Editorial: Japan's new centralized disease control agency has heavy responsibility
Japan must utilize lessons learned from challenges that emerged during its response to the coronavirus to enhance its preparedness for future pandemics.
This month, the government established the Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS), a new national institution that will serve as a central hub for infectious disease research and treatment. It integrates two existing bodies -- the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, which oversaw advanced medical care, and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
By consolidating observations of disease outbreaks, pathogen analysis and patient treatment, the JIHS aims to increase information-gathering efficiency and bolster research capabilities. This centralized strategy should enable the institution to swiftly identify effective prevention and treatment methods for infectious diseases and incorporate them into national response measures.
The establishment of this new organization stems directly from reflections on Japan's COVID-19 response.
The primary goal of measures against infectious diseases is to contain outbreaks as much as possible to prevent a collapse of the medical system. Despite this fundamental objective, delays in conducting testing and arranging hospitalization contributed to widespread confusion during the recent pandemic. Furthermore, policymakers were slow to adapt their approaches in response to changes in patient numbers and virus mutations.
Responding to these issues, the government established the Cabinet Agency for Infectious Disease Crisis Management in 2023 to be a central command during emergencies. The JIHS will not only provide expert guidance to this agency, but will also assume a critical role in medical provision and personnel training.
During the coronavirus crisis, Japan notably fell behind Western nations in the rapid development of drugs and vaccines. To advance such initiatives, establishing networks of medical institutions capable of administering clinical trials is crucial. The JIHS is expected to take a leading role in creating and managing this infrastructure.
Additionally, effectively communicating scientific knowledge to the public in an easy-to-understand manner remains essential.
In balancing infection control measures with socioeconomic activities, the institution is expected to provide appropriate advice to the government to help shape effective policies. If misinformation spreads, the JIHS should step forward with direct and accurate communication to citizens. Even under normal conditions, the body should leverage various means, including social media, to consistently establish itself as a reliable information source.
With increased globalization, the risk that infections could swiftly spread worldwide has intensified. Against this backdrop, the decision by the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump to withdraw from the World Health Organization raised concerns about reduced global coordination capacity.
Japan has already accumulated significant experience in supporting health initiatives in developing countries. The JIHS should deepen relationships with international research institutions and lead efforts to further strengthen global cooperative frameworks.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
21 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
U.K. to Cut Foreign Workers, the ‘Backbone' of British Nursing Homes
Tori Ferenc for The Washington Post Jeremiah Akindotun helps Edna Barnett with her crossword puzzle at Hammerson House, a 116-room nursing home in north London where 58 percent of the clinical staff come from 49 different countries. LONDON – The 23-year-old Nigerian man handed the 78-year-old British woman her noon pill and, on a sunny June day, sat down for a little chat amid the family photos lining her wall. 'Will you miss me if I leave?' Jeremiah Akindotun asked with a smile. 'Oh, I think it's too sad, Jerry,' said Suad Lawy, sitting back in her chair. 'You get so attached. What's going to happen to our carers?' Akindotun is a health assistant at Hammerson House, a 116-room nursing home in north London where 58 percent of the clinical staff come from 49 different countries. Across the United Kingdom, foreign workers commonly provide intimate care to elderly Brits, with nearly a third of care staff coming from overseas. But maybe not for long. The British government, struggling to address immigration tensions, announced last month that it was ending the special overseas recruitment program that has been a pipeline for care workers in recent years. Officials said the move was necessary to make the care system less dependent on foreign labor and to root out fraud and exploitation in the fast-track care worker visa program, which was initiated five years ago to ease a staffing crisis in the care industry, one of Britain's biggest employment sectors. The plan funneled more than 220,000 workers into facilities around the country, according to a government-sponsored database, but it also faced problems. Most workers landed with legitimate companies, but thousands were scammed in their home countries by fake employment brokers. Others arrived only to be overworked and underpaid, even sexually exploited, under threats of having their visas canceled. Reputable nursing home administrators, however, said canceling the program outright is a body blow to their efforts to fill more than 131,000 open positions in a system that is creaking under the weight of an aging population. Nursing home care is provided by private companies in the U.K. but largely financed by cash-strapped local governments. British citizens show little interest in the jobs, which are considered low pay, low status and demanding, providers say. 'I haven't had a White British applicant in a year,' said Jenny Pattinson, CEO of the nonprofit that runs Hammerson House and another London care home. Underlying all of this is a debate about immigration that continues to convulse Britain, like most Western nations. A decade after its Brexit vote to leave the European Union, the U.K. is still arguing with itself about how multicultural and globally integrated it wants to be, questions that continue to drive politics. The Labour government, generally considered immigration-friendly, announced the end of the care worker visa program less than two weeks after being crushed in English regional elections by Reform UK, a right-wing, populist party started by anti-immigration activist and Brexit-champion Nigel Farage. Reform UK defeated hundreds of Labour and Conservative incumbents and took control of 10 local councils. Critics say Prime Minister Keir Starmer is trying to dent Reform UK's appeal by making his own rightward pivot on immigration. Cutting the care-worker visa was part of a broader package of immigration changes, including doubling the number of years required for visa holders to become permanent residents and raising the English-language requirement for skilled workers. In announcing the measures, Starmer sparked a backlash within his own party by warning that Britain risked becoming 'an island of strangers,' a phrase in which some found echoes of xenophobic rhetoric. In 1968, Enoch Powell was kicked out of the Tory shadow cabinet after saying in his famous 'rivers of blood' speech that White Britons 'found themselves made strangers in their own country.' Starmer rejected the comparison in an interview with the Guardian newspaper, saying that 'migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, and I would never denigrate that.' Immigration has bedeviled both Labour and Conservative prime ministers for years. Both legal immigrants and asylum seekers arriving on small boats surged to a peak of 906,000 by June 2023. The numbers are falling as restrictions imposed by the then Tory government and the new Labour government kick in, with net migration into the country down to 431,000 in measures released in May. But the issue remains divisive as a record 11,074 people arrived in small boats in the first four months of this year. 