On May 29, 2025, AMR Alliance Japan (Secretariat: Health and Global Policy Institute) released “Recommendation for the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2025” to promote infectious disease control measures combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The content of the recommendations was as follows.

• In AMR control, discuss and advance efforts to secure or conduct R&D on antimicrobials by reviewing or expanding market incentives with multi-stakeholder engagement involving industry, government, academia, and civil society and serve the international community as a leader while balancing national and global interests.
• In addition, Japan should reinforce production systems, stabilize supply chains, and take similar measures to secure ingredients for antimicrobials and diagnostic reagents as medical countermeasures (MCMs) as a priority issue for economic security.
• While harmonizing with efforts to advance healthcare digital transformation (DX), promote infectious disease control based on the One Health approach by gathering accurate epidemiological surveillance data and expanding systems for rapid analysis.

According to a report in British medical journal The Lancet, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was the direct cause of an estimated 1.91 million global deaths in 2024, which is more than the number of deaths from HIV and AIDS or malaria. Among the many infections caused by AMR bacteria in Japan, bloodstream infections kill an estimated 40,000 people per year, so the total scale of harm due to AMR can be said to be enormous.

From the perspective of Japan’s economic security, it is also urgent that a stable supply of medical countermeasures (MCMs) is secured and systems for R&D and drug discovery are reinforced. In particular, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for bacterial infections are the foundation of the health system. The Zero Draft Political Declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that will be discussed at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2025 also emphasizes the threat of AMR in the treatment of cancer and other chronic diseases and the importance of whole-of-society efforts to safeguard the effectiveness of antimicrobials.

AMR control is a complex issue that spans humans, animals, food, and the environment, so it will be essential to collaborate across disciplines based on the One Health approach, including efforts that encompass the national Government and local governments or that engage health institutions in mutual collaboration to approach AMR control as a societal issue. Therefore, it will also be important to establish an effective surveillance system that is harmonious with the advancement of healthcare DX and other such efforts.

Every year since 2016, the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform has included the importance of AMR control and expanding systems for research, testing, and treatment, and under this approach, industry, academia, government, and civil society have supported the advance of AMR control together. We look forward to efforts that build upon past achievements to advance even more effective measures in the future.

AMR control efforts that are based on scientific evidence are likely to accelerate in the international community under the Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance approved in September 2024 through developments like the establishment of the Independent Panel for Evidence for Action against AMR in 2025 and the update of the Global Action Plan on AMR scheduled for 2026. The Political Declaration includes commitments like “explore, encourage, and promote a range of innovative incentives and financing multisectoral health research and development to address AMR.”

Measures for infectious disease control including AMR control cannot be fully implemented by countries or certain regions acting on their own. It is vital that we create a foundation for sustainable infectious disease control for future generations and that we fulfill our responsibilities and contribute to Japan and the international community.