Health Promotion Plan in Japan toward the Twenty-first Century and Future Prospect on Medical and Health Status for Japanese

`Health Promotion Plan in Japan toward the 21st Century (健康日本21)” is policy decision-making to determine nu- merical value of goal to be achieved until 2010 for total health promotion, the aim of which is to realize healthy and fully active society in the future. Accumulated evidences on health status or actual figures of cardiovascular disease are reduction in both mortality and morbidity of cerebral stroke and no change in both of coronary heart disease. It seems to be idealistic, but risk factors for cardiovascular disease were recently and remarkably changed, that is reduction in prevalence of hypertension, while increase in obesity, glucose intolerance and hyperlipidemia. Meanwhile, with growing number of elderly population, the frequency of dementia or bedridden also increased. Cardiovascular risk factors partially contributed to the occurrence of those miserable conditions. Considering constant expansion of medical expense into account, lifestyle modification is most necessary to stop the progress of this social burden. On the basis of this principle, numerical goal of total health promotion is set-up in the areas of nutrition and food, physical activity and exercise, relaxation and mental health, smoking, alcohol intake, health for teeth, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and cancer. This paper refers to the background evidence and concrete figures of the plan.