2017 Volume 66 Issue 4 Pages 415-424
Current problems with global-level nutrition involve insufficient nutrition, which remains unresolved, and nutrition transition. Japan has previously experienced such a transition and, although public health nutrition activities have addressed these issues for over 70 years, few reports have hitherto covered it. This study chronologically reviews and analyzes public health nutrition policies and community-based activities undertaken since the end of WW II. The public health nutrition activities in Japan can be classified into 1) community-based nutrition activities, 2) constructing a system for the formation and training of dietitians, and 3) National Health and Nutrition Surveys that monitor and evaluate the health of the Japanese populace. Moreover, communitybased nutrition activities include three main periods, that is, 1945–1965: health promotion and diet improvement; 1966–1999: health promotion policies based on national government policy; and 2000 and beyond: responding to nutrition problems through multi-disciplinary collaboration during the era of the aging-society. Despite the health and nutrition transition after WWII, a continuous rising average life expectancy among the Japanese populace points to the presence of both a health policy-based PDCA (plan, do, check, act) cycle for public health nutrition activities and a national-level monitoring and evaluation system. Therefore, the experience of Japan in improving nutrition as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs ) involves the two crucial processes of promotion of sustainable efforts at regional and national levels, and the monitoring and evaluation of population health on a global scale.