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Lawy, a former secondary schoolteacher from Hampshire, a county that is 90 percent White, who has formed bonds with her Nigerian, South Asian and Filipino caregivers, said she had little experience with multiculturalism before moving to Hammerson House following a stroke. 'It's really opened my mind,' she said. 'My sister used to say she enjoyed living in a diverse community and I really didn't know what she meant,' Lawry said. 'Now I do.' Hammerson House is a Jewish care home. But Ayesha Khan, a Muslim physical therapist from Pakistan who arrived through the visa program last year, said she has felt welcome and useful. Managers told her to step away for prayers whenever she needed to and the only comment she has gotten about her hijab was from a questioner making sure she was not wearing it against her will. 'It's not just a home for residents here, it's a home for me,' Khan said. 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Japan Today
2 days ago
- Japan Today
Who's in charge? CDC's leadership 'crisis' apparent amid new COVID-19 vaccine guidance
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A month after the meeting ended, the CDC posted on a web site that Kennedy had signed off on recommendations for travelers against chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted to humans by mosquitos. But there continues to be no word about a decision about the other vaccine recommendations. The problem was accentuated again last week, when Kennedy rolled out recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine saying they were no longer recommended for healthy children or pregnant women, even though expectant mothers are considered a high-risk group if they contract the virus. Kennedy made the surprise announcement without input from the CDC advisory panel that has historically made recommendations on the nation's vaccine schedule. The CDC days later posted revised guidance that said healthy kids and pregnant women may get the shots. Nixon, the HHS spokesman, said CDC staff were consulted on the recommendations, but would not provide staffer's names or titles. 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Yomiuri Shimbun
2 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan's Birth Rate Remains Stubbornly Low Despite Efforts; Expert Recommends Reducing Working Hours, Work-Style Reform
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo Despite years of extensive efforts to combat Japan's chronically low birth rate, the latest statistics indicate that there has been little tangible impact. According to the nation's 2024 vital statistics, the number of babies born to Japanese citizens in Japan fell below 700,000 for the first time, and the total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, slipped to a record low of 1.15. The annual number of babies born had dipped below 800,000 only as recently as 2022, and a sense of panic is spreading among central and local governments as cash handouts, making high school education free and a slew of other policies have failed to reverse these declines. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike wore a grim expression Wednesday after the figures compiled by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry were released, but pledged to continue tackling the issue. 'I feel that we need to battle on at this time,' Koike said. 'We'll continue implementing policies.' The Tokyo metropolitan government has declared that efforts to combat the low birth rate are a high-priority issue, and has led the nation in rolling out a string of policies such as free nursery care and giving households with children aged up to 18 a handout of ¥5,000 per month. Despite these steps, the fertility rate for women living in the capital has been below 1 for two consecutive years and sank to 0.96 in 2024. 'We're trying all kinds of policies, but the situation remains severe,' a senior metropolitan government official said. Ishikawa Prefecture's fertility rate recorded a drop of 0.11 percentage points from 2023, the biggest fall among the nation's 47 prefectures. The prefecture has attempted to stem the decline through such measures as promoting businesses that support a balance between work and raising children. 'We'll accept the latest results and use the examples of other local governments as a reference for future policies,' an Ishikawa prefectural government official in charge of child policies said. Tokyo a magnet for young people The Yomiuri Shimbun The number of couples who got married in 2024 increased for the first time in two years. Although about 480,000 couples tied the knot, this figure remains well below the almost 600,000 couples who did so in 2019. The number plunged the following year as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. The average age at which a woman married for the first time ticked up 0.1 years from 2023. The average age at which women gave birth to their first baby was 31.0, about five years older than 1975's average age of 25.7. The influx of young women to Tokyo and other major urban centers from rural areas has been identified as a major driver of these trends. According to Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry statistics, the fertility rate fell especially sharply in the Tohoku region. A striking number of municipalities in Tohoku recorded that the number of women in their 20s and early 30s who moved away in 2024 eclipsed the number of men in those age brackets who departed. In major cities, many young people said they could not consider getting married because they were too busy with their job or were employed as nonregular workers. 'Rural areas must come up with ways to increase employment opportunities that encourage women to choose to live there,' said Kanako Amano, a senior researcher on demographics at the NLI Research Institute. 'I urge local governments in major cities to concentrate resources on ensuring stable employment that allows young men and women to consider getting married and having children.' Taking kids to the office Amid these gloomy statistics, some companies have produced positive results by changing the way their employees work. People Co., a toy manufacturer based in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, encourages employees to bring their children with them, so they can work while their children play at the office. Nine of People's about 45 employees were raising children in 2019, and that figure has soared to 17 this year. Kyoto University Prof. Haruka Shibata, an expert in sociology, said calculations based on data collated from other nations indicated that expanding child-rearing allowances could nudge up the fertility rate by about 0.1 percentage points. However, reducing the working hours of men in full-time, regular employment by two hours each day could increase the rate by 0.35 percentage points. The Children's Future Strategy approved by the Cabinet in 2023 also stated that reducing long working hours would lead to people having enough time to devote to child-rearing and household chores. 'The government should discuss steps such as reducing legal working hours, and beef up national policies that could change the way people work,' Shibata said.
