Correspondence: Hiroo Ide, Department of Planning Information and Management, The University of Tokyo Hospital, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. E-mail: idea-tky@umin.ac.jp

¹These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

In Japan, a number of serious public health crises involving environmental pollution, food-borne diseases, and health hazards due to pharmaceuticals (i.e., "Yakugai") have occurred in the past 50 years. Based on the literature, we summarize the initial investigations and the subsequent measures. Some common points emerge: (1) prolonged cause identification, (2) lack of countermeasures after the cause was identified, and (3) discrimination against victims and they contributed to spreading the damage. We identify lack of corporate ethics and ill-timed disclosure of information as the principal problems in Japan's crisis-management systems. Defects in information gathering were common to all of the cases, thus we suggest necessary corrective measures, such as the establishment of a new reporting system for health hazard-related information.