ACTA SCIENTIFIC NUTRITIONAL HEALTH
Volume 2 Issue 12 December 2018

Short Communication

Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in Japan

Shaw Watanabe1*, Sayuri Kodama2 and Kazunori Matsumura3
1

Lifescience Promoting Association, Tokyo, Japan

2

Sagami Women’s Junior College, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

3

Terakoya Buddha Cooporation, Tokyo, Japan*Corresponding Author: Shaw Watanabe, Lifescience Promoting Association, Tokyo, Japan.

Received: October 24, 2018; Published: November 08, 2018

Today, more than a quarter of the Japanese population is aged

over 65 years old. This is set to increase to 40% by 2055, when thepopulation will have shrunk from the current 127 million to 90 mil-lion. At present, the average life expectancy is 81 years old in males

and 87 years old in females. However, many are now being forced

to live a rather restricted life with an average of 9.13 years for men

the world, with foreigners making up less than 2% of the popula-tion. Opening Japan to large-scale immigration is a very sensitive
subject. Allowing a limited number of foreign students could not

fulfill the needs to care for Japan's rising number of elderly people.
There are no immediate solutions on the horizon and Japanand an average of 12.8 years for women.

needs to find one fast. We have proposed improving eating habitswith chronic diseases, Japan has implemented several policies,

dietary habit and health (GENKI study) clarified the characteristics

In response to increasing rates of elderly and its association

guidelines and programs [1]. Kenko Nippon 21 (Health Japan 21),

which began in 2000, aims to extend healthy life expectancy andreduce health disparities, and to improve people’s quality of life
(QOL). In addition, it was followed by the Shokuiku (eating educa-tion) Basic Law which was passed in 2005. Subsequently, in 2008,
the government launched a special nationwide health check-up

is of vital importance to keep and stay healthy until late in life, andbrown rice eating is the best choice. The cross-sectional study onof obese people and brown rice eaters among 6,000 participants[2]. Obese people had many lifestyle-related diseases, such as dia-betes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, at an odds ratio of 3, whilebrown rice eaters showed only 0.3 [3].

The national census, conducted every five years has been cover-program (tokutei-kenko-shinsa). For the impaired elderly, more

ing both Japanese nationals and non-Japanese citizens living in theskyrocketed. The number of special nursing homes for the elderly

from 2.82 in 1995 to 2.39 in 2015. Single-person households havenursing homes with improved medical care facilities have been

built, but by doing this, governmental medical expenditures havewas 2,260 in 1990, and it increased to 6,254 in 2011, but this hascaused many problems. Meanwhile, about 1.69 million people now

live in welfare facilities for the elderly, representing a 40 percent
surge from the previous census taken in 2012.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has warned thatJapan will need to add one million nurses and care workers bycountry. The thick report, conducted by the Internal Affairs Min-istry, showed that the average number of household members fellgrown to occupy 32.5 percent of the total 51.88 million households, making it now the largest segment of the population. It

showed that one in every 8 men aged 65 or older and one in every
5 women of the same age category live alone.

“Terakoya” temple movement

It is important to involve these people to the community circle.

2025. Encouraging immigration from Asian countries may seem

The single living elderly tends to be inactive and loses communica-

says they would be required to go home after three to five years.

Buddhist temples have started a new way to survive in their small

like a simple solution. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he is keen
to expand the program for foreign workers including nurses, but

Japan is still one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries intion with neighbors. However, it is difficult to find a proper place

for citizen’s activity to support them. Recently young monks intowns and/or villages, because registered members and surround-ing population to support a temple is decreasing in elderly society.

Citation: Shaw Watanabe., et al. “Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in Japan”. Acta Scientific Nutritional Health2.12 (2018): 08-10.

Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in JapanThe local events in the temple are planned by the Terakoya Bud-dha Council as part of the scheme which intends to help older people beat loneliness. “Terakoya” means a private elementary schoolin the Edo period in Japan. So far, more than 50 with admission fee
seminars are opened in 13 temples in Tokyo monthly. These aresummarized into four categories; “heart and body”, “nature andtradition”, “play and art”, “town and living”. In addition over 40 freeevents, such as workshop, yoga school, festival, market, etc. havestarted for regional residents including elderly people in the empty
free Buddhist temples.

So, what kind of concepts will convey mental and physicalhealth? There are words of mind and body in Buddhism and psy-

chosomatic relationships in psychosomatic medicine, but heart andbody health are inseparable, but have mutual effect. If my mind gets
healthy, my body will be healthy, and if my body will be healthy, mymind will be healthy.

This is how the monk approaches from the mental health andconveys mental and physical health. The doctor will inform theAccept others
If you do not recognize yourself, others will not be accepted
Review casually and carelessly talked words
I will get you. Thanks. Thank you.

Learn the spirit of connection from words

Self-profit should become other’s profit for peaceful balanced
world

To take care of myself and to take care of others is the same
A good connection (communication)

Everything exists and changes while mutually influencing eachother.

