Japan

Promoting cancer awareness activities to improve the rate of gastric and colorectal cancer screenings in collaboration with health administration and NPOs

The Olympus Group supports the improvement of the rate of gastric cancer screening and colorectal cancer screening to reduce the number of people who lose their lives from cancer by early detection and treatment of cancer. Our goal is to have many citizens have the right knowledge of cancer, get many people to check for cancer on a regular basis for early detection and treatment of cancer, and have people with suspected cancer have a detailed cancer examination. In Japan, public health care administrations conduct public cancer screening for citizens. We enclose a leaflet prepared by the Olympus Group to educate the public about endoscopic examinations, when the medical administrations send a guidance on cancer screening to citizens. To raise awareness of colorectal cancer screening, we support activities conducted by the Brave Circle Steering Committee, an NPO, and sponsor the Colorectal Cancer Awareness Campaign. To understand why the general public receives cancer screening and detailed examinations, and why they do not, we conduct an awareness survey throughout Japan. The cancer prevention awareness website "Onaka-Kenko.com" is used to educate people about the importance of early detection and treatment of cancer. By publishing the results of the analysis of the survey, we are implementing initiatives to make them useful to people involved in cancer countermeasures.