Influenza is affecting hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and rising rapidly among that nation's population of 124.5 million and overwhelming many healthcare providers and drugmakers.

Japan's health ministry reports a record-high number of influenza cases, with 64.39 patients per clinic on average in late December. All 47 prefectures see increases, leading to school closures. Flu cases reach 'warning levels' in 43 prefectures,

Japan in the last week of December experienced the biggest influenza outbreak since comparable data became available 25 years ago, health authorities said Thursday.

Japanese authorities have started culling around 50,000 chickens after a bird flu outbreak was reported at a farm in the northern Iwate region. This is the 19th such incident this season, Japan's Agriculture Ministry said.

In the week through Dec. 29, the total number of reported flu cases was nearly three times the number from the same period in 2023.

By bno - Tokyo bureau Japan has seen a dramatic spike in flu cases, reaching the highest levels since record-keeping began in 1999. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, influenza cases across the country surged to a staggering 317,