Japan is represented in JPIAMR by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). AMED promotes integrated research and development in the field of medicine, from basic research to clinical trials.
Japan has an extensive track record in addressing antimicrobial resistance with initiatives such as their ‘area network for infection control’ which involves advanced hospitals and small hospitals, clinics and nursing care facilities which share best practices and educate each other through mutual site visits to promote infection control. Another initiative, the Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) prevent development of drug resistant tuberculosis. Due to the comprehensive DOTS program, the proportion of multi-drug resistant TB cases remains quite low at 0.7% among culture-positive cases in Japan.
In the Japanese national fee schedule, incentives are given to promote prudent use of antibiotics. Also, many professional societies have their own certification programmes which contribute to antimicrobial stewardship and human resource development. In fact, Japan has dedicated the last decade to human resource development to promote antimicrobial stewardship. It is characterised by its inter-professional approach: good collaboration between health professionals is a key to its successful implementation. Japan is embracing the One Health approach which is demonstrated by their guidelines of responsible and prudent use of antimicrobials in the livestock sector. As a complimentary action, the country has the Japanese Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (JVARM) to monitor the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria in food-producing animals, and to monitor the quantities of antimicrobials used in animal. JVARM allows the efficacy of antimicrobials in food-producing animals to be determined, prudent use of such antimicrobials to be encouraged, and the effect on public health to be ascertained.
National AMR research program and activities
AMR Research program
- JANIS (Japan Nosocomial Infections Surveillance)
- JARBS (Japan Antimicrobial Resistant Bacterial Surveillance)
- AMR Research Center in National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID)
- AMR Clinical Reference Center in National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM)
National AMR research calls
The national calls mentioned here are not specifically for AMR but includes AMR as a research area:
- 2022 and 2023 Calls in Research Program on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
- 2022 and 2023 Calls in Japan Program for Infectious Diseases and Infrastructure
- 2022 and 2023 Calls in e-ASIA Joint Research Program
- 2022 and 2023 Calls in SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development)
Activities on AMR actions at national level
- A virtual conference on AMR “Tokyo AMR One-Health Conference” was held on February 17 in 2022, supported by the MHLW and the WHO. Annual updates of the 4 working groups (one specific on R&D) in the ASPIRE (Asia Pacific group) were shared at the conference. The countries that participated will continue to work together.
- AMED Public and Private Partnerships for Infectious Diseases R&D (APiD) published the 1st edition of Priority Pathogen List (PPL) in March 2021. The PPL was prepared by APiD members and was approved by 7 Academic Societies and the Drug Discovery Promotion Review Committee in Japan.
National action plans
Management Board representatives
- Yuka Ikeda, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)
- Kazuko Otsuka, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)
