When did Japan end the mandatory childhood vaccine schedule?
Japan ended its mandatory childhood vaccination schedule in 1994. The Immunization Act was amended to shift from mandatory to recommended vaccinations, making them voluntary. However, the Japan Pediatric Society still recommends a vaccination schedule starting at birth, and local governments often cover costs for those following it.
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Do you have data regarding the number of reported sudden infant death in Japan?
Data on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in Japan shows a declining trend in recent years, though specific numbers vary by source and time period. Below is a summary of the most relevant and recent data available:
1995–1998: A study analyzing vital statistics reported 1,859 SIDS cases out of 4,787,537 live births, yielding a mortality rate of 0.388 per 1,000 live births.
1990–1991 (Kanagawa Prefecture): An epidemiological survey found 48 confirmed SIDS cases out of 73 reported sudden infant deaths, with incidence rates of 0.29 per 1,000 live births in 1990 and 0.31 in 1991. When limited to autopsy-confirmed cases, rates were 0.19 and 0.25, respectively.
1984–2004: The SIDS incidence rate decreased from 0.42 per 1,000 live births in 1984 to 0.24 per 1,000 by 2004, attributed to public health campaigns starting in 1996 that promoted safe sleep practices (e.g., avoiding prone sleeping, smoking, and bottle-feeding).
2018: A study estimated the rate of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI), which includes SIDS, at 0.1 per 1,000 live births.
1997: The SIDS incidence rate was reported at 0.44 per 1,000 live births.
1984–1985: Among autopsied cases in forensic medicine departments, SIDS incidence was 0.5% (15 cases out of 3,329 autopsies) in 1984 and 0.6% (20 cases out of 3,150) in 1985, with an overall estimate of 1.2 per 1,000 live births.
Recent Trends (up to 2024): A 2024 study noted that the SIDS incidence rate in Japan has continued to decline over the past 20 years, though exact numbers for recent years are not specified in the available data. The decline is linked to ongoing prevention campaigns.
Notes:
The low autopsy rate in Japan (less than 30% for sudden infant deaths) complicates accurate SIDS diagnosis, as some cases may be misclassified (e.g., coded as R96, "other sudden death, cause unknown," instead of R95 for SIDS). This may lead to underreporting of SIDS cases.
A 2020 study highlighted that Japan’s SUDI rate (including SIDS) is comparable to countries like Australia and Canada, but coding differences may obscure true SIDS rates.
Claims on social media linking the decline in SIDS to the end of mandatory childhood vaccinations in 1994 are inaccurate. Japan continues to recommend vaccinations for infants under 2 years, with high immunization rates (e.g., 96–99% for pneumococcal vaccines between 2011 and 2022). The decline in SIDS is more closely associated with safe sleep campaigns.
Limitations:
Exact numbers for SIDS cases in the most recent years (e.g., 2020–2025) are not readily available in the provided data, as studies focus on trends or specific periods.
Variations in diagnostic criteria, autopsy rates, and coding practices (e.g., R95 vs. R96) affect the reliability of SIDS statistics.
For the most precise and up-to-date figures, accessing Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare vital statistics or recent epidemiological studies would be necessary. If you’d like, I can search for more current data or focus on a specific year or region.
Actually, in Japanese society, you are going to have a much higher rate of compliance with the authority recommended thing that you will in other countries where recommended is taken less seriously.
eg extremely high immunization rates, despite the mandatory aspect being repealed.
Not saying I'm a fan of infant immunization practices, but only that one needs to keep an eye out for confirmation bias.
We should look at the list of vaccines excluded from under 2 years, and compare it with US schedule.. Things might start making sense. Perhaps not all vaccines are equally bad.
I recall watching a film serious about the patriots in the US around the time of the revolution, and how the concept of inoculation was the then cutting edge of medical practice. Risky, but more effective than not.
I think the concept behind vaccines is inoculation, but as soon as it became a big industry driven and controlled by power and $$$$, stuff got twisted and bad.
Off the cuff, I'd say that not all vaccines are equally bad.
Think about it. Plandemic innoculated the Humanity against real biowarfare. Now if they try to start a new plandemic people will revolt. Thats why covid-2 ain't happening.
That every single person wears a mask, or so it seems, signals to me, a person quite ignorant of Japanese culture, that they are not disposed to independent thought.
Independent thought is one thing. independent behavior is another. It's really the latter that is key in the case of Japanese culture.
Did you know, Muck, that even in the 1980's onwards, it was very common practice in both Korea (south) and Japan for people to wear these sorts of face masