The oldest female elephant in South Korea passed away Tuesday at a zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at the age of 59, zoo officials said Thursday. The female elephant, named Sakura, had suffered from deteriorating health since November last year, primarily caused by ascites and subcutaneous edema. Born in February 1965 in Thailand, she was in her 90s in human years. Sakura spent her early years as a circus perform.
When Maya Crahe-Sato had to sleep at her son's bedside in a children's hospital near Tokyo, a makeshift cot offered to her was so thin that her French husband described it as like lying on the grates of a barbecue grill.
Japan says it will increase its spending on child care to a level on par with countries like Sweden, doubling it from the current size by the early 2030s as the rapidly aging nation aims to reverse the declining birthrate.
The government is considering issuing bridge bonds as early as fiscal 2024 to make up for an expected shortfall in funding to boost child-rearing support, a key policy goal of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, according to sources with knowledge of the plan