Drugs and the Politics of Consumption in Japan, edited by Judith Vitale, Oleg Benesch, and Miriam Kingsberg Kadia

The incidence of colorectal cancer in Asian countries is increasing. The change to a more westernized diet is known to be related to these increases, and there are reports on the relationship between meat consumption and colorectal cancer in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary change and colorectal cancer in Korea and Japan. The data of meat and cereal consumption in Japan (1950-2002) and Korea (1970-2003), and the data of colorectal cancer incidence in Japan (1975-1998) and Korea (1992-2002) were investigated with a 20-year difference between the two countries. We found that the changes in meat and cereal consumption, as well as the increases in the incidence of colon and rectal cancer, were similar between those two countries with a 20-year difference. These similarities between Korea and Japan could be helpful for predicting future colorectal cancer incidences for Korea and other Asian countries.

This study assesses the environmental sustainability of food consumption in Thailand, India, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia by using a life cycle assessment. These five Asian countries were selected according to the differences in surface area, population density, GDP, and food consumption patterns. The data were obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization food balance sheets, Ecoinvent 3.4 and Agri-footprint 4.0 databases, and scientific publications. The environmental impact categories chosen were global warming, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication, eco-toxicity, human toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity. The impact assessment was carried out by using the ReCiPe2006 v1.1 method. Based on the analysis, the highest environmental impacts for all categories (except eutrophication) were from the food consumption in China, followed by the consumption in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and India. The major contributors to these impacts were meat, cereals, animal products, and alcoholic beverages. Meat was the highest contributor in all countries except India, because of low meat consumption in India. A calorie intake analysis was also conducted, which showed reductions in environmental impacts by shifting towards calorie-adequate and non-environmentally intensive diets in Thailand, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. Therefore, a reduction in the consumption of meat, cereals, animal products, and alcoholic beverages could therefore enhance the environmental sustainability of food consumption.

Meat consumption and consumer attitudes in Japan: An overview

ABSTRACTThis article is part of a broader interdisciplinary project investigating the historical, social, and cultural contexts behind individual and collective differences in taste and consumption. It offers a comparative historical study of nonalcoholic beverage (NAB) consumption in Australia and Japan. Australia and Japan are among the largest NAB consumers in the world, and they have a similar history of progression from brewed tea as the main beverage consumed at meals and between meals, to a widespread consumption of bottled beverages. Yet in the contemporary context, both consumer behavior and its impact on nutrition health differ significantly in the two countries. We compare the Australian case, where “soft drinks” are equated with sugar-sweetened beverages, seen as contributing to the global rise in obesity, with thecase of Japan, where sugar-sweetened sodas are widely available, but people also consume large amounts of cold bottled green teas and herbal teas, that are not just “sugarless” but are not sweet at all. We propose that comparing the NAB consumption cultures of Japan and Australia offers us valuable insight into the importance of the cultural dimension of consumption and nutrition health, and the need to consider it when formulating policy.

The effect of ICT development on economic growth and energy consumption in Japan

OBJECTIVE: Inadequate use of alcohol affects not only human health directly, but also several aspects in society. It indicates that alcohol consumption imposes a marked economic burden on society including health care costs and costs of productivity loss. This study reviewed previous papers on the health care costs by alcohol consumption in Japan, and focused to provide an estimate of the economic costs of alcohol from a social viewpoint. METHODS: We reviewed the papers on the economic costs of alcohol consumption and the health care costs on alcohol related diseases in Japan. Then, we introduced the papers on two cohort studies on health care costs of alcohol consumption in Japan. RESULTS: Estimates of economic costs of alcohol consumption in Japan were about 1000 billion yen in direct health care cost and about 3000 billion yen to about 5300 billion yen in indirect cost. Our results also indicated that heavy drinkers tend to consume more on the medical costs within around 5 years. CONCLUSION: Inadequate use of alcohol increased to not only death, but also economic burden among Japanese. The estimates of economic costs of alcohol consumption in Japan were about 1000 billion yen per year in direct health care cost, and heavy drinkers tend to consume the medical costs within around 5 years in Japan. Language: en

In this paper, we conduct a theoretical analysis of the consumption and income taxes from the viewpoints of efficiency and equity, we evaluate the past and present structure of Japan's consumption and income taxes, we consider the role of the consumption tax in stimulating the economy, in reforming the public pension system, and in achieving fiscal reconstruction, and finally, we make policy recommendations based on our findings. We find that the structure of Japan's current consumption and income taxes is problematic from the viewpoints of both efficiency and equity and make policy recommendations that will simultaneously improve both the efficiency and equity of Japan's tax system.

