Japan Human Papillomavirus and Related Cancers, Fact Sheet 2019

In Japan, opportunistic cervical cancer screening started in the 1960s. A national, organized screening program was enacted in 1982 and consequently, incidence and mortality rates have been decreasing until the mid-1990s. However, limited scientific investment in cancer prevention and the absence of scientific renovation has caused serious problems. In addition, national data surveillance is immature and is not organized as a developed public health program. Linkage with other databases related to screening programs such as a regional cancer registry, laboratory files, and treatment files is not possible. Lessons learned from HPV vaccine concerns are that surveillance with a well-designed registry system is necessary, and risk communication based on epidemiology is important to maintain the national health policy. Improving medical trust in vaccine safety and effectiveness and in cervical cancer screening is crucial for success in cervical cancer prevention. Japan needs to issue strong recommendations for the HPV vaccine and HPV-based cervical cancer screening based on scientific evidences to break the stigma. Otherwise, Japan is likely to continue witnessing increased incidence and mortality rates in the near future.^1,2

The Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) in Barcelona, Spain and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France jointly lead the HPV Information Centre, a web-based resource that compiles, processes and disseminates published information on HPV infection and HPV-related diseases for all countries of the world.

Country-specific Fact Sheets are standardized summaries of HPV-related disease burden and associated risk factors, prevention strategies, screening activities, and immunization programs for each of the 194 WHO member states. Fact sheets include concise self-explanatory graphs and tables to offer a quick overview of the situation in the designated population. The system allows queries to generate statistics for individual countries, groups of countries, geographical regions or worldwide summaries.

More elaborated supplementary tables and comments can also be found in country-specific, regional and worldwide Full Reports from the original data base (www.hpvcentre.net ). The HPV Information Centre publishes internationally recognized review monographs and targeted scientific publications to address relevant questions in the path to the cervical cancer elimination campaign. The HPV Information Centre is an open access, publicly funded resource to support the work of the scientific HPV community worldwide.

Japan has a population of 57.15 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year 13,277 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,088 die from the disease. Cervical cancer ranks as the 8th most frequent cancer among women in Japan and the 2nd most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. About 1.9% of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV-16/18 infection at a given time, and 52.9% of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18.

References

3. Bruni L, Albero G, Serrano B, et al. ICO/IARC Information Centre on HPV and Cancer (HPV Information Centre). Human Papillomavirus and Related Diseases in Japan. Summary Report 17 June 2019. Available from: https://hpvcentre.net/statistics/reports/JPN.pdf?t=1562768619082
4. Ministry of Health, Laobur and Welfare. 23rd Council of Health and Welfare Vaccination / Vaccine Subcommittee Side Reaction Study Group. Document 4: National Epidemiological Survey. 26, December, 2016. (in Japanese) Available from:
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/shingi2/0000147015.html (accessed in 2019, August 11)
5. Wilson R, Paterson P, Larson H, et al. HPV Vaccination in Japan. Center for Strategic & International Studies. 23, April, 2015. Available from : https://www.csis.org/analysis/hpv-vaccination-japan-0 (accessed in 2019, August 11)
6. WHO Director-General calls for all countries to take action to help end the suffering caused by cervical cancer. WHO 2018 [cited 2019 May 27]. Available from: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/call-to-action-elimination-cervical-cancer/en/