Kyodo -- Feb 10
Japan is unlikely to inoculate as many people with Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine as planned due to a shortage of special syringes capable of extracting the final dose from vials provided by the drugmaker, health minister Norihisa Tamura said Tuesday.
The country said last month that it had secured doses for 72 million people based on the assumption that each vial could provide six shots. But without low dead space syringes, which minimize the amount of vaccine left in the syringe after use, a vial ends up yielding only five doses -- enough for 60 million people.
"The syringes used in Japan can only draw five doses. We will use all the syringes we have that can draw six doses, but it will, of course, not be enough as more shots are administered," said Tamura. The government is requesting medical equipment manufacturers step up production of the special syringes.
Reuters reported last month that the United States and European Union countries have also been scrambling to secure enough low dead space syringes to squeeze more doses from the Pfizer vaccine, with manufacturers urged to boost their overall production capacity.
- Kyodo
Feb 25
A panel of experts at Japan's health ministry has pointed out that the number of new cases of the coronavirus in the country has been declining at a slower pace since mid-February.
(NHK)
Feb 24
NAGOYA – Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday began construction of a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji in central Japan as a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence.
(Japan Times)
Feb 24
Since last year, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. (Tepco) left two broken seismometers unrepaired at the No. 3 reactor within its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, officials said Monday.
(Japan Times)
Feb 22
Japan has received its second shipment of the coronavirus vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
(NHK)
Feb 22
Tokyo Electric Power Company has found that the pressure inside one of the reactor containment vessels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has dropped.
(NHK)
Feb 19
NHK has learned that a capsule used to bring back asteroid samples to Earth will be on display in March at a museum in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.
(NHK)
Feb 19
Japan's health ministry has decided to require patients with serious cases of COVID-19 to remain hospitalized for at least 15 days after they start showing symptoms.
(NHK)
Feb 17
Japan has begun vaccinating healthcare workers at medical facilities across the country.
(NHK)
Feb 17
Japanese companies are moving to expand the country's still-nascent hydrogen fueling infrastructure, taking advantage of recent deregulation as Tokyo positions the fuel as central to its pivot away from carbon. (Nikkei)
Feb 17
Vaccinations that kicked off Wednesday in Japan are administered through intramuscular injection — the delivery of medication deep into the muscles — which is widespread in Western countries but not so in Japan.
(Japan Times)
Feb 16
The number of patients with seasonal flu in Japan was below 100 during the first seven days of February. That's far below the levels seen before. (NHK)
Feb 14
A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck northeastern Japan at around 11:07 p.m. on Saturday, local time. No tsunami warning has been issued.
(NHK)
Feb 13
Japanese localities have begun a scramble to secure medical personal to carry out a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus slated to start next week, with estimates predicting that 11,000 physicians are needed per day nationwide.
(Nikkei)
Feb 10
Japan is unlikely to inoculate as many people with Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine as planned due to a shortage of special syringes capable of extracting the final dose from vials provided by the drugmaker, health minister Norihisa Tamura said Tuesday.
(Kyodo)
Feb 09
Japanese precision equipment maker Shimadzu Corp started selling on Monday test kits that can detect coronavirus on inanimate surfaces, including doorknobs, faucets and computers, for the first time in the world.
(Japan Today)
Feb 08
Japanese researchers believe that a jawbone fossil discovered in Fukui Prefecture in 2019 might be from the earliest mammal to ever live within its shores.
(NHK)
Feb 07
Doctors have warned that many coronavirus patients, especially younger ones, are suffering aftereffects for a long time despite subsequently testing negative for the virus and are calling on the government to take countermeasures.
(Kyodo)
Feb 07
The European Union has approved exports of novel coronavirus vaccines to Japan for the first time, EU sources said Friday.
(Japan Times)
Feb 06
A Japanese health ministry survey shows that less than one percent of people in Tokyo and four other prefectures are estimated to have had antibodies against the coronavirus last December.
(NHK)
Feb 06
The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, takes us over the algal blooms swirling around the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Japan, in this edition of the Earth from Space programme.
(European Space Agency, ESA)