Keizo Takemi, recent Japan Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare: "I am quite lucky."

Keizo Takemi, recent Japan Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (September 2023-October 2024), shares his personal story that took him to Taiwan, CNN/Japan, the Diet, Harvard, back to the Diet, and recently into the cabinet of then Prime Minister Kishida. Along the way he became a leading force in charting Japan's approach to global health. As Minister he put a spotlight on the thousands of single, isolated elderly who die alone in Japan, unnoticed for days. Though expensive, wearable digital technologies can help connect the elderly better to community health services. Covid-19 exposed the lack of digitalized data and the need for a national mechanism to integrate patient and hospital data. That became a priority for him as Minister, as well as the creation of the Japan Institute of Health Security, a merger that promises far greater capabilities in preparing for and responding to dangerous outbreaks. By 2035, Japan will have 10 million citizens above 85 years of age. "Speedy aging" is raising demands for different care, at considerable expense. Achieving a stable number of skilled caregivers requires better wages and work conditions, and the entry of far more migrants into the workforce. Japan's biopharmaceutical industry requires a wholistic industrial policy. That sector is hollowing out, as Takeda and Astellas locate their operations in the United States.