Last week the pharmaceutical company Riken announced that it was developing a new desensitivity treatment for serious allergy sufferers. The treatment program would entail fifty or so injections over a three-year period, which is quite a reduction in time. I should know. I received biweekly or monthly allergy shots from the time I was about eleven until my sophomore year in college.
Unfortunately, the treatment won't be ready for another five years at least, which means Japan's allergy sufferers will have to make do with what's available. But there's a lot that's available.
According to an article in the Feb. 14 issue of Aera, the market for hay fever products in Japan is about 100 billion yen, and in preparation for this spring, which experts say will be the worst hay fever season in history owing to last summer's hot weather, supermarkets and department stores have set up special sections that sell all sorts of products to protect you from allergens.