West Africa and showed elevated body temperature upon arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport, was admitted the previous day. The Canadian journalist tested negative for the Ebola virus but will remain hospitalized and under observation for a few more days, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

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MSDF repatriate remains of Japanese war dead from Pacific

TOKYO, Japan - The Maritime Self-Defense Force hands over the remains of 137 Japanese war dead repatriated from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific to officials from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare upon the MSDF training vessel Kashima's arrival at Harumi Pier in Tokyo on Oct. 24, 2014. It was the first time an MSDF vessel has transported the remains of Japanese war dead.

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Data on U.S. H-bomb test show fishermen's radiation levels

TOKYO, Japan - Documents related to the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Sept. 19, 2014, include the levels of radiation exposure suffered by crew members of fishing boats operating near the atoll.

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Novartis Pharma accused over drug ads

TOKYO, Japan - Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry officials hold a press conference at the ministry in Tokyo on Jan. 9, 2014, after filing a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Novartis Pharma K.K. over alleged exaggerated advertising for a blood pressure-lowering drug.

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Japan's 2nd ever woman vice minister

TOKYO, Japan - Photo shows Atsuko Muraki, director general of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's Social Welfare and War Victims' Relief Bureau. The government plans to name Muraki as vice minister of the ministry to become Japan's second ever woman vice minister, reflecting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to appoint women to key posts, government sources said June 14, 2013.

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Firm raided over workers' bile duct cancer

OSAKA, Japan - Investigators from the Osaka Labor Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare enter printing firm Sanyo-CYP Co. in Osaka on April 2, 2013, to search the office on suspicion the company neglected its duty to take proper care of its workers' health. Seventeen of them suffered from bile duct cancer, eight of whom died.

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Acquitted Muraki returns to welfare ministry

TOKYO, Japan - Atsuko Muraki, senior official at the Cabinet Office, answers reporters' questions after being appointed head of the Social Welfare and War Victims' Relief Bureau of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, at the ministry in Tokyo on Sept. 10, 2012. Muraki was acquitted in 2010 in a fraud case involving abuse of a postal discount system while working at the welfare ministry.

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Japan to tighten limits on cesium in food

TOKYO, Japan - The Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council, an advisory council to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, meets at the ministry in Tokyo on Feb. 24, 2012. The council decided to tighten limits on radioactive cesium found in food to between one-20th and a quarter of the current provisional limits, depending on food categories, from April 1.

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Japan smoking rate falls to record-low 19.5%

TOKYO, Japan - A man smokes a cigarette in an outdoor smoking area near JR Shimbashi Station in Tokyo on Jan. 31, 2012. The smoking rate hit an all-time low of 19.5 percent in Japan in 2010, down 3.9 percentage points from the preceding year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said the same day.

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Draft report on Japanese soldiers' remains

MANILA, Philippines - Photo shows draft documents of investigation report prepared by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on the remains search project for Japanese soldiers who died in World War II in the Philippines. It was learned Sept. 25, 2011, that bones of women and children who died long after the war are suspected to have become mixed with the collected remains of the purported soldiers, according to the draft report and sources close to the Japanese and the Philippines governments.

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Fatal food poisoning at barbecue chain

TOKYO, Japan - Officials of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry attend a press conference in Tokyo on May 5, 2011, over a string of fatal food poisoning cases believed to be caused by consuming raw meat at a ''yakiniku'' barbecue restaurant chain. The ministry asked prefectural governments to conduct emergency checks on whether restaurants serving raw meat are properly observing sanitation standards.

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Welfare official acquitted

OSAKA, Japan - Atsuko Muraki, a senior official of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, smiles during a press conference in Osaka, after the Osaka District Court acquitted her of allegedly instructing a subordinate to fabricate and issue an official document for an organization to enable it to use a mail discount system for the disabled.

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Welfare official acquitted

OSAKA, Japan - Atsuko Muraki, a senior official of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, enters the Osaka District Court on Sept. 10, 2010. The court acquitted her of fabricating and issuing an official document for an organization to enable it to use a mail discount system for the disabled.

