Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) will hold the 116th HGPI seminar in conjunction with World Immunization Week, a week designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). During World Immunization Week, from April 24 to 30, various activities to promote immunization and vaccines will be held around the world under the theme of “The Big Catch-Up”.

Since FY2020, HGPI has been engaged in discussions with experts from Japan and abroad and has been promoting policy advocacy activities to promote immunization and vaccine policies based on a life-course approach. Thanks in part to the activities of this project and others, by the end of FY2022, the government has even restarted discussions on the review of the ” National Immunization Plan ” which had been delayed due to COVID-19 and other factors.

Following the experience of the outbreak of COVID-19, the public health value of vaccinations and vaccines has been reaffirmed worldwide. In Japan, the establishment of the Strategic Center of Biomedical Advanced Vaccine Research and Development for Preparedness and Response (SCARDA) and other R&D, production and supply systems are already underway. On the other hand, the following issues have been identified as challenges: delays in the digitization of immunization administration; the division of roles, responsibilities, and costs among the national, prefectural, and municipal governments; and the classification of immunization diseases and the related process of making immunization routine.

The National Immunization Plan is supposed to provide a medium- to long-term vision for future immunizations, and the Immunization Act clearly states that the plan should be “reviewed at least every five years. However, changes to the plan are limited to “when deemed necessary,” and no new changes have been made since 2014. Now that the review discussion has restarted, this is an opportunity to look back at Japan’s immunization and vaccine policies from a medium- to long-term perspective based on a life-course approach and overcome the challenges, including the way the National Immunization Plan is operated and the challenges represented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, at this HGPI seminar we will welcome Dr. Nobuhiko Okabe, Director General of the Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health. Dr. Okabe has served as the chairperson of the Subcommittee of Basic Policy about Immunization in Immunization and Vaccine Meeting of the MHLW Health Science Council and is currently a counselor of the Cabinet Secretariat. Dr. Okabe will discuss the issues both in Japan and abroad that have been clarified or left behind by the COVID-19 pandemic. While “catching up” (The Big Catch-Up) we would like to make this an opportunity to comprehensively consider the points to be discussed when proceeding with a review of the National Immunization Plan, toward a system that allows anyone to be vaccinated and vaccinated at any time in their lives.

*Please note that this seminar is available in Japanese only. An English report of this event will be published in due course.

[Event Overview]

• Speaker: Dr. Nobuhiko Okabe (Director General, Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health)
• Date and time: Tuesday, April 25, 2023; 18:30-19:45 JST
• Venue: Zoom webinar
• Language: Japanese
• Participation fee: Free
• Capacity: 500 participants

■Profile:

Nobuhiko Okabe (Director General, Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health)
Dr. Nobuhiko Okabe graduated from the Jikei University School of Medicine in 1971. He served as a physician assistant in the Pediatrics Department at Teikyo University Hospital and the Jikei University Hospital. He then worked in the Pediatrics Department at Atsugi City Hospital (formerly the Kanagawa Prefectural Atsugi Hospital) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Kita Ryoiku Medical Center. He belonged to a laboratory of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division at Vanderbilt University. After coming back to Japan, he served as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the National Center for Child Health and Development, Kanagawa Prefectural School Hospital of Nursing and Midwifery. He was then appointed Manager of Communicable Diseases Division of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WHO/WPRO) in the Philippines. After returning to Japan, he became an associate professor of the Pediatrics Department at Jikei University Hospital. In 1997, he served as Director of Infectious Disease Surveillance Center Office at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, where he became and Director of Infectious Disease Information Center in 2000. He has served as the Director General of Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health from 2010. He also serves as visiting professor at the Pediatric Department at Jikei University Hospital. His current positions include: Representative of the Chairman, Advisory Council on Countermeasures against Novel Influenza and Other Diseases, Cabinet Secretariat; Member, New Coronavirus Subcommittee, Cabinet Secretariat; Chairman, Regional Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (RCC) in the Western Pacific, WHO; Member, Global Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (GCC); and Director, Asian Congress of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.