Japan Medical & Nutrition Center

Masako Inoue

I was born and raised in Yotsuya not far from the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, a public park that was developed after the war on the estate of the Naito Clan that served as the lords of Shinshu Takato during Japan’s Edo Period. It was fun as a child to go to the park with my family. It changed with the seasons: cherry blossoms in spring, fresh greenery in summer, tinted foliage in autumn and quiet in winter. Passionate about all kinds of plants and animals, I unconsciously found myself dreaming about becoming a veterinarian. However, when it was time to choose a path, my father opposed it, so at the advice of my homeroom teacher, I enrolled in the Kagawa Education Institute of Nutrition. After graduating, I enrolled in a physiology class at the Showa University School of Medicine where I initially researched electric stimulus and the workings of the human body. Some time thereafter, I went through social change from unbalanced nutritional condition because of insufficient food intake to food satiation. I became interested in clinical nutrition and started thinking that I could do something to help the health of others as a dietician.
Health checkups were instituted as a means of health management in 1963 under the Welfare Law for the Elderly of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (now Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare) and proved very useful towards the early detection of diseases, but I was concerned about this because, since the checkup was centered on testing, there was not enough emphasis on prevention and health improvement. After obtaining a degree, I taught nutritional physiology and, on the side, I began a program called Shokuseikatsu Watching (Watching What You Eat) in which physicians and dieticians would provide continual personal nutritional advice in carefully worded writing, as a way to maximize health checkups by imparting education on dieting alongside the physical exam. I am absolutely thrilled that the government launched this year a special program that combines both health checkups and health guidance, which institutionalized what I had been trying to do for so many years.
I think of rice as a staple that we can be proud of for the way it has been created by the climate and landscape of Japan. It is a very important food that is essential to any diet and can easily be balanced with side dishes and, at the same time, it is an excellent functional food that is rich in high quality essential amino acids and protein. At this symposium, I am hoping that rice protein will be recognized as having a nutritional value and physiological benefits that far surpass several of the vegetable protein foods that I have studied. I would be very happy if the participants from overseas would recognize rice for how it has helped the Japanese to live so long and maintain their health, and become more interested in it.

Hobbies:

Reading, travel, etc.

In Wakayama:

(1) Persimmons, mandarin oranges and other fruits are delicious. I feel somewhat familiar with this area because of my participation in creating a recipe for the “Persimmon-Mikan (mandarin oranges) Juice” sold under the JA Wakayama Kennoh brand, and my part in judging at a Black Bean Recipe Contest sponsored by the Ito Development Bureau. (2) Every time I visited a temple on Mt. Koya, I transcribe Hannya-shingyo (prajna sutra), so I would like to do that again this time.