Asian Pacific Journal of Disease Management(The journal of the Japan Society of Health Support Science)
Message for the foundation: For the foundation of the Society journal
Shigeru Tanaka
President(Professor and Associate Dean,Graduate School of Business
Administration, Keio University)
1. Background to the establishment of the Japan Society of Health Support Science
1.1 Increase in the need for health support
There can be no question as to the value of maintaining the quality oflife and extending healthy life years. To realize these goals, it is vital toprevent the onset of lifestyle‐related chronic diseases, the development ofphysical conditions requiring long‐term care, and the general deterioration ofhealth. Medical science and technology to address these issues has
progressed dramatically in the last fifty years; even in just the lasttwenty‐five or ten years.

The Japanese health care system has also

developed at a very rapid rate.
Today, this is all common knowledge. So has the number of people
suffering from lifestyle‐related chronic diseases or requiring long‐term caredeclined due to the diffusion of health‐ and prevention‐oriented values andthe advancement of science and technology? The answer is an emphatic“NO”. On the contrary, these numbers are actually increasing. Why? Because
social and economic incentives and the behavior of people affected by suchincentives are not that simple. Furthermore, if the term, “lifestyle‐related”,
also includes the current state of work‐related life, a significant increase in
the number of people with mental illness, such as depression, has become anadditional major problem.
Moral or spiritual judgements such as “going back to the good olddays” and “the efforts of each individual person are the key” cannot solve
the current problems. Instead, a new social system is required. Such a newsystemshould avoid central government paternalism, the imposition of1

personal responsibility without support, and a market economy serving only
those consumers with the ability to pay. We are now living in an age whereintegration among independent individuals, public insurers, healthcare
service providers and local governments should be aimed for. To urge theseparties to exercise autonomous actions, yet in concert with common goals, asocial infrastructure for health support services is indispensible. As an
example, standardization of quality assurance measures is a particularly
important element.
1.2 Development of prevention programs
At the same time it must be said that research and implementation ofprevention programs in this country began quite some time ago and havebeen steadily performed since the introduction of measures against stroke
sixty years ago. In the workplace, various programs have been executed
pursuant to the Industrial Safety and Health Law. Concerning community
health, local governments have been working on preventive health, including
implementation of National Health Insurance Health‐up Programs, pursuant
to the Health and Medical Service Law for the Elderly. In recent years, local
projects aiming to prevent people from requiring long‐term care, and theachievements of such projects, are often reported. These show that in both
the workplace and the community, many theoretical and practical study
results have been demonstrated based on numerous projects in prevention.
The Japanese government’s policy for healthcare has changed
significantly in the last couple of years. Preventive programs have now cometo be included in both the public health insurance system which covers theentire population of Japan (expect for the livelihood protection recipients)
and the public long‐term care insurance system which covers everybody
aged 65 years old and above (and people between 40 and 64 years of age
suffering from ailments caused by aging).
In the field of medical services, it is noteworthy that the concept ofmetabolic syndrome has recently been introduced to explain and spread theunderstanding of the importance of preventing lifestyle‐related diseases.
From fiscal 2008, all public health insurers in Japan will be required by law tooffer specific health examinations and health guidance for metabolicsyndrome. In the field of long‐term care, the system has already changed to2

emphasize prevention. Since April 2006, payments for certain preventive
measures have been covered by public long‐term care insurance, in order toprevent people from becoming in need of long‐term care. In addition, local
governments have started offering prevention programs for people not evenyet recognized as requiring long‐term care.
Recently, various businesses have been actively working to implement
highly specialized “disease management” programs, many of which are
based on the activities and research developed in the U.S. In Japan,
substantive investigations and research activities for disease management
began in around 2000. There has been many reports written by a number oforganizations. While too numerous to list all of them here, the following aresome examples of groups who have published results of their work in thefield:•Investigation into Health Management at Workplaces, by the Institute for
Health Economics and Policy, led by Dr. Shinya Matsuda, Executive Vice
President of JSHSS.

•The Study Group of Disease Management, established in 2001 by theSompo Japan Foundation, chaired by me, with Chief Research Officer ofSompo Japan Research Institute, Mr. Atsushi Kobayashi, Director ofJSHSS.

•The Disease Management Association of Japan, established in 2005. The
Honorary Chair is Dr. Shigekoto Kaihara (Vice President of theInternational University of Health and Welfare), and Chair is Dr. Masaki
Mutoh (Vice Director of International University of Health and Welfare
Mita Hospital and Professor at Graduate School of the International
University of Health and Welfare).

2. Establishment of the Japan Society of Health Support ScienceTaking into consideration the increase in need and actions to date, as
described above, we believe that an interdisciplinary academic society is now
necessary for this new healthcare field.

Therefore, we established the Japan

Society of Health Support Science in June 2006 to bring together researchers frommedical science, nursing science, public health science, pharmacology, economics,
business administration, psychology, sociology, behavioral science and otherrelated fields.
32.1 The meaning of the Society’s name
Next, I will explain why we adopted the words“health support” in thename of the Society. We used the term “health support” mainly because“disease management” translated into Japanese sounds rather harsh.
In our country, defining the purpose of the Society’s research purely as“disease management” may cause misunderstanding that JSHSS is a society
only for medical professionals such as physicians, nurses and dietitians.
Secondly, “disease management” translated into Japanese may somewhat
overemphasize the concept of case management, i.e. preventing theexacerbation of conditions of people who are or were already suffering froma disease or condition. Of course, the Society encourages investigations andresearch into case management as one of its major research fields.
Nevertheless, in Japan there is also strong interest in people at risk of disease,
who are not yet ill but whose annual medical examination data cannot beignored, as well as in health programs for people who are currently in good
health. For these reasons, we became convinced that the use of “healthsupport” in the Society’s name is most appropriate.
We were also reluctant to use the word “management” because wewanted to encourage and value voluntary effort by individuals. This is thethird reason to use the term “health support”. It refers to the expression of“support for independent life”, which is also the mission of the public
long‐term care insurance system. This system, which began in 2000, has been
well accepted by Japanese society. The name of JSHSS indicates the intention
not only to improve the health related behavior of patients and otherresidents but also to raise the level of health service providers, insurers andlocal government, by providing support through the collaboration ofspecialists in various fields of science.
2.2 The Society’s Purpose and Journal
The purposes of JSHSS are as follows.
i. To provide opportunities for researchers and parties implementing
measures relating to health support in Japan and other countries in the
Asia‐Pacific region to exchange and share their research achievements
and results of implemented programs.
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ii. To provide opportunities for education to people wanting to performresearch or to implement measures relating to health support.
iii. To contribute to the development of research and implementation ofmeasures for health support in Japan and other countries in the
Asia‐Pacific region through collaboration with related academic societies,
research groups and associations, etc.
A vital means to fulfill the purposes described above is the Society’s journal
in English. JSHSS distributes its journal in countries in the Asia‐Pacific region
and promotes international exchange among interested parties. We hope thatpeople in a broad range of fields in Japan and overseas will contribute to thejournal, including: researchers belonging to universities and think tanks;
medical professionals such as physicians, nurses, and dietitians who
implement health support programs; for profit corporations and non‐profit
organizations who provide health support services; companies developing
cutting edge technology for health support service providers; public insurers,
private life insurance and non life insurance companies; and officials in thecentral and local governments who engaged in making and implementing
health policies.

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