Nobutaka Hirooka
Physical activity is closely associated with non-communicable chronic diseases such as ischemic heart disease and stroke. Many of the Japanese travel overseas due to the recent globalism. Under the current environment, we expect increasing number of Japanese being exposed to the environment outside of the countries. Past studies showed higher risks for non-communicable chronic diseases due to physical inactivity among Japanese in westernized environment. Since health statistics based on disaggregated data for specific ethnicity provide much more useful information in health promotion, we review health issues on physical activity, exercise, and sedentary behavior specifically among Japanese who reside overseas as the target population. Then, we strive to make useful suggestion on physical activity in daily life, exercise, and sedentary behavior when primary care physicians manage health promotion to Japanese in westernized environment. We also include several suggestions using the mixture of evidence from reported studies and our experience providing care to Japanese residing in westernized environment. We aim to increase efficiency of preventive medicine for Japanese overseas through effective health promotion through physical activity in daily life, exercise, and less sedentary behavior
