Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) hosted a symposium featuring domestic and global experts to debate health system sustainability and resilience based on lessons learned from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), “Creating a Health System to Withstand Future Crises: Next Steps Toward Enhancing Sustainability and Resilience.” This meeting was convened both in Tokyo and online.

COVID-19 has given rise to a once-in-a-century health crisis, putting tremendous pressure on health systems around the world, and greatly hindering social and economic activities in every country. In Japan as well, the number of infections has exceeded 7 million, and many policy issues have come to light within the COVID-19 response, including related to data infrastructure, governance, and healthcare delivery. Even before the pandemic, Japan was already facing a number of challenges – not the least of which being the need to reform the health system to better serve Japan’s super-aging population, deal with rising costs, and alleviate social inequality. How should policies intended to respond to these issues change due to the pandemic? How could Japan have better prepared for this crisis? What lessons should it learn from COVID-19 to improve its health system planning in the future?

Japan is not alone in facing questions like these. All around the world, countries are debating their own responses to COVID-19 and what steps they should take moving forward.

Since 2020, the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) has been working to facilitate such debate, bringing together health system experts to analyze responses to COVID-19 and produce recommendations toward the further strengthening of health system sustainability and resilience. This project, initiated such as the London School of Economics (LSE), the World Economic Forum (WEF), AstraZeneca, Philips, KPMG, and others provide a global platform for country-specific reports and research on common issues facing health systems around the world.

In Japan, work on this project has been led by Keio University and HGPI. Over the past year, the PHSSR Japan project has gathered health system experts to consider the key issues that arose within Japan’s COVID-19 response, what could have been done better, and how Japan can prepare for a future when health crises like COVID-19 may very well happen again.

On May 17, HGPI gathered a group of health system experts for a symposium to share project findings with the public, debate the reforms Japan needs to strengthen health system resilience and sustainability with the experts from Industry, Government, Academia, and Civil Society. We also have published policy recommendations that were written during the process of preparing the report.

[Event Overview]
■ Date ＆ Time: May 17, 2022; 17:30-19:00 JST
■ Format: Hybrid (In-person and Online (Zoom Webinar))
■ Venue: Grand Cube 3F, Otemachi Financial City, Global Business Hub Tokyo, 1-9-2, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
■ Language: Simultaneous Japanese-English interpretation

[Program] (titles omitted, alphabetical order by last name)

17:30-17:40 – Welcome and Introduction
Matt McEnany (Senior Manager, HGPI)

17:40-17:50 – Opening Remarks
Keizo Takemi (Member of the House of Councillors; WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Universal Health Coverage)

17:50-18:00 – Presentation 1: Common Challenges in COVID-19 Responses Across the World – Lessons from the PHSSR Project Thus Far
Kelly McCain (Head, Healthcare Initiatives, World Economic Forum)

18:00-18:10 – Presentation 2: A Common Challenge Across the Health System – The Need to Promote Health Data Use
Hiroaki Miyata (Professor, Keio University)

18:10-19:00 – Panel Discussion

Panelist
Hiroaki Miyata (Professor, Keio University)
Naomi Sakurai (President, Cancer Solutions Co., Ltd)
Takuko Sawada (Director of the Board, Executive Vice President, Shionogi & Co., Ltd.)
Yasuhiro Suzuki (President, International University of Health and Welfare; Former Chief Medical and Global Health Officer, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Moderator
Ryoji Noritake (CEO, Board Member, HGPI)

(Photographed by: Kazunori Izawa)