Highlighting JAPAN

COVER STORY: Life Innovation

Caption (from left clockwise):
Jin
Jin is a manga by Motoka Murakami which began serialization in 2000 in a weekly manga magazine. It is a work of science fiction in which a brain surgeon who travels back in time to the end of the Edo period (midnineteenth century) uses modern medical knowledge to help people.
Credit: ©MOTOYA MURAKAMI/SHUEISHA, JAPAN
Gine
Gine sanfujinka no onnatachi (Gine Women of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) is a TV drama broadcast in 2009 about a group of doctors working hard under severe conditions. (DVD box set sold by Vap.)
Credit: ©NTV
Dear Doctor
Dear DoctorDear Doctor is a 2009 movie directed by Miwa Nishikawa about a doctor who is much loved and admired by the people in his village, but who has a secret that will surprise them all. The film competed in the World Competition category at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival.
Trauma Team
Trauma Team is a video game that enables players to become six doctors and experience six fields of medical science: surgical operation, diagnosis, emergency, orthopedics, autopsy and endoscopy. The game is on sale in Japan and North America.
Credit: ©ATLUS CO., LTD. 2009

Life Innovation

According to World Health Statistics 2010 published on May 10 by the World Health Organization (WHO), Japanese average life expectancy is eighty-three years. As in previous years, this is the longest in the world. Likewise, healthy life expectancy—which subtracts from average life expectancy the period during which daily life is impeded by illness or injury—is also the longest in the world, at seventy-six years.

As though personifying “the country of longevity,” Japanese have a strong interest in health and medical treatment. Books on health and exercise for maintaining good health are published in large numbers, and many television programs on the topic are broadcast. Medical technology is a popular subject matter in every other kind of entertainment media, including manga, drama, film and games.

In government policy too, the field of health and medical care is a major issue for the future of Japan, with its aging population and declining birthrate. In his Policy Speech in January, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama stated, “The qualitative enhancement of the medical, nursing-care and health industries will not only create a society that protects people’s lives but will also create new employment. We will help to bring about a society of health and longevity by promoting research and development in medical and nursing-care technologies and their application in creating new businesses as ‘life innovation,’ providing users with the diverse services they need, and other means.”