Health and Medical Care
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s participation in the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
September 23, 2019

(Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office)

(Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office)

(Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office)
- On September 23, commencing at 5:45 p.m. for approximately fifteen minutes, Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, attended the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC. In addition to Mr. Abe, Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Ms. Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and others participated in this High-Level Meeting.
- At the outset, Prime Minister Abe stated that Japan achieved UHC with the introduction of our national health insurance system in 1961, which has provided a foundation for Japan’s social and economic development and for a healthy ageing society. He also stated that, building on this experience, he has emphasized the importance of achieving UHC all across the world.
- Prime Minister Abe also introduced the fact that Japan placed UHC as one of the major agenda at G20 Osaka Summit and TICAD7 this year, and emphasized the importance of promoting a cross-sectoral approach, combining health development with nutrition, water and sanitation and strengthening health financing.
- Statement by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (English(PDF)
/Japanese (PDF)
)
- At the meeting, UHC Political Declaration was endorsed, which reaffirmed the goals, such as providing essential health services to all people and eliminating impoverishment due to health-related expenses by 2030. In order to achieve these goals, the Political Declaration demonstrated strong political-level commitments for achieving UHC, such as strengthening health financing, promoting Primary Health Care (PHC), tackling communicable and non-communicable diseases, improving situations on water sanitation and nutrition, promoting education in health, and developing human resources for health and others.

(Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office)

(Photo: Cabinet Public Relations Office)
[Note] Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
UHC means to enable all people to access essential health services at affordable cost.
UHC means to enable all people to access essential health services at affordable cost.