Kiyoshi Kurokawa

Health is a policy field which receives the greatest public attention and at the same time causes deep public dissatisfaction in Japan. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Cabinet Office, the public regards health as the top priority in all areas of life and expects a greater focus on this field in the policymaking. On the other hand, there is a survey result revealing that nearly 90% of the public is dissatisfied with the current health policy. It is, therefore, a pressing need to improve health policy as soon as possible. From a global perspective, the challenges of “global health” such as responding to the transnational threat of infectious diseases and improving health systems in developing countries where most of the world population resides have emerged as an important security and foreign policy issue. And Japan is expected to play a major role in overcoming the challenges. In order for the Japanese public to take the initiative in tackling these critical health policy issues at home and abroad and to determine a policy direction Japan should take, accurate information about the current state of the issues and available policy options need to be presented to the public and active discussions have to be held on the values and ideas that each policy option represents. Based on such recognition, Health Policy Institute Japan makes it its mission to promote research, education and policy recommendation on health policy and to facilitate quality improvement of the policy. The institute is committed to contributing to provision of higher-quality health in Japan and abroad by cooperating with domestic and international research and educational institutions and think-tanks working in this policy field.