『保健医療科学』 2025 第74巻 第1号 p.1（2025年2月）
Topics：Recent topics in public health in Japan 2025 ＜Rreface＞
Recent topics in public health in Japan 2025
YOKOYAMA Tetsuji
Department of Health Promotion, National Institute of Public Health
Abstract
The “Journal of the National Institute of Public Health” is published six times a year to promptly coverup-to-date topics in the field of public health, including health, health care, social care, and environmental health. Its purpose is to transmit evidence-based accurate knowledge and information to healthcare professionals. Although the journal mainly targets readers in Japan, a special feature issue disseminating information about Japanese public health to countries all over the world has been published once a year since 2019.This feature issue, titled “Recent Topics in Public Health in Japan 2025,” covers several topics rather than a specific detailed one. This is because the information accessible from other countries is limited, especially in 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 six review or note articles dealing with Japan’s advanced efforts in public health, to which the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has contributed.
YAMAGUCHI et al. provided an overview of Japan’s rehabilitation provision system, focusing on the main frameworks of medical insurance services, long-term care insurance services, and disability welfare services. KURACHI et al. introduced the status and prospects of employment support for people with disabilities in Japan, including the regional support systems and human resource development. SHIMOKAWA et al. reviewed the evolution of medical care for children requiring support and explored the challenges and potential future directions for enhancing community life for these children and their families. SEINO and SUGIYAMA summarized the philosophy of Nutrition Care and Management (NCM) and the development of its institutional design and discussed the outcomes of research on the nutritional status of older adults and patients and the health and economic effects of nutritional care as background for the introduction of NCM. TANEDA explained policies regarding coordination of acute medical care and long-term care in Japan, where the need for these care services is increasing due to the rapid increase in the number of elderly people. TAKEMURA provided an overview of the history of health policies related to sexuality in Japan, with a focus on challenges to improve women’s health and welfare and discussed the future policy directions from the perspective of sexuality.
We hope that the information reviewed in this issue will help public health workers worldwide understand that Japanese health policies and related efforts by the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) have played important roles in improving the nation’s health. Additionally, we believe that Japan’s experience will be useful for enhancing public health in their own countries. For further information, readers are advised to explore the past feature issues of “Recent topics in public health in Japan” published since 2019.