Japan's Emperor Emeritus hospitalized for heart disease medication
The 91-year-old Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita Michiko left their residence at the Akasaka Estate by car on Monday afternoon. They arrived at the University of Tokyo Hospital in Bunkyo Ward around 3:30 p.m.
The former Emperor underwent a coronary bypass operation in 2012 when he was 78 years old, after being diagnosed with angina. He was diagnosed with right heart failure in 2022.
At a heart examination in May, he did not feel chest pain or other symptoms, but was diagnosed with asymptomatic myocardial ischemia. The condition occurs when blood flow from the coronary arteries to the heart muscle is insufficient. This is caused when exercise stress exceeds certain levels.
The Imperial Household Agency said the Emperor Emeritus had restricted fluid intake and avoided excessive exercise stress. It said he began taking new medicine to improve coronary blood flow after the recent examination, taking into consideration that hardening of his arteries is advancing due to aging.
The agency said that as his condition has not improved, he will now take another medicine designed to ease strain on the heart.
The Emperor Emeritus was admitted to hospital so that doctors can adjust the amount of the new medicine. They say they will keep checking electrocardiographic and other data to be able to quickly respond to any side effects of the medicine, such as irregular heartbeat.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
16 hours ago
- Japan Times
Record number of people sent to hospital for heatstroke in June, data shows
The number of people in Japan sent to hospital by ambulance in June due to heatstroke more than doubled from a year before to 17,229, the highest for the month on record dating back to 2010, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Wednesday. The previous June high was 15,969 cases, logged in 2022. Many areas across Japan experienced maximum temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius or higher on multiple days last month. Of those hospitalized, 10,342 were age 65 or over, accounting for about 60% of the total. The largest share, at 6,819 cases, occurred at home or in other residential settings, followed by 3,404 cases on roads. The agency is calling on people to stay at home on days when a heatstroke alert is issued and to use air conditioners or fans appropriately.
NHK
2 days ago
- NHK
Whooping cough cases in Japan hit new high for 4th straight week
Weekly cases of whooping cough in Japan have hit a new high for the fourth straight week. The Japan Institute for Health Security says medical institutions across the country reported 3,682 patients in the week through July 13. That was 104 more than in the previous week and the highest since the current method of recordkeeping began in 2018. By prefecture, Tokyo had the most, with 273 patients. It was followed by 236 in Saitama, 198 in Gunma, 175 in Kanagawa, 169 in Niigata, 167 in Ibaraki, 153 in Chiba and 152 in Hyogo. The cumulative number of patients so far this year stands at 48,073. Whooping cough is a bacterial infection that affects mainly children and is characterized by severe persistent coughing. Infants can become seriously ill or die if infected. As of the end of June, at least four infants up to the age of four months have died in Tokyo and three other prefectures. Medical institutions in many regions have been reporting infections that are resistant to drugs. The Japan Pediatric Society is calling on parents to vaccinate their babies as soon as they are two months old.
Japan Times
3 days ago
- Japan Times
Swimming lessons disappearing from Japan's public junior high schools
An increasing number of public junior high schools in Japan are abolishing swimming lessons and replacing them with classroom lectures due to aging pool facilities and growing concerns about heatstroke. However, experts emphasize the importance of practical swimming education to prevent drowning accidents, and schools are exploring alternative ways to give students swimming experience. At Obu Minami Junior High School in the city of Obu, Aichi Prefecture, swimming pool lessons have been switched to classroom lectures since last year. 'I have mixed feelings about this as we'd wanted students to develop swimming skills,' said Shoya Narita, a 37-year-old physical education teacher at the school. A third-year student recalled his experience in the pool, saying, 'I wasn't really good at swimming, but I improved through practice. I'm sad it's gone.' In Obu, swimming pool facilities at public elementary and junior high schools have been deteriorating in recent years — including incidents of broken poolside structures and malfunctioning water supply systems — making them unsafe for use. Heatstroke prevention measures and typhoons have also made it difficult to maintain consistent lesson schedules. Faced with these issues, the city's board of education began reviewing the swimming classes several years ago. A growing debate over teachers' excessive workload, such as water quality management and pool cleaning, was another factor behind the review. As a result, all nine public elementary schools in the city switched to using public or private indoor pools two years ago. Meanwhile, due to class schedule constraints, the city's four public junior high schools abolished pool lessons last year as it was difficult to secure enough time to travel to and from the pool facilities outside of the schools. At Obu Minami Junior High, around 10 class periods per grade were previously devoted to swimming lessons each year. However, only two sessions for classroom lectures were held last year — one for students to study and discuss potential dangers in rivers and the ocean, and the other for them to watch videos on how to rescue someone drowning in a pool and what precautions to take near water. Similar classroom lectures are planned for this year. 'We incorporated a lifesaving perspective,' Narita said. 'We were wondering what to teach, but I believe students' learning progressed through the lectures.' Under Japan's school curriculum guidelines, swimming is a required subject from the first grade of elementary school through the second year of junior high school. Even if a pool is not available, schools are still expected to cover water safety studies in their curriculum. Public school pools were constructed nationwide in the 1950s in response to a series of fatal drowning accidents involving children. However, school mergers and aging infrastructure have led to a steady decline in the number of pools in recent years. According to the Sports Agency, there were 7,646 outdoor pools at junior high schools in the 1996 school year, but only 5,959 remained as of 2021. As the number of school pools decreased nationwide, moves to abolish swimming lessons expanded at junior high schools in the Chubu region as well. As of the 2023 school year, Gifu Prefecture had ended swimming lessons at 58 schools in 17 municipalities. According to a 2024 survey, Fukui Prefecture had discontinued them at 54 schools in 10 municipalities. In the current academic year, the same trend is seen in Shizuoka Prefecture, with 52 schools in 16 municipalities; Aichi Prefecture, with nine schools, including the four in Obu; and Nagano Prefecture, with seven schools. In Mie Prefecture, eight of the 10 junior high schools in the city of Suzuka have switched to classroom lectures. Among them, Oki Junior High School did not build a new pool when it underwent a complete renovation two years ago, citing the poor cost-effectiveness, as the outdoor pool could only be used during the summer. Japan Aquatics, the nation's swimming federation, has expressed concerns over the decline in swimming lessons at public junior high schools. 'Promoting swimming for health and water safety is part of our mission,' the federation said, urging the national government to ensure that all children have access to swimming experiences. An official at the Sports Agency said schools should ideally offer swimming-pool lessons based on curriculum guidelines. Alternatively, the official suggested that schools could use public pools or private swimming clubs while also taking into account reducing teachers' workloads. In Obu, all junior high school students are given tickets to use public pools. For those who wish, the city also subsidizes the cost of taking swimming lessons at private clubs to ensure that students still have opportunities to develop swimming skills. Keisuke Teramoto, a professor of health and physical education at Aichi University of Education, emphasizes that the issue is not whether schools have or are able to use their pools, but how to ensure opportunities for children to experience swimming. Teramoto notes that summer leisure activities often involve water, and that without actual experience, children can't truly understand its dangers. 'Over the nine years of compulsory education, schools must ensure children can properly learn how to swim,' he said. This section features topics and issues from the Chubu region covered by the Chunichi Shimbun. The original article was published June 26.
