October 31, 2019

On October 18, 2019, an international symposium was held at the 50th Anniversary Hall, Okayama University, as a side event for the G20 Okayama Health Minister’s Meeting.

Opening session, which was moderated by Okayama University Vice President for Global Engagement Strategy YOKOI Atsufumi, started with a moment of silent prayer for the victims of Typhoon Hagibis, followed by the remarks by Mr. TAGUCHI Kazuho, Director, Office of Global Health Cooperation, International Affairs Division, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare. Then, Okayama University President MAKINO Hirofumi introduced the University’s efforts towards to SDGs.

In the following sessions, the theory for life-cycle approach and its examples from Japan and the potential positive economic impacts of healthy and active ageing were discussed. In the panel discussion, representatives from the six Asian countries discussed their issues and concerns related to population ageing and called for government’s policies and programs based on life-cycle/ course approaches to population ageing while acknowledging the importance of the individual’s effort towards healthy and active ageing.

The event was co-hosted by United Nations Population Fund Asia-Pacific Regional Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, World Health Organization, ASEM Global Ageing Center, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, with support from the Promotion Council for Support of the G20 Health Minister’s meeting. And the event was held with cooperation of Dr. Rintaro Mori (Regional Adviser, Asia-Pacific Regional Office, UNFPA) who is alumnus of Okayama University.