Epidemiology of asthma in Japan

In Japan, asthma prevalence is 8-14 % in children aged 0-14 years in 2008, 9-10 % in adults aged 15 and over in 2006-2007. Asthma prevalence does not change more than the past 10 years or tends to fall in children, but is increasing in adults. The number of patients with asthma was 1,177,000 in 2014; however, it is thought there are a lot more patients who are not visiting medical facilities. The number of inpatients with asthma decreased from 19,100 patients in 1999 to 5,300 patients in 2014. Asthma mortality also decreased from 6,370 patients in 1980 to 1,550 patients in 2014 dramatically. It's a clinical problem that the per- centage of the elderly patients in asthma death occupies about 90 %.