Japan is losing its battle against cancer because it is failing on two fronts: getting people to quit smoking and getting them screened for cancer.

The National Cancer Center said Wednesday that the central government will probably miss its goal of lowering the cancer mortality rate by 20 percent over 10 years — to 73.9 per 100,000 people in 2015 — from 92.4 in 2005.

The new projection for the cancer mortality rate in 2015 is 76.7 per 100,0000 people — a reduction of 17 percent from the 2005 level, the center said.