Health and Disease Awareness Activities
At Otsuka Pharmaceutical, we are committed to promoting health and disease awareness through our extensive knowledge gained from product research and development. Here, we introduce some of our main activities.
Disease Awareness Activities
Aiming to realize an inclusive society by confronting dementia
Otsuka Pharmaceutical is committed to providing information and raising awareness to promote an accurate understanding of dementia and expand the support network. Through initiatives like "Smile Navigator Dementia" and "Dementia Troubles Navigator: Understanding the Feelings of People with Dementia," we clearly explain symptoms and coping strategies. These initiatives support the creation of environments where individuals and their families can live with peace of mind.
We have co-hosted "Public Lectures for Citizens" with organizations related to dementia. Together with doctors and support providers, we promote a deeper understanding and empathy in society by sharing the personal experiences of people with dementia and their families.
Our goal is to create a "society of coexistence" where people with dementia are naturally accepted by the community, and everyone can live with dignity.
Mind and Body Wellness
Otsuka Pharmaceutical supports mental health by promoting whole-body wellness. Our website Mental Health Information Bureau: Smile Navigator provides information on psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and pediatric autism spectrum disorder. The site offers clear explanations of diseases, symptoms, treatments, as well as guidance for families.
Society as a whole must provide support for patients with psychiatric disorders and their families. Since 2020, Otsuka has co-hosted public lectures with relevant groups to reduce discrimination and prejudice against people with psychiatric disorders and promote their social integration. Physicians, supporters, patients, and their families participate in these lectures, contributing authentic voices through personal experiences and Q&A sessions.
In recent years, the need for daily mental support has been increasing among students and businesspeople. Otsuka promotes mental health by partnering with local communities and supporting educational activities in schools through local expert collaboration.
Helping patients with alcohol addiction seek appropriate medical care
Alcohol addiction is a disorder characterized by strong cravings and dependent behavior. It can disrupt health, work, and family life, leaving significant social and financial impacts. However, many people battling with alcohol addiction are unable to get appropriate medical treatment. With the cooperation of medical specialists and academic societies, Otsuka Pharmaceutical conducts workshops on the diagnosis and treatment of alcoholism. We educate and inform patients about the latest treatments and connect them with medical institutions so that they can receive appropriate medical care for their condition.
An application to help you lower your alcohol consumption.
This website provides information on the risks of drinking and alcoholism.
Preventing heat illnesses
With climate change increasing the number of extremely hot days and tropical nights, heat illnesses have become a major health concern. Since the 1990s, when the term was still unfamiliar, Otsuka has been promoting proper responses and hydration practices, thus helping to raise awareness of heat illnesses as well as fluid and electrolyte replenishment.
Prevention of heat illnesses is becoming more important in daily life. The Japanese government has made it a statutory requirement to strengthen measures against heat illness. Local governments are designating cooling shelters as places where people can take shelter from the extreme heat. Otsuka has concluded the first-ever cooperative agreements with the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency to promote heat illness prevention. We are engaged in a broad-reaching educational campaign using videos, posters, and leaflets on preventing heat illnesses.
We also sponsor Heat Illness Prevention Ambassador Courses for local governments, schools, and companies to ensure they know what is best to prevent heat illness. The course provides the specialized knowledge needed to educate and promote heat illness prevention, and those who complete the course are engaged as certified Heat Illness Prevention Ambassadors.
Women's Health
The enhancement of women's health has become increasingly significant due to the growing recognition of women's roles and activities in society. To address health concerns specific to women, such as pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) and menopausal symptoms, Otsuka Pharmaceutical collaborates with pharmaceutical experts to organize seminars on the topic of "Women's Health" for a diverse range of audiences, including companies, local authorities, medical professionals, members of the press, and the general public, including employees. Moreover, the company leverages its resources to provide information on health and illnesses that are particularly relevant to women.
Through health literacy initiatives, which emphasize the importance of understanding and managing symptoms rather than enduring them, the company supports women's endeavors to maintain optimal health. These diverse initiatives related to women's health have been recognized. In 2023, we were honored with the "Consumer-oriented Activity Award" at the 8th ACAP Consumer-oriented Activity Awards, organized by the Association of Consumer Affairs Professionals (ACAP).
