Maternal and Child Health History and Public Health System at the Time of Disasters in Japan

Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is one of the pillars of a country. In order to understand MCH during a disaster, it is necessary to know about the state of public health, sanitary conditions, and living standards in the country. The history of MCH tells us the details. In the period between 1868 and 1944, Japan’s MCH policies dramatically developed facing two major World Wars. In the postwar era (1945–1948), MCH was designated as an important field of public health, under the direction and with the assistance of the General Headquarters of the United States Army (GHQ). The Children and Families Bureau was established in 1947 as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare responsible for preparing MCH policy including mother and child handbooks. Recently, a new trend in MCH was reviewed based on the statistical analysis of national databases including the national census data. The key findings of the statistics were decreased infant mortality rate (IMR), decreased perinatal mortality rate (PMR), and decreased total fertility rates, while low birth weight babies, intellectually handicapped children, and the number of babies conceived through artificial fertilization therapy have increased.