— cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases lead to 63 percent of annual deaths worldwide. They are recognized as global killers today and a major health challenge. They affect individuals as well as society with an economic burden expected to reach $30 trillion over the next 20 years.
The situation in Japan is no different in this regard. According to World Health Organization data, NCDs account for 80 percent of all deaths in the country, with more than 9 percent of those dying before the age of 60, when people are still in their most productive years.
The good news is that NCDs are largely preventable through better self-care — up to 80 percent of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes, and over a third of cancers, could be prevented.