One of the three arrows in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy quiver is growth policy. And one of the concrete items that has been brought up in this connection is "the realization of a society of good health and longevity." To achieve this goal, it is of course important to develop innovative medical technologies and improve the relevant physical infrastructure and equipment on the institutional level. But another key element consists of efforts by people on the individual level to maintain their own health and avoid disease—"self-medication," in the broad sense of the term.

This April the government launched the second stage of an initiative called "Health Japan 21" aimed at promoting the good health of the nation. Actually the authorities have been directing nationwide campaigns of this sort since the 1970s, but meanwhile, as people's lifestyles have changed, we have witnessed a rise in so-called lifestyle diseases, which now account for about 30 percent of our national medical expenditures and are the cause of about 60 percent of all deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that a 10 percent rise in the number of persons with noninfectious diseases (lifestyle diseases) causes gross domestic demand to decline by 0.5 percent. In other words, these diseases also have an impact on the nation's economic growth.

The key point for the period ahead will be to find ways of extending people's "healthy life expectancy"—the number of years they can live in good health. Currently the average healthy life expectancy of Japanese people is approximately 10 years shorter than their average total life expectancy. This difference represents a period of poor health. If we can shorten this period with measures to promote health and prevent diseases, we will improve people's quality of life—and we can also expect to reduce the burden of medical and nursing care expenditures.

For business corporations, healthy employees make for higher profitability, tying in with Robert Rosen's concept of the "healthy company." By promoting the health of our employees, not only can we help improve their quality of life, but we can also prevent the loss of productivity due to illness and reduce medical care outlays, thereby improving the company's bottom line.

Japan should strive to be a world leader in its drive to realize a society of good health and longevity—a country that maintains its economic and social vibrancy and keeps enhancing its productivity even as its people enjoy longer life spans. And in order to accomplish this, we must turn the promotion of health and prevention of disease into a national priority and encourage active participation by the general public. The government should consider incentives and other concrete measures to support individual efforts in line with this national drive.