People can live by supporting each other from the first time.

The connection of a good person will improve that person's mind.

Vertical connection beyond generation, sideways connection withthe same generation.

[Physical movement to keep body function]Mealphysical and mental health by approach from the health of the body.

The body is made of all what you ateness" through accumulation of sophisticated experiences since

How to identify dangerous foods

Buddhism has an academic basis of the mind made with "aware-2000 years ago. Medicine was born of accumulation of precise
scientific evidence. So, the collaboration between two is the main

point of the program. After repeated discussions with monks, doc-

Intestinal environment is a key point of health
What you should eat
How to take a meal
Movementtors, etc., we propose heart health and physical health by six life-

It is necessary to move your bodying better", so we will send out the "lifestyle habits" to maintain theTips for daily life

styles. Can temples contribute to prolonging the healthy lifespan?
In the first place, the temple is a place to contribute to people's "livmental and physical health from all over the country. That is thehealth cram school of the heart and body.
[To get flexible mind]
Admit yourself
Have you met yourself?

I notice "now, here, and I".

Introduction to mindfulness meditation

Knowing the neutral position of the heart
Admit yourself as it is.

09

What is a healthy condition
Finger movement

Rest to recover mind wellness
Brain fatigue, body fatigue

Causes and solutions to fatigue

Meditation to suppress excessive work of the brain
Good sleep, bad sleep

How to get a good sleep

Causes and solutions to fatigue

Meditation to suppress excessive work of the brain
Self-compassion

Citation: Shaw Watanabe., et al. “Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in Japan”. Acta Scientific Nutritional Health2.12 (2018): 08-10.

Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in Japan
10[Sharing knowledge]
Sharing knowledge and know-how in comrades' temple network
We built a model case in 2019,

Expand voluntary network across the country
How to open a healthy temple
1.
2.
3.

4.

Learn the basics of preventive medicine
Healthy Temple Declaration

Encourage making of the temple's school in a town

It is convenient to use partner lecturer registration function
Start!

Fun to be healthy with various Terakoya activities!
Rationale of this Terakoya Buddha project

Hoshi., et al. [4] evaluated causal and structural relationships

with diverse factors contributing to healthy life expectancy bytracking the subjects longitudinally for every three years and six

This might influence a more positive lifestyle to occur as a re-sult by progress in work, physical, psychological and social health,as well as the necessity to emphasize the preservation of incomeand environmental conditions.

To push for the initiation of better overall health education thatfocuses on setting up a health supporting environment can defi-

nitely help people’s lives by making more desirable smart lifestylechoices [6].

We can expect the Terakoya Healthy Temple program to flour-ish. However, we are still growing, even at this age, and it’s nice to
see them growing as well.

Bibliography
1.

years, three times in all including baseline research. Socio-eco-2.

structural relationships in terms of how its underlying mecha-

3.

nomic status (SES) has a powerful influence on human health andlongevity: social determinants of health (SDH) [5]. The causal andnisms affect human health.

They gathered many factors from a wide range questionnaireand could succeed to construct a single structural model of cause4.

the cause and effect of elderly people's healthy longevity providing

5.

Their final hypothesis model was constructed by "healthy life,"

6.

and effect of healthy longevity. It is easily accessible to those who

do not know much about these statistics because they examinedmodels which were easy to understand visually.

"SES," three health-related dimensions, such as "physical health,""psychological health," and "social health" and "environmentalcondition" which is in and out of housing factors. This causal andstructural relationships' model shows that healthy survival days
and bedridden status might be determined not only by direct effectof SES, but also by indirect effect of the three health-related dimensions and healthy environmental condition.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Policy Information.

Watanabe S., et al. “Effects of Brown Rice on Obesity: GENKIStudy I (Cross Sectional Epidemiological Study)”. Journal ofObesity and Chronic Diseases 2.1 (2018): 12-19.

Watanabe S., et al. “Dietary and lifehabits of obese people andbrown rice eaters among GENKI Study I & II”. Clinical Functional Nutriology 10.2 (2018): 79-86.
Hoshi T and Kodama S. “The structure of healthy life determinants - Lessons from the Japanese aging cohort studies”.
Springer Singapore (2017).
Marmot M and RG Wilkinson. “Social determinants of health”.
2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press Inc (2006).

Watanabe S. “Population-based strategy for preventing diabetes and its complications”. Diabetes Research - Open Journal
4.1 (2018): e1-e4.

Volume 2 Issue 12 December 2018
© All rights are reserved by Shaw Watanabe., et al.

Lifestyle habits including an ideal diet directly provide forhealthy life expectancy, but there is the possibility that major socio-economic factors, environmental conditions, and the three essential health factors are, in fact, confounding factors.

Citation: Shaw Watanabe., et al. “Buddhist Temple Network to Support the Regional People’s Health Promotion in Japan”. Acta Scientific Nutritional Health2.12 (2018): 08-10.