The survey of public perception and general knowledge of genomic research and medicine in Japan conducted by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.

Japan has been proactively promoting genomic medicine initiatives as national policy. With rapid pace developments in genomic medicine, an increasing number of patients and their families will be able to access genomic information. In such circumstances, a consideration of public interests and an assessment of the general knowledge about genomic research and genomic medicine are becoming imperative. This study aims to elucidate public attitude to the handling of genetic information during research and general medicine. The results of the questionnaire survey of 3000 people have revealed the following points: (1) older participants were likely to have better knowledge of genetic information than younger ones; (2) people with better understanding of genetic information tended to care more strongly about technical issues; (3) respondents with higher literacy regarding genetic issues favored stricter rules for handling of genetic information compared to handling of ordinary medical data; and (4) research community and funding agencies should preserve and develop public trust in genomic research and medicine. These results suggest the importance of education for younger people, the need of different types of explanation and transparency aimed at individuals with different levels of knowledge about the genome, and indicate the adequacy of the current governmental guidelines.