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  5. International Forum on the Super Aging Challenge Held

International Forum on the Super Aging Challenge Held

An international event that brings together knowledge from inside and outside Japan and discusses directions for an active aging society

December 22, 2021

Japan's population is aging faster than any other country. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) recently held the International Forum on the Super Aging Challenge, an international event that brought together knowledge from inside and outside the country to discuss directions for an active aging society. The forum was held as part of the Well Aging Society Summit Asia-Japan, which is jointly held with the Nikkei Super Active Aging Society Conference, organized by Nikkei Inc. Through a program of private-public events to lead the international community, this two-day event aimed to accelerate innovations that would help increase the healthy life expectancy of people around the world. On the 16th, approximately 1,150 people participated at the venue as well as online.

1. Outline of the event

Title:
International Forum on the Super Aging Challenge
Date:
November 15 (Mon.) 9:00-17:25, and
November 16 (Tue.) 9:00-15:00, 2021
Place:
Iino Hall & Conference Center
Iino Building 4F, 2-1-1 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Summary:
リンクSee this news release
Organizers:
Nikkei Inc.; METI
Supporters:
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; National Healthcare Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office; Financial Services Agency; World Health Organization (WHO); Western Pacific Regional Office; Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU); and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

2. 4th Well Aging Society Summit Asia-Japan: Overview of Each Session on the 16th (Tue.)

See the event’s page here:
International Forum on the Super Aging Challengeexternal link
See a detailed report and video from the day here:
[Report]external link, [Video]external link

An overview of each session is below.

Recent Medical Situations and the Challenges

Speaker:
Mr. Nakagawa Toshio, President, Japan Medical Association
Overview:
Mr. Nakagawa showed his strong stance on thoroughly bringing COVID-19 infections under control and maintaining the medical care system. He also introduced results of an international comparison of social security expenditures as a key to finding resolutions to the problems of a super-aging society. He then announced the Japan Medical Association's intent to promote preventive care and healthy living by introducing the Japan Medical Association IT Declaration—a guideline for efforts to promote IT adoption in the medical field—and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi, which works in partnership with economic organizations, medical organizations, insurers, local governments, and other organizations to increase each citizen's healthy life expectancy and the improvement of medical care.

New Health Promotion with Personal Health Record

Speakers:
Mr. Takada Yukinori, President & Chief Executive Officer, Sumitomo Life Insurance Company
Mr. Nagashima Kimiyuki, Executive director, Japan Medical Association
Mr. Maeta Toshihiro, President and Chief Executive Officer, MTI Ltd.
(Moderator) Mr. Yamamoto Ryuichi,Chairman, Medical Information System Development Center (MEDIS)
Overview:
The speakers introduced success stories of PHR services overseas as a new form of health promotion, and they discussed the importance of PHR and the challenges of spreading this service in Japan. Having a system that can share data safely and efficiently was said to be important, as was family members, companies, local governments, and primary doctors being involved. They discussed the importance of ensuring data portability in particular, including success stories in other fields.

Health and Productivity Management: From the Perspective of ESG Investors

Speakers:
Ms. Kawai Wakaba, Senior ESG Specialist, Responsible Investment Department, Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd.
Mr. James Coldwell, ShareAction Head of WDI Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI)
Ms. Hatano Akemi, Chief Quantitative Analyst, Financial Research Department, SBI Securities Co., Ltd.
Ms. Priti Shokeen, Vice President and Director, ESG Research and Engagement, TD Asset Management
Mr. Inamura Takuma, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
(Moderator) Mr. Arai Masaru, Chairman, Japan Sustainable Investment Forum
Overview:
These domestic and overseas capital market stakeholders discussed efforts to evaluate companies engaged in health and productivity management and health-related information disclosures. Interest in social issues—like human capital in ESG investment—has been increasing in recent years. Speakers from overseas remarked that health and productivity management information disclosures in Japan are also beneficial to overseas investors and that other countries should also promote this trend. Japanese speakers reported that companies promoting health and productivity management had statistically higher profit ratios than the TOPIX average as a result, and they also shared that they were using Outstanding Organizations Recognition status as an investment decision.

Special Panel Discussion for India and Japan supported by ERIA and MEJ: Digitalization in Hospital and Nursing Home

Speakers:
Ms. Oishi Kanoko, Director, Medical Excellence Japan
Dr. R.S. Sharma, CEO, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, Government of India
Dr. K. Ganapathy, Director, Apollo Hospitals Gropup Apollo Telehealth Services and Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation
Mr. Sakano Teppei, Representative Director and CEO, Allm Inc.
Mr. Sasaki Yoshiki, CEO, Social Impact Solutions Co., Ltd.
Dr. Miyo Kengo, Chief Medical informatics Officer,Center for Medical Informatics Intelligence,National Center for Global Health and Medicine
Dr. Nakatani Hiroki, Special Advisor to the President of ERIA; Project Professor at the Keio University School of Medicine
(Moderator) Dr. AB Dey, Professor and Dean of the School of Geriatrics and Gerontology Cardiothoracic and Neurosciences Centre AIIMS
Overview:
India is deepening its partnership with Japan in the healthcare field, and these speakers discussed how to cooperate. Because Japan and India share common traits (such as increasing elderly populations and cultures that honor the elderly) and India has a good foundation to develop digital technology easily, the Japanese and Indian speakers introduced a wide range of concrete measures, including issues related to digitalizing medical and nursing care, examples of public-private collaboration, and points for developing Japan's ICT ventures in India.

Risk Reduction of Dementia & Social Implementation

Speakers:
Mr. Arai Hidenori, President, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology
Mr. Kasai Satoshi, Executive Officer, CEO of Nursing Care & Seniors Business and Executive Officer, SOMPO Holdings, Inc.
Mr. Hayashi Tokihiko, Mayor of Tamba City, Hyogo Prefecture
(Moderator) Mr. Iwatsubo Takeshi, Professor, Neuropathology, The University of Tokyo
Overview:
This session started with an overview of the front line of dementia prevention. Then, speakers from the local government, the private sector, and academia introduced concrete measures from their viewpoints on dementia prevention and intervention programs (multifactorial intervention through guided exercise, nutritional guidance, and cognitive function training). In the discussion on issues in socially implementing these programs, speakers commented that encouraging stakeholder investing is important. For that purpose, they said, providing concrete figures on risk reduction through multifactorial intervention is one important step.

Lessons for Japan toward Global Healthy Aging

Speakers:
Dr. Nakatani Hiroki, Visiting Professor, School of Medicine, Keio University
Mr. Mark Pearson, Deputy Director of Employment, Labor and Social Affairs, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Dr. Michael Hodin, CEO, Global Coalition on Aging
Mr. Inamura Takuma, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Overview:
The closing session took place as a discussion that summarized the event's two days. Participants exchanged views on the issues in utilizing digital technology and medical data systems—upon comparing Japan and the OECD countries' citizens' health—and shared what they had learned from COVID-19. Speakers said that having discussions and exchanging various public-private perspectives during this two-day event was very important, and the common message was to invest in health, learning, and connections between people. They also said that innovations generated from this discussion will affect the sustainability and continuity of Japanese society.

3. Photos from the Day

4. Reference links

Division in Charge

Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group