[Use of a medical checkup-data to prevent lifestyle-related disease]

In Japan, medical check-ups are available under various laws. Medical check-up are available for students in school (School Health Law), for workers(Industrial Safety and Health Law), and for residents over 40 years old (Health and Medical Service Law for the Aged/Elderly). From 1985, citizens' health promotion has been presented twice under the act on building citizen's health. Furthermore, "The act of health promotion for citizens in the twenty-first century (Healthy Japan 21)" was initiated as third health promotion act for citizens starting in 2000. The objectives of this act are decreasing the rate of death in late middle age, extending life, and realizing an improvement in the quality of life. The underlying concept of "Healthy Japan 21" is an emphasis on prevention and the Health Promotion Act was established for this concept. Since then, the policy of health promotion has emphasized prevention and there is a need to change the concepts of medical check-ups to correspond with the emphasis on prevention. Since 2000, the number of overweight people has increased. Therefore, this emphasis may not be succeeding. Fat, the great risk factor for Diabetes, is due to life style choices, for example, dietary habits and lack of exercise. Therefore, individual will is important. It was thought that one of the reason for the increase in the number of overweigh people is insufficient investigation during medical check-up and lack of guidance regarding lifestyle-related diseases. In 2006, the medical system reform-related law mainly concerning aged people was established. The prevention of lifestyle-related diseases is one of the important approaches in this law, and a specialized medical check-up has been initiated starting in April, 2008.