ABSTRACT
We noted briefly in the previous chapter some of the important epidemiological trends in Japan from earliest times through to the period of modernization in the nineteenth century and then on to her defeat in the Second World War. In this chapter we look at the principal patterns of disease and causes of death in the 1980s and we highlight some of the changes that have taken place in the past forty years, changes which have had influence on, and will continue to influence the country’s health services into the next century.
