Health Reconstruction in Japan After 3-11
November 4, 2011
J. Stephen Morrison
Senior Vice President, CSIS & Director, Global Health Policy Center at CSIS
Since April 2011, I organized a health working group that has examined the complex, evolving health situation in Japan, post-March 11, and weighed what would be the most appropriate and effective U.S. assistance in the medium term to support Japanese-led health recovery efforts. That working group contributed the health chapter contained in a broader CSIS effort – the ‘Partnership for Recovery and a Stronger Future: Standing with Japan after 3-11,’ which today issued its final report here in Washington.
We built the health work on a preexisting partnership with the Health and Global Health Policy Institute (HGPI) in Japan which began in late 2009 with the aim of generating new analytic work on shared health reform challenges and actionable steps to address them.
In Chapter Four of the final report, entitled Health and Recovery, we identify three core issues that are most appropriate and effective for U.S. assistance over the next three years in support of Japanese-led reconstruction initiatives:
- A focus on the health implications of long-term, low-dose radiation. The unfolding Japanese experience with radiation in Fukushima has a significance that extends well beyond Japan. It brings forward global health issues related to defining safety and scientific standards; steps to prepare for a crisis of this kind; and effective communications with the public.
- Building back health infrastructure in a better, more integrated and cost-effective manner, including use of information technology.
- The delivery of services to traumatized, aging and dislocated populations.