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Welfare official acquitted

OSAKA, Japan - Atsuko Muraki, a senior official of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, enters the Osaka District Court on Sept. 10, 2010. The court acquitted her of fabricating and issuing an official document for an organization to enable it to use a mail discount system for the disabled.

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Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma ordered to suspend some operations

TOKYO, Japan - Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. President Michihiro Tsuchiya (L) and Takehiko Fujii (C), president of subsidiary Bipha Corp., apologize in Tokyo on April 13, 2010, after the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry ordered Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma to suspend some of its pharmaceutical manufacturing and sales operations for 25 days over the alleged falsification of blood product test data. The subsidiary, which manufactured the product and falsified the data, was ordered to suspend its drug manufacturing business for 30 days.

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Bill to set up fund for a-bomb sufferers clear lower house panel

TOKYO, Japan - Health minister Akira Nagatsuma bows in appreciation after the House of Representatives' Health, Labor and Welfare Committee approved a bill to establish a fund for atomic bomb suffers in Tokyo on Dec. 1, 2009. The bill, expected to clear a plenary session of the lower house later in the day, will establish a 300 million yen fund to compensate people who are suffering from radiation-linked illnesses due to the 1945 atomic bombings and have lost compensation lawsuits against the state.

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Ministry says 20% of Japan population could contract new flu

TOKYO, Japan - Kensuke Nakajima (L), head of the infectious disease information section at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, speaks about the ministry's estimation of the number of people who could be infected with the new H1N1 strain of influenza A during a press conference at the ministry in Tokyo on Aug. 18. The ministry said it expects about 25 million people, or some 20 percent of the population in Japan, to become infected with the new flu.

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Prosecutors raid welfare ministry over postal discount abuse

TOKYO, Japan - Prosecutors (L) raid the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Tokyo on May 27 over allegations that a ministry official falsified official documents in connection with a case of postal system abuse.

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Another student confirmed to be infected with new flu

CHIBA, Japan - An official at a hospital in Chiba Prefecture speaks to reporters after the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced May 10 that a male student, admitted to the hospital, has been confirmed as the fourth case of the new flu strain in Japan.

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Yokohama high school student tests negative for new flu

TOKYO, Japan - An official of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry speaks at a news conference at the ministry on May 1, saying a high school student in Yokohama suspected of being Japan's first case of infection from the rapidly spreading new influenza strain tested negative.

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Japan declares outbreak of new flu after WHO action

TOKYO, Japan - Japanese health minister Yoichi Masuzoe speaks at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on April 28. The minister declared the outbreak of a new influenza following the World Health Organization's upgrading of its alert level.

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Ministry tightens security checks with metal detectors

TOKYO, Japan - A security guard checks a ministry official with a metal detector at the entrance of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Nov. 19, a day after a former vice health minister and his wife were found killed and the wife of another former vice minister was stabbed.

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Gov't, hepatitis C patients sign accord to end legal battle

TOKYO, Japan - Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe (L) bows before the representatives of the plaintiffs in hepatitis C damages lawsuits against the state and drugmakers, at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Tokyo on Jan. 15 after the two sides signed a basic accord to end the protracted legal battle. The agreement is based on a law enacted last week offering blanket relief to those who contracted the liver illness through contaminated blood products such as fibrinogen which were administered to stop bleeding.

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Gov't, hepatitis C patients sign accord to end legal battle

TOKYO, Japan - Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe (R) shakes hands with Michiko Yamaguchi, leader of the plaintiffs in hepatitis C damages lawsuits against the state and drugmakers, at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Tokyo on Jan. 15 after the two sides signed a basic accord to end the protracted legal battle. The agreement is based on a law enacted last week offering blanket relief to those who contracted the liver illness through contaminated blood products such as fibrinogen which were administered to stop bleeding.

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19 plaintiffs recognized as A-bomb radiation disease sufferers

KUMAMOTO, Japan - The plaintiffs and their supporters celebrate outside the Kumamoto District Court on July 30 after the court repealed most of the state decision not to recognize 21 people in Kumamoto Prefecture who suffered in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as radiation casualties. The court recognized 19 of 21 plaintiffs as radiation disease sufferers. Of 250,000 people certified under Japanese law as atomic bomb victims as of March 31, only 2,242 have been recognized as suffering from illnesses caused by radiation from the atomic bombings, according to Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry data.