Additionally, Otsuka Pharmaceutical collaborates with the non-profit organization HAP to co-organize the Otsuka Advanced Training for Healthy Aging Supporters (OATHAS) program for pharmacists and other community health professionals. This program provides participants with in-depth knowledge and training on women's specific health concerns and support, health and nutritional counseling, and how to become health support pharmacists. This initiative is geared towards those who seek to expand their knowledge and expertise in women's health issues and provide comprehensive support and guidance to their patients.
Activities in the Field of Education and Nutrition Education
More than 30 years after its launch, the Otsuka Health Comic Library is now available online.
The Otsuka Health Comic Library, launched in 1989, aims to promote people's health from a wider perspective beyond products and has been active for over 30 years. The collection consists of comic books distributed to educational institutions to provide children with basic health knowledge in an easily comprehensible manner. This is based on the premise that health interests and knowledge acquired during childhood can have a lasting impact on later life. The comic is released annually on various topics and donated to elementary and junior high schools throughout Japan, as well as Japanese schools overseas.
In addition to print books, the Otsuka Health Comic Library is now available online. Users can access the comics in e-book format and utilize features such as recommendations and a search function to discover new content. The website also proposes ways to incorporate the comics into education, such as by calling for children's works to be published comics and developing a comparison table of primary school curriculum guidelines.
Promoting the significance of nutrition through education
We continue food education initiatives to promote understanding of nutrition, leveraging expertise gained through research and development of nutritional products. We offer the food education app “SketchCook: Delicious Drawing,” which addresses the challenge of children being in environments where it's difficult to acquire proper dietary habits and nutritional knowledge. We also distribute the Promoting Food Education app “Mogumogu Town,” where players collect the hidden food character “Mogumin” in daily meals, develop their town, and enjoy learning about food and nutrition. Additionally, for busy modern individuals, we offer services like “Nature Made Supplement Check,” which provides nutritional analysis by photographing meals with a smartphone, and “Womens-Nutrition-Navi,” a nutritional guide designed to support women from the preconception stage through child-rearing years. We convey the importance of nutrition to people of all ages.
We released Mogumogu Town, a nutrition education game that makes learning fun on smartphonesand tablets.
Users take photos of food using their device camera through the Mogumogu Town app, and Mogumincharacters for the ingredients used appear through augmented reality (AR). Answering in-app quizzes aboutnutrition and ingredients allows users to collect these Mogumin characters.
Up to 250,000 types of Mogumin for up to 100 ingredients can appear. As children collect Mogumin anddevelop Mogumogu Town, a town inside their bodies, they can enjoy learning about the importance of dietand nutritional balance, as well as the nutritional points and trivia about each ingredient
Health Management
Companies are promoting health management to improve productivity, maintain employee health, and create an environment where employees can work longer years.
Otsuka is leveraging its knowledge and expertise as a total healthcare company to support corporate health management through four key services that promote health management.To support companies in implementing effective health and productivity initiatives, Otsuka Pharmaceutical launched the "Kenko Shacho (Healthy President)" community website in 2020, guided by the vision of creating a society that supports ongoing employee health. Since then, we have expanded our efforts with services such as "Kenkokeiei Tsunagaru Support ONLINE," which assists with certification and branding; "fitbiz," a program that promotes healthy habits among employees; and, most recently, the Conditioning Supporter Training Program, launched in January of this year to support occupational health professionals including occupational physicians, public health nurses, registered nurses, and dietitians.
In addition, we launched a portal site, Corporate Health Solutions Portal in 2025. This site features and compares these offerings, including Kenkokeiei Tsunagaru Support ONLINE, fitbiz, and Vivoo, a nutritional monitoring service introduced in Japan in September 2024 that is now being adopted by individuals, sports teams, and corporations.. We support healthier workplaces and employee well-being by offering some health services that companies and organizations can select based on their specific health needs and goals.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical prioritizes health management for its employees, recognizing that healthy and dynamic working conditions that allow employees to achieve their full potential lead to growth for both the employees and the company, as well as contribute to society's wellbeing. As a total healthcare company, Otsuka has issued a Health Declaration emphasizing the significance of health and implements various initiatives such as health seminars and exercise programs utilizing the company's health information and resources to enhance the health literacy of its employees.
Total Conditioning for Well-Being
Conditioning plays a vital role in maintaining and enhancing life performance throughout one's lifetime. By practicing conditioning proactively as individuals, supported by various health professionals—including those specializing in the body, mind, medical care, and nursing—we can contribute to improving the well-being of society as a whole.