Health Promotion Policy in Japan

Abstract

The health reform program in 2006 was the biggest one for the last 30 years in Japan. According to the plan a nation-wide health promotion program for healthier population will be introduced. As a main program of health promotion, the specified health checkup and follow-up health guidance and intervention program will be introduced from 2008. This program is a Japanese disease management program. In 2006 the preliminary programs have been launched in the three prefectures (Chiba, Toyama, and Fukuoka) and several operational problems have been clarified. In this article the author presents the general feature of program and some critics for it.