This paper analyzes gasoline consumption in Japan for the period 2000–2007 using the index decomposition analysis (IDA). The changes in gasoline consumption in Japan were attributed to five factors: (1) change in the annual average driving distance of new and vintage cars, (2) change in the market share of new passenger cars, (3) change in the total number of new passenger cars, (4) change in the fuel economy of new passenger cars, and (5) change in the stock of vintage cars. We used the IDA results to estimate the economy-wide direct rebound effect, where improved fuel mileage causes additional travel. We found that the total gasoline saved by shifting from vintage ordinary passenger cars to both new kei passenger cars and new hybrid cars during fiscal 2006–2007 amounted to 395 ML, while about half of the gasoline savings from car replacement were lost by the direct rebound effects. The analysis shows that the direct rebound effect can be crucial in the effort of reducing overall gasoline consumption as well as household CO2 emissions from passenger cars. JEL Classification: Q41, Q43.

National statistics show that seafood consumption in Japan is decreasing since the mid-1990s. The risks and benefits of this decreasing seafood consumption was assessed in this study. Intake of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and methylmercury (MeHg) of women of childbearing age were estimated by using seafood consumption data of women of age 20–39 in the period 2011–2019 and seafood DHA and MeHg content data to find significantly (p < 0.05) decreasing intake of DHA (2.8 mg/day per year) and MeHg (0.19 μg Hg/day per year) in this period. The effect of the decreasing maternal DHA and MeHg intake on infant IQ was estimated by using the equation developed by the FAO/WHO. Net IQ change (the difference in IQ gain by DHA and IQ loss by MeHg) was constant or even increasing, depending on the assumption, in this period while seafood consumption was significantly decreasing. This was due to the decreasing adverse effect of MeHg, along with saturated DHA-derived benefits on infant IQ, even at the decreased seafood consumption of Japanese women of childbearing age. It was indicated that the recent decreasing trend in seafood consumption in Japan did not have an unfavorable effect on infant IQ.

Energy conservation effect of new HVAC system for condominiums with solar collectors integrated with the balcony handrail

2019년 말부터 확산된 일본의 코로나19는 식품 소비에도 큰 영향을 미쳤다. 음식점에 대한 휴업요청 등으로 업소용 식재료의 과잉 재고가 발생하였다. 한편, 가정 내에서의 조리에 대한 수요가 증가와 관련된 식재료 및 서비스 소비가 증가하고 있다. 이러한 상황에서 녹차 소비는 소비자들의 건강지향 성향에 힘입어 다른 음료에 비하면 크게 감소하지는 않았다. 또한, 녹차음료의 구매행태는 최근 온라인쇼핑의 비중이 크게 증가하고 있다. 음료 제조업체는 코로나19로 온라인쇼핑이 증가하고 택배 주문단위가 커짐에 따라, 소비자들의 페트병 라벨 제거의 번거로움을 덜어주기 위해 무 라벨 음료를 개발하여 보급하고 있다. 이렇게 함으로써 기업은 라벨 제조 및 부착비용을 절감하고, 환경보호에 기여하게 된다. 코로나19 확산이 계속되고, 소비자들의 소비 의식이나 행동이 변화되는 상황에서는, 이러한 점들을 잘 고려하여 마케팅 전략을 구축하는 것이 중요하다. 온라인쇼핑이 증가함에 따라, 앞으로 1회 용 포장재로 인한 환경문제는 중요한 이슈가 될 것으로 생각된다.The spread of the new coronavirus pandemic starting from the end of 2019 has had a major impact on food consumption in Japan. In addition to an excess inventory of commercial food due to temporary lockdown for restaurants and schools, demand for ready-to-drink beverages and home-cooked meals is increasing as well as related food services. Consumption of green tea has been increasing because of heightened well-being consciousness. While the consumption of other beverages has decreased, green tea beverage has not shown a significant decrease. Also, regarding the purchase of products, online purchases have dramatically increased than store purchases. A few Japanese beverage firms have developed labelless pet-bottles to lower consumers’ burden of separating label from pet-bottles when they throw away or recycle products. Accordingly, companies could save cost of labels as well as contribute to protect the environment. As the COVID19 pandemic continues and consumers awareness of consumption and behavior change, it would be necessary to take action considering this situation. In particular, it is important to introduce special plans such as sales promotion strategy and consideration for consumers and the environment on online market websites.

