<Preface>

Recent topics in public health in Japan 2023
YOKOYAMA Tetsuji
Department of Health Promotion, National Institute of Public Health

The “Journal of the National Institute of Public Health” is published 6 times a year to promptly cover
up-to-date topics in the field of public health; including health, health care, social care and environmental
health, and to transmit evidence-based accurate knowledge and information to healthcare professionals.
Although the journal mainly targets the readers in Japan, a special feature issue to disseminate theinformation about the Japanese public health to countries all over the world has been published once a year
since 2019.
This feature issue “Recent topics in public health in Japan 2023” covers various topics rather than aspecific detailed one because the information accessible from other countries is very limited especiallyin the field of public health despite the attracting interest in Japan or Japanese public health from many
countries around the world. Thus, this issue is a collection of the following 6 review articles dealing withJapan’s advanced efforts of public health, to which the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has
substantially contributed.
TAKEMURA outlined the history of the challenges to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technologies inJapan and reviewed and discussed past achievements and future prospects for research and development(R&D) and implementation of AI, with a particular focus on the fields of health and medical care. KODAMA
et al. reported on recent developments surrounding pregnant and parturient women including the subsidies
and support for antenatal checkups and delivery as well as the community care and support measuresduring pregnancy and after birth. YUKAWA and MATSUSHIGE reviewed end-of-life care and analyzed thelaws and guidelines in other countries to use the associated ethical issues as a basis for developing a code ofethics for “Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking” (VSED) in Japan. ASAMI et al. generally explained
the water quality incidents especially related to buildings and introduced recent water quality incidents
associated with microbial contamination in drinking water storage tanks and the incident at a university
hospital building. TANEDA et al. overviewed the “Regional Medical Care Vision” that were formulated toconstruct an efficient medical service system by promoting the functional differentiation and cooperation ofmedical institutions. TANO and HIRANO summarized the health hazards related to smoking among people
less than 20 years of age, the current state of public awareness regarding smoking, and issues related tosmoking among young people.
We hope that the information reviewed in this issue will help public health workers in the world tounderstand that Japanese health policies and related efforts by the NIPH have played important roles in
improving the nation’s health, and to find that the Japan’s experience will be useful for the improvementof public health in their own countries. For additional information, readers are advised to also see the pastfeature issues of “Recent topics in public health in Japan” published since 2019.

J. Natl. Inst. Public Health, 72 (1) : 2023

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