Data Resource Profile Data Resource Profile: The Japan National

Data resource basics Japan’s National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHNS) is the oldest of all national health examination surveys cur-rently conducted in the world. The NHNS originally began as the National Nutrition Survey after World War II under the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces, to investigate the nutritional status of the civilian population undergoing food shortages and to secure emergency food aid from abroad. After the end of occupation in 1952, the survey continued under the Nutrition Improvement Law. As the nutritional status of the Japanese population im-proved, the focus of the survey shifted to the management of noncommunicable diseases. The National Nutrition Survey was redesigned and renamed the NHNS in 2003 under the Health Promotion Act, to cover various aspects of health for assessment of the risks for noncom-municable diseases. The history of the National Nutritio