This article argues that the key role of health concerns in the rise of beef consumption in Japan in the latter part of the nineteenth century has previously been neglected. In particular, it discusses how the cholera outbreak of 1886 had a significant impact on beef consumption. Fear of the effects of plague led citizens in the Meiji era to seek out food that was, according to the science of the time, both nutritious and easily digested, leading to the development of a new set of values applied to food, including beef. Rather than seeing early beef consumption as only ostensibly medicinal, or as purely a matter of imitation of the West, as previous scholars have suggested, the author argues that, in addition to these factors, beef consumption came to be perceived as a valuable prophylactic against cholera.

The Japanese economy has shown a high rate of growth compared with European countries and America. Food consumption in Japan, however, has risen less rapidly than in these countries. The purpose of this paper is to explain the prewar rigidity in food consumption in Japan and to show how this has changed in the postwar period. The main factor in the rise of food consumption is usually the increase in per‐capita income. Consumption of starchy foods generally decreases at certain levels of percapita income. In Japan, however, this level of income is lower than in other countries. While in the West the decline in demand for starchy foods has generally been due to the increased substitution of livestock products, in Japan this has been due mainly to low caloric consumption. Before the Second World War, starch intake in Japan remained fairly constant despite the rise in per‐capita income. One reason for this rigidity is Japan's fondness for rice. In the postwar period, however, income elasticity for food and drink has doubled and livestock products have become more important, thus raising total caloric intake. This shift in food consumption, however, has caused problems for food production and agricultural incomes.

To examine the association between penicillin susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae and penicillin consumption in Japan. We used Japan Nosocomial Infection Surveillance data on the susceptibility of S. pneumoniae and sales data obtained from IQVIA Services Japan K.K. for penicillin consumption. We analysed both sets of data by decomposing them into seasonality and chronological trend components. The cross-correlation function was checked using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to examine the correlation between susceptibility and consumption. After adjusting for seasonality, the susceptibility of S. pneumoniae to penicillins gradually improved (55.7% in 2013 and 60.6% in 2018, respectively) and penicillin consumption increased during the same period (0.76 defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day [DID] in 2013, and 0.89 DID in 2018). The results showed positive cross-correlation (coefficient 0.801, p-value < 0.001). In contrast, cephalosporin consumption decreased (3.91 DID in 2013 and 3.19 DID in 2018) and showed negative cross-correlation with susceptibility of S. pneumoniae to penicillins (coefficient -0.981, p-value < 0.001). The rates of penicillin-susceptible S. pneumoniae isolates did not negatively correlate with penicillin consumption at the population level. Increased penicillin consumption might not impair the penicillin susceptibility of S. pneumoniae.

Heavy application of nitrogen (N) in tea (Camellia sinensis (L.)) plantations causes various environmental problems. To date, studies on N flows have been limited to the tea plantation level, but the crucial drivers of N flows are consumers, not farmers. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate changes in N flows concerning green tea production and consumption in Japan from 1965 to 2016 using the N footprint concept. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), virtual N factor (VNF), and N footprint were calculated using a Monte Carlo method from data for 17 parameters obtained from the literature review. The VNF for green tea in Japan decreased from 54.5 in 1991 to 30.8 in 2016. The major reasons for this decrease were (i) increased NUE in plantations and (ii) increased consumption of ready-to-drink (RTD) tea, matcha, and powdered tea, indicating an increase in the efficiency of N intake from green tea by consumers. The decrease in VNF resulted in a reduction in N footprint from green tea consumption. However, the decline in N footprint since 2004 is not derived from the decrease in VNF but mainly from reduced green tea consumption. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the parameters associated with the extraction efficiency of tea, powdered tea production, and the amount of tea leaves used for RTD production strongly affected VNF estimation.