Current status and issues concerning Health Japan 21 (second term)

The national health promotion program, Health Japan 21 (second term), began in 2013. This program has set 5 basic goals: to extend healthy life expectancy and reduce health disparity, to prevent noncommunicable disease, to improve function for social life, to establish a social environment for health, and to improve lifestyle. To achieve these goals, Health Japan 21 (second term) set 53 targets for the period between 2013 and 2022. At the interim evaluation in 2018, only 21 of the 53 targets were judged likely to be achieved by 2022. In addition, 18 targets were judged as unchanged, and 1 target was judged to be deteriorating. Thus, to achieve the goals of Health Japan 21 (second term), further efforts to strengthen health promotion programs across Japan are needed.