ABSTRACT
If longevity is viewed as a general indicator of health, then Japan, the nation with the world’s highest life expectancy, might be considered the healthiest place on earth. In the interest of maintaining health and longevity, the Japanese have traditionally paid considerable attention to the welfare and soundness of the body. At the same time, sometimes steadily, at other times in dramatic leaps attending broader historical events, there has been considerable change. Of course, the history of health in Japan is not entirely divorced from the history of other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, or in the world for that matter, from the influence of ancient Chinese health practices to the dramatic impact of Western style medicine in the nineteenth century, then on into the era of global ization with its own pressing health issues. Nevertheless, the story of health in Japan is substantially different from those of most of its Asian neighbours. Many health advances came earlier and were more quickly integrated into Japanese culture than elsewhere; it does not today have the same double burden of both poverty and wealth related diseases, or at least to the same extent.
