Food and Nutritional Improvement Action of Communities in Japan: Lessons for the World.

In Japan, the national health policy "Healthy Japan 21 (second term)" was introduced in 2013 to support prevention of lifestyle-related disease. Policy has also been recently revised on the promotion of nutrition education (shokuiku). Community-based food and nutrition actions were developed based on those policies and aimed to reinforce the linkages across the food chain, looking along its length "from field to food", including production, processing, preparation, eating and disposal. Local government is responsible for identifying the important food and nutritional problems, to devise and group effective actions on the basis of local health issues. The National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) is responsible for carrying out public health staff training on policy-based health issues. Training carried out by the NIPH, the Japan Dietetic Association and the Japan Public Health Association was designed to create an enabling environment for nutrition action. The community-based actions, including nutrition education and information, are carried out by several bodies, including local government, schools, facilities, volunteer groups, residents' associations, and commercial companies, to establish sustainable food systems promoting healthy diets. The community-empowering actions and effective cooperation are reported as good practice models in an annual white paper by the Cabinet Office. Japanese dieticians are expected to share their experiences of local nutrition improvement activities in Japan with international colleagues. Experience from elsewhere, including from Japanese dieticians working in developing countries, should also be applied on their return.