JPMA Media Forum" Held
Two Major Issues in Countermeasures against Infectious Diseases: Consideration of Countermeasures against Drug-Resistant Bacteria and Proper Understanding of Immunization
Background of the Forum
In recent years, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, including new coronavirus infections, have had a major impact on society and the economy. Furthermore, drug-resistant strains that have acquired drug resistance (AMR) are predicted to become one of the major causes of death worldwide in the future, and their threat is steadily growing. In order to confront this situation, in addition to the development and stable supply of vaccines and the proper use of antimicrobial agents, which are the cornerstones of infectious disease countermeasures, it is essential to create an environment in which the public can act based on reliable and accurate information.
JPMA held this forum on September 3, 2025 to provide an opportunity for industry-government collaboration to discuss the two major issues in countermeasures against infectious diseases, namely "countermeasures against drug-resistant bacteria" and "correct understanding of immunization. The forum consisted of two parts, with the first part introducing the latest trends in AMR countermeasures, such as proper use of antimicrobial agents and prevention of the spread of resistant strains, and the second part introducing the latest findings with a focus on creating a system to "visualize and deliver" accurate information on immunization.
The event was attended by 28 people from 17 media companies at the venue and via webcast.
The following is a summary of the second part of the lecture, which was organized by the Biopharmaceutical Committee's Vaccine Practice Committee.
The venue
Part II: Lecture 1
Past efforts and challenges to the strategy for strengthening vaccine development and production systems
Dr. Takeshi Naruse, President, Japan Vaccine Industry Association
Achieving Strategies for Strengthening Vaccine Development and Production Systems
The "Strategy for Strengthening the Vaccine Development and Production System," approved by the Cabinet on June 1, 2021, outlines a national strategy to strengthen the system in a series of processes from basic research to development, production, and supply. Member companies of the Japan Vaccine Industry Association, which are involved in the research, development, production, and supply of vaccines, are also extensively working on this vaccine strategy through the development of vaccines for priority infectious diseases. On the other hand, many issues have emerged in order to achieve the vaccine strategy (Fig. 1). While it is important to strengthen and upgrade R&D centers, clinical trial systems, and manufacturing sites to prepare for emergencies, each item raises the issue of how to maintain the established systems in peacetime. For this reason, the Association believes it is necessary to provide support for business maintenance and introduce pull-type incentives in addition to push-type incentives in development support.
Figure 1: Tasks to achieve the "Strategy for Strengthening the Vaccine Development and Production System
Figure 2 summarizes what we believe needs to be further strengthened to achieve the vaccine strategy. As shown in the figure, companies need to promote active participation and collaboration in the vaccine strategy project. I believe that if the government adopts a consistent vaccine strategy, such as aiming to establish a sustainable system from normal times, it will create an environment that makes it even easier for companies to engage in the vaccine strategy project.
As stated in the Basic Plan on Immunization, the basic principle of immunization is "to prevent diseases that can be prevented by immunization and vaccines. A sustainable vaccination system must be established so that the public can receive vaccinations with peace of mind, both in times of peace and in times of emergency. To this end, it is important to continuously invest in and strengthen the foundation of the vaccine business.
Figure 2: Items that need to be further strengthened to achieve the "Strategy for Strengthening the Vaccine Development and Production System
Part II: Lecture 2
Creating a Foundation for Obtaining Accurate Information: The Present and Future of Digitalization of Immunization
Akihisa Maeda, Director, Immunization Division, Department of Infectious Disease Control, Health and Welfare Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Overview of Digitalization of Immunization Affairs
I would like to discuss how to obtain accurate information on vaccinations and convey it to the general public, using the digitization of vaccination administration currently under preparation as a starting point.
First, I will give an overview of the digitization of immunization administration. The legal basis for the collection and analysis of immunization information by the government is stipulated in the "Establishment of a system for flexible vaccination" in the Law Concerning Partial Amendment to the Law Concerning Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients of Infectious Diseases (Infectious Diseases Law) (Law No. 96, 2022). The digitalization will be carried out by changing the vaccination administration system, which was originally operated on paper, to a system using the my number card. This will enable the vaccinated persons, medical institutions, and municipalities to view the vaccination results, and also enable online notification of vaccination recommendations, which used to be done by postcard, etc., so that the government can constantly analyze the vaccination status (Fig. 3).
Since local governments are responsible for administering vaccinations, the transfer of data when a person moves in or out of a municipality has been an issue, but the ability to view vaccination records prior to moving in or out is another major advantage of digitization. In addition, the anonymized database is expected to expand the scope of statistical evaluation by combining it with data from the National Health Examination Database (NDB) and, in the future, with data from electronic medical records.
The current plan is to begin operation in June 2026, with the aim of digitizing municipal immunization administration by the end of FY2027.
