The Artemis Program, which is NASA's mission to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, is to establish a lunar base for preparing future manned missions to the mars. Manned space exploration started with rivalry between Soviet and USA during the decade of 1960s, and it ended by the lunar landing of the Apollo 11 in 1969. Thereafter, Soviet/Russia sought how to stay long in the closed narrow space station under a 0-G environment, while USA developed a reusable spaceship named space shuttle. And their common goal was the International Space Station (ISS) that had been built in 1998-2011. Since then, their attention expanded to space utilization including space resources such as the moon and asteroids. The Artemis Program is just one of them planned by USA involving several organizations including Japan, though vitalities of private sector and social economy have now become inevitable for the attainment. And besides, China has caught up the Program, Russia is looking for her own opportunity and India is saving the power.

　Advance in space medicine is indispensable for sustaining manned space activities. Fundamental issues for a long stay in the space station were itemized by using the Skylab stations flown the earth orbit for each 1, 2, and 3 months with 3 crews respectively, in 1972-74. Those issues uncovered by the Skylab mission were reflected and researched further in Space Shuttle and ISS. Main issues to be investigated at the lunar base, must be protection against radiation, group dynamics psychology in long-term space stay and highly advanced technology for circular agriculture. In order to keep physical adaptation of crews against changing G-level before and after a long-term travelling to the mars, such a spaceship as rotating about its axis to produce artificial gravity is required.

　Since 1982, health checkups have been conducted in Yakumo town in Hokkaido, with many medical staff members. The town's major industries are dairy, agriculture and fishing. Based on the results of health checkups in Yakumo town, we investigated dietary habits before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The subjects for this investigation included 528 persons (301 females and 227 males) in 2018 and 434 persons (253 females and 181 males) in 2023. The participants were 40 years or older. The average was 62.8 years in females and 65.1 years in males in 2018, and 63.4 years in females and 66.4 years in 2023. We investigated 28 kinds of food and drinks: 1) carrots, 2) broccoli, 3) green leafy vegetables including spinach, komatsuna and spring chrysanthemum (group A), 4) other green and yellow vegetables including green peppers and snap beans with yellow pods (group B), 5) cabbage, 6) radishes, 7) other light-colored vegetables including cucumbers, onions, sprouts, Chinese cabbage, and lettuce, 8) potatoes including sweet potatoes, 9) pumpkin, 10) oranges (including mandarin oranges) and grapefruits, 11) other fruits including strawberries, kiwi, apples, and watermelon, 12) chicken, 13) beef and pork, 14) ham, sausage, and bacon, 15) fish, 16) squid, shrimp, crab, and octopus, 17) shellfish, 18) seaweed, 19) eggs, 20) milk, 21) yogurt, 22) miso soup, 23) tofu, 24) mushrooms, 25) deep fried foods, 26) stir-fried foods, 27) green tea, 28) coffee. A multivariate analysis compared the intake frequency in 2018 and 2023, adjusting age and sex. The intake frequency of eleven kinds of food and drinks decreased significantly in 2023 than in 2018: 3) green leafy vegetables group A and 4) group B, 5) cabbage, 6) radishes, 10) oranges, 15) fish, 16) squid, shrimp, crab, and octopus, 17) shellfish, 18) seaweed, 22) miso soup, and 27) green tea. When the influence of COVID-19 infection on the intake frequency of food and drinks in 2023 was analyzed, only two kinds of food and drinks, 10) oranges and 17) shellfish, decreased significantly after adjusting age and sex. We guessed that the decrease in the intake frequency of food and drinks depended more on self-restraint in preventing COVID-19 infection than COVID-19 infection itself. However, smell and taste dysfunction due to COVID-19 infection may decrease the frequency of food and drink intake.

　The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and obesity is very strong. For example, according to one well-known American study, a 10% increase in body weight was associated with a six-fold increase in the odds ratio for obstructive sleep apnea with an AHI of 15 or higher. Therefore, weight loss treatment for obesity is very important. Physicians need to understand that obesity is not a self-responsibility of modern people, and they need to provide treatment that is close to obese patients. The principle of obesity treatment is diet and exercise, but patients must be made to understand that diet restriction is more important than exercise. It is important that patients learn the key points of diet and the basic calorie intake of typical meals, and that the team develops tailor-made treatment for each individual patient.

