2022 Volume 49 Issue 5 Pages 555-563
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), has been promoting "Health and productivity management" based on the belief that efforts to maintain and promote the health of employees are an investment that will enhance profitability in the future. METI established the Certified Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program, which requires healthy environments, education to improve health literacy, medical examination, health guidance, and other strategic efforts. Therefore, health checkups are a necessary step in this health management.
The "Health Scoring Report," provided by METI and MHLW, scores the status of lifestyle and health condition of workers, and the implementation of health services of each insurer or corporation, as grasped by the National Database. In addition to providing accurate medical examination data, Health Checkup Institutions are expected to play a role in supporting health management by providing health guidance and an analysis of medical examination data at the request of companies and insurers.
Nearly eight thousand Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were certified for Health and Productivity Management in FY2021; yet, it accounted for only 0.26% among a total of three million SMEs. Although there are still regional differences, the Japan Health Insurance Association and local governments have begun to support the health management of local SMEs.
MHLM revised the "Regional/Occupational Cooperation Promotion Guidelines" in 2019 to promote further cooperation for healthy, long-term living. It refers that the role of Health Checkup Institutions as members of regional cooperation councils is to provide statistical data and information about health issues, and to carry out awareness-raising activities.
