@article {68911,
	title = {Fifty Years of Pursuing a Healthy Society in Japan},
	journal = {The Lancet},
	year = {2011},
	note = {Download PDF},
	month = {Sep 1, 2011},
	publisher = {The Lancet},
	abstract = {In this Series in The Lancet, we review the past 50 years of Japan{\textquoteright}s universal health coverage, identify the major challenges of today, and propose paths for the future, within the context of long-term population aging and the devastating crises triggered by the March 11 earthquake. Japan is recognised internationally for its outstanding achievements during the second half of the 20th century, in both improving the population{\textquoteright}s health status and developing a strong health system. At the end of World War 2, in Japan, life expectancy at birth was 50 years for men and 54 years for women; by the late 1970s, Japan overtook Sweden as the world{\textquoteright}s leader for longest life expectancy at birth. Japanese women have remained in the number one slot for 25 years, reaching a life expectancy of 86.4 years in 2009 (while Japanese men slipped to fifth longest living that year, at 79.6 years).In 2011, Japan celebrates 50 years of kaihoken: health insurance for all. Universal health insurance was achieved in 1961, assuring access to a wide array of health services for the whole population. Since then, benefits have become more egalitarian while health expenditures have remained comparatively low: 8.5\% of the gross domestic product and 20th out of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2008. This achievement is all the more remarkable because the percentage of the population aged 65 years or older has increased nearly four-fold (from 6\% to 23\%) over the past 50 years.},
	url = {http://www.thelancet.com/japan$\#$},
	author = {Reich, Michael R. and Takemi, Keizo and Ikegami, Naoki}
}