　We investigated the changes in the components and microorganisms during the manufacturing process of "Kuroko", a traditional food from Tsumagoi Village, Gunma Prefecture. "Kuroko" is made by storing starch waste, which is obtained by removing starch from potatoes, outdoors for half a year in the winter. "Kuroko raw material", which is starch waste, contains 70% starch and 19% dietary fiber in a dry state, while "Kuroko" contains more than 90% starch and less dietary fiber. This means that when "Kuroko raw material" is stored in Tsumagoi Village for half a year, the starch remaining in the "Kuroko raw material" is easily extracted, and "Kuroko" is produced. The number of microorganisms in the "Kuroko raw material" stored for half a year in Tsumagoi Village and in the laboratory (4℃) increased for up to eight weeks but did not change thereafter. As a result of comparing the raw materials stored at different temperatures, we found that "Kuroko" can be obtained by storing "Kuroko raw material" at 15℃ for eight weeks, suggesting a new method for manufacturing "Kuroko".

　The purpose of this study was to clarify how families change when elementary school students start eating their school lunch and to explore approaches to improve the families' eating attitudes and habits. The subjects were parents of children who entered 11 elementary schools where school lunches are provided by the school lunch center in Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, in April 2021. Questionnaire surveys were administered four times in April, June, July, and October of that year.

　Parents had positive impressions of the school lunches, perceiving them as "healthy" and "excellent as a subject for food and eating education." As the children in the study families began eating their school lunches, the families became more interested in the food and eating, and talked about food-related topics. Families whose children talked about school lunches were more interested in and talked about the food and eating versus those whose children did not. Although the percentage of children talking about school lunches at home remained high at 69.9% in October, it significantly decreased compared to June. A text-mining analysis revealed that while many words with reporting elements such as "menu" and "eat" were used in June, words such as "topic" and "talk" that indicated communication within the family became more common in July, and words that suggest a behavior change such as "make", "think", and "balance" were extracted at the top of the list in October.

　We consider that to keep families interested in school lunches and to encourage them to change their own behavior to improve their eating habits, it is necessary to study educational materials that make school lunches a regular topic of conversation at home and to create a system centered on the provision of school lunches.

　We conducted a questionnaire focusing on "Bento Day", which inquired about children's involvement in the making of bento lunches and parents' views about their children's participation. The results of our survey indicated that more than 80% of the 184 participating children looked forward to "Bento Day". Regarding the making of lunchboxes, significant differences were observed in the number of items worked on, with higher grades corresponding to a greater number of items worked on. Sixth-graders tended to spend more time making bento boxes than other grades. In addition, the percentage who worked on was low, although all grades were able to participate in the preparation and cleaning up of lunchboxes and chopsticks. In order to help children develop a sense of independence on Bento days, schools need to respond to the following two points:

　1)　the need to use post-teaching and lunchtime to teach children the importance of preparing and cleaning up in their daily lives.

　2)　the importance of clarifying the content that can be worked on and aimed for depending on the grade level and sharing this information with parents.

　Implementation of 2) in particular will avoid excessive intervention and lead to appropriate parental support for their children.

　In Japan, food service facilities are introducing new cooking systems to improve operational efficiency and resolve labor shortages, but cost control remains an issue.In this study, with the aim of utilizing high pressure processing in a new cooking system for food service facilities, conducted to analyze palatability of cooked rice processed by high pressure treatment using both objective and subjective evaluation methods. In mechanical analysis of high pressure processed cooked rice, there was no significant difference in breaking characteristics between samples. The mechanical analysis confirmed that high-pressure treatment did not affect mechanical properties of cooked rice. On the other hand, changes in the color characteristics of the cooked rice were observed owing to the high pressure treatment. The moisture content of high pressure processed cooked rice was suppressed by adding trehalose. In sensory evaluations, high pressure processed cooked rice received lower ratings. However, adding trehalose before processing helped maintain higher ratings compared to processing ordinary rice without trehalose. The present findings provide insights into using high pressure treatment in cooking systems.