The introduction of IT systems into medical workplaces in Japan was progressive, but the utilization of data has been delayed compared with other countries. However, implementation of the national government's new IT reform strategies of 2006 and the development of databases are progressing rapidly. The Act on the Protection of Personal Information of 2005 may have played a role in accelerating the development of health databases in terms of handling health data and protecting patients' privacy, but the advancement of IT has been fast and demand for using so-called big data is also increasing. Of course, evidence-based medicine and policy decisions are important, and using health data for the public benefit should be promoted; however, concerns about privacy infringement are also on the rise. Against this background, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information was revised in 2016, with the revised law to be enacted at the end of May 2017. Although privacy protection was strengthened, restrictions on secondary use of data were tightened, and the "Act for Authorized Providers of De-identified Health Data" was enacted to promote the use of health data for the public benefit. In this lecture, I describe the current situation regarding health data utilization in Japan and discuss issues for the future.

Previous studies using panel data excluding missing data might have overlooked the impacts of mentally ill-health persons' non-response in informal caregiving. In this study I revealed the characteristics of non-respondents in informal caregiving and examined potential bias of non-response in informal caregiving. Poor mental health status of non-respondents is associated with non-response in informal caregiving. Non-respondents in informal caregiving in females tend to continue non-response. The middle-aged or older persons being physical poor health status or having medication tend to respond the questionnaire in informal caregiving. In contrast, never-married persons or mentally ill-health persons do not tend to respond it. The main determinants of non-respondents in informal caregiving in males are poor mental health. The impacts of informal caregiving provided by males on their mental health might have been underestimated. A panel data including non-respondents in informal caregiving should be constructed in the future study.