Masaaki Goto, 83, runs a tiny pharmacy in Tokyo. Japan has the highest number of prescriptions per capita in the world and, after the United States, it is the world's second largest pharmaceutical market. There are about 50,000 community pharmacies in the country, and large drug stores and convenience stores also sell medicine. About 15 percent of the world's population consumes approximately 95 percent of all pharmaceuticals, half of which is purchased in the U.S. and 20 percent of which is bought in Japan. It's no wonder that Japanese universities produce the most pharmacy graduates per head of population per year in the world. And that, coming after their U.S. counterparts, they are the second-highest-paid pharmacists in the world. Goto, however, is not one of them: He began helping his father in the pharmacy as a child and by age 19, in 1946, he was working fulltime. Too busy to go to university, in 1949 he got the basic pharmacist license that allows him to sell over-the-counter drugs, but not prescription medicine. Still, Goto is familiar with just about every common ailment and knows how to fix it. Neighbors stop by daily for a genki (energy) drink and a quick chat, which usually fixes whatever might be bothering them. Not much is sold here, but Goto doesn't mind — as long as everyone's healthy, he's happy.
Green tea is delicious and provides the best natural health protection. Sencha (green tea) is full of catechins, which have strong chemo-preventative and antibiotic effects. Shizuoka Prefecture produces about half of Japan's tea and the area has one of the lowest numbers of cancer patients. Even babies drink green tea there! Gargling with green tea is an excellent way to prevent the spread of diseases.
If you worry too much about nothing, you will soon have plenty to worry about. I know a few people who won the lottery. One kept it a secret because he was scared that everyone would want to get a share of it. He was afraid of people, of life and of success. He got sick and died a few years later. But another buddy, who also won some money, just called everyone over and said: "Let's party! I'm rich!" He's still alive, with a big smile on his face. The money is gone, but he doesn't care.