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American looking for owner of flag left behind by Japanese solider

TOKYO, Japan - Jonathan Porter, from the U.S. state of Georgia, shows a Japanese flag at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Tokyo on July 20. Porter appealed for help in locating the owner of the flag which he said has been left behind by a Japanese soldier during World War II.

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Comsn to sell nursing-care business after April

TOKYO, Japan - Koichi Higuchi (R), president of Comsn Inc., meets with Shinji Asonuma (L), director general of the Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Tokyo on June 13.

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Women's groups rally in Tokyo to protest minister's remarks on women

TOKYO, Japan - About 30 representatives from various women's organizations rally in front of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on Jan. 30 to demand health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa's resignation. Yanagisawa sparked an outcry after making remarks comparing women to ''birth-giving machines.'' Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Jan. 30 rejected a demand from opposition leaders to sack Yanagisawa.

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Gov't drafts guidelines on stemming spread of new flu

TOKYO, Japan - The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare presents to a panel of experts on Jan. 19 draft guidelines aimed at preventing contagion in the event of an outbreak of a hitherto unknown influenza. The ministry, which hosted the experts meeting, hopes to draw up the guidelines in March.

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Japan's oldest person dies at 114

FUKUOKA, Japan - Ura Koyama (in undated file photo), the oldest person in Japan, died of pneumonia on April 5 aged 114 at a hospital in Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, her family said. She became the country's oldest person after Mitoyo Kawate in Hiroshima City died at 114 on Nov. 13, 2003. Yone Minagawa, 112, who lives in Akaike, Fukuoka Prefecture, has now become the oldest person in Japan, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

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(2)Japan's 1st case of human mad cow disease confirmed

TOKYO, Japan - Tetsuyuki Kitamoto (L), a professor at Tohoku University who heads the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's experts committee on Creutzfeldt-Jacob and other diseases, briefs reporters about Japan's first CJD patient.

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Centenarians in Japan total record 23,000

TOKYO, Japan - Ura Koyama (file photo), of Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, is the oldest person in Japan at 114. The number of centenarians in Japan will total a record 23,038 by the end of this month, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Sept. 14 ahead of Sept. 20 Respect for the Aged Day.

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Sompo Japan Vice President Murase to head Social Insurance Agency

TOKYO, Japan - Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. Vice President Kiyoshi Murase (in undated file photo) has been named as commissioner of the Social Insurance Agency, making him the first from a private firm to head the auxiliary body of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Murase, 57, will replace Akira Mano, who will retire.

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Showdown on pension bills expected to last into night

TOKYO, Japan - Ruling and opposition members of the House of Representatives bustle around the podium of the lower house plenary hall at the Diet in Tokyo on June 4 as house speaker Yohei Kono tries to take a vote on a censure motion against Seiichi Eto, chairman of the lower house's health, labor and welfare committee.

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Pension reform bills clear upper house panel

TOKYO, Japan - Opposition members of the House of Councillors Health, Welfare and Labor Committee rush the chairman's seat at the Diet in Tokyo June 3 as ruling coalition panelists railroad a set of pension reform bills through the panel.

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(3)Pension bills clear Diet panel

TOKYO, Japan - Opposition Democratic Party of Japan members of the House of Representative Health, Labor and Welfare hold placards calling for continued debate on government-sponsored pension reform bills on April 28 as the ruling coalition pushed the bills through a committee session.

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(2)Pension bills clear Diet panel

TOKYO, Japan - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (R) shakes hands with Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi in the Diet building on April 28 after government-sponsored pension reform bills were approved at House of Representatives Health, Labor and Welfare Committee session.

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Japan confirms bird flu at Kyoto chicken farm

TOKYO, Japan - Masako Kurimoto, chief of the Health Administration Section at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, speaks to reporters at the ministry Feb. 29 about the discovery of bird flu virus in samples from a Kyoto Prefecture farm where 67,000 chickens have died over the past week.