Public Health Policies and Health Services

This chapter describes the Japanese experiences of policymaking in the area of public health, and of providing health services in the course of economic and social development; it also aims to extract lessons that may be applicable to other developing countries. First, the author conducts a brief overview of the history of public health and medical services in Japan in order to understand the background concepts and views with regard to health services in Japan. Second, the chapter reviews maternal health care and family planning policies and services in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as examples of the Japanese experience in the process of economic and social development. Third, there is examination of the development of universal coverage of health insurance and the new challenges created by demographic and economic changes. Finally, there is discussion of certain lessons from the Japanese experience, in order that the experience can contribute to improving health policies and services in developing countries.