Figure 3: Overview of digitization
Utilization of Digitalization of Immunization Administration
Currently, it takes two years from the time of compilation to the publication of vaccination coverage, as vaccination coverage is calculated and published from paper records. In addition, the data itself has limitations, such as the implementation rate exceeding 100%, because the number of vaccinations administered and the number of people covered are obtained independently. By digitizing the data, it can be made public more quickly, and the data will be more useful since it can be evaluated by combining the number of people who implemented the program and the number of people who are subject to the program. As an example of how to utilize the data, in the past, it was necessary to set up a research group to collect information and confirm the status of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in order to evaluate the level of inoculation in each generation. However, if the vaccination status can be monitored through digitization, it is expected that the vaccination rate of each generation can be shown statistically and promptly.
In addition to the primary use of the data to ascertain the vaccination status, the secondary use of the obtained data is another major objective of digitization. We will discuss the secondary use of the data, including the expertise of the National Institute for Health Risk Management (JIHS), but we believe that the data can be used to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the system.
Specifically, we believe that we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine, such as how soon after vaccination an infectious disease develops and whether there is a significant difference compared to those who have not been vaccinated, etc. Also, by combining information from other medical records, etc., we expect to be able to evaluate whether there is a high probability that adverse reactions were caused by the vaccine I also expect that by combining information from other medical records, it will be possible to evaluate whether or not adverse reactions are likely to be caused by vaccines. In the U.S., evaluation using insurer databases is already underway, and I believe that similar data will be obtained in Japan in the future.
In this way, it is expected that more accurate and well-founded data on vaccines will be obtained and made public in the future. We hope that the public will benefit from being able to see their own vaccination data, and that the statistical data provided will also be used as a basis for making vaccination decisions (Fig. 4).
Figure 4. How the benefits of digitization can be returned to the public in the future
Part 2: Lecture 3
The Role of the JIHS: Providing Information Linking Immunization and Society
Dr. Motoi Suzuki, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health Risk Management
What is Surveillance?
Surveillance originally means 'to monitor the movements of the enemy. As the World Health Organization (WHO) defines surveillance as "the systematic collection, organization, analysis, evaluation, and rapid dissemination of health data for public health purposes," simply collecting information is meaningless. In surveillance, it is important to turn this loop around (Figure 5). Multi-source surveillance is important in conducting surveillance. For example, information is collected from various sources, such as outbreak notifications of infectious diseases reported by physicians, school absenteeism, electronic medical records, and surveillance in quarantine, and evaluated comprehensively to understand the dynamics of infectious disease outbreaks. This is "multi-source surveillance" and is the basis and foundation of surveillance.
In evaluating the information gathered, we analyze it from three perspectives: hazard, exposure, and context. For example, if there is a new outbreak of an infectious disease somewhere, the following assessments are made
1. "Hazard assessment," which evaluates the extent of the infectious disease, such as whether it is mild or severe
2. "Exposure assessment," which evaluates to what extent there is a possibility or risk of contracting the infectious disease
3. "Context assessment," which evaluates whether the infectious disease is likely to infect a group of people, such as the Japanese population, or is likely to cause severe disease, such as a group that is more susceptible to infection. Contextual assessment" to evaluate whether a population of Japanese, for example, is more likely to be infected or to be severely infected.
After such an assessment, it is necessary to take action, such as taking countermeasures or waiting and seeing what happens. In this sense, we believe that communication with the media is very meaningful.
Figure 5. What is surveillance?
Significance of Surveillance
Currently, the most core system for infectious disease surveillance in Japan is the "Surveillance of Infectious Disease Outbreak Trends," in which physicians who diagnose a disease report to the JIHS and the MHLW through local health institutes and public health centers, in accordance with the law.
The most recent topic of the Surveillance of Infectious Disease Outbreak Trends is the surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), which began in April 2025. The significance of this ARI surveillance is multiple. First, it is to understand the occurrence of ARIs and to investigate what is the pathogen among them. Originally, ARI outbreaks such as influenza were investigated, but because physicians did not uniformly conduct tests for each infectious disease, it was difficult to evaluate the relative incidence of ARI outbreaks compared to other ARI outbreaks. This ARI surveillance system allows for the uniform reporting and testing of ARI symptoms and provides information on the overall number of ARIs and the percentage of each pathogen prevalent among them, making it possible to make relative comparisons among the pathogens. In addition, there are a certain percentage of ARI pathogens that test negative, and by monitoring their trends, the emergence of new pathogens can be detected promptly. The ability to track test-negative cases is another important aspect of ARI surveillance.
Figure 6: Significance of ARI Surveillance
Information dissemination by JIHS
The former National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) analyzed and disseminated information, but until now, researchers themselves have done the work of disseminating information in a coordinated manner. There was probably some information that was difficult to convey to the general public through the expressions of specialists, but now that a department specializing in communication is involved, we will devise ways to convey information to the general public in a more easily understood manner.
In addition to infectious disease surveillance, we also consider the collection of information on vaccines, specifically the evaluation of vaccine efficacy and safety, to be an important role. We believe it is necessary to collect information including various domestic and overseas studies, monitor the effectiveness of vaccines, etc., and share this information with the government as well as disseminate it to the public.
We believe that the JIHS plays an important role in communicating information on infectious diseases and vaccines. We will continue to work with the media to ensure that accurate information on infectious diseases and vaccines is conveyed to the public.
(Responsibility: Takafumi Nakagawa, Vaccine Working Group, Biopharmaceutical Committee, JPMA)