Journal of the National Institute of Public Health | 2019
National campaign to promote maternal and child health in 21st-century Japan Healthy Parents and Children 21
Abstract
Now Japan is facing new social problems such as an increase in anxiety about child care and child abuse, psychological problems of parents and children, and child-rearing stress after dramatically improvement of the health of mothers and children. To approach such new issues, Healthy Parents and Children 21 revealed maternal and child health initiatives, directions, goals, and indicators for the 21st century in 2001. Since then, many issues related to adolescent health, safe pregnancy and delivery, and child health care have been further improved. Now, the second term of Healthy Parents and Children 21 from 2015–2024 aims at improving the lives of parents and children by ensuring constant, high-quality maternal and child health services all over Japan, and developing diverse maternal and child health services that cover various problems of child-rearing. This paper provides a summary of past maternal and child health policies and an overview of the maternal and child health policy since 2001, especially focusing on the first and second terms of Healthy Parents and Children 21—Japan’s maternal and child health policy. keywords: Healthy Parents and Children 21, Maternal and Child Health, Health Policy, Policy Evaluation (accepted for publication, 23rd January 2019) < Review> Corresponding author: Eri Osawa 2-3-6 Minami, Wako, Saitama 351-0197, Japan. E-mail: [email protected] I.Introduction Japan is one of the countries in which the health of mothers and children has dramatically improved. At the beginning of 1900, the infant mortality rate was close to 160, and it reached 3.2 in 2000. Thereafter, owing to advances in healthcare, it has continued to decrease, and it is now 2.0 (Figure 1) [1]. Likewise, the maternal mortality rate was nearly 400 at the beginning of 1900, but it reduced to 6.3 in 2000 and to 3.4 in 2016 (Figure 2) [2]. However, currently in Japan, the environment surrounding children and their parents is completely different from that of the past owing to the declining birthrate, nuclear familization, and urbanization. This paper presents an overview of maternal and child health policy, especially focusing on the first and second terms of Healthy Parents and Children 21—Japan’s mater60 80 100 120 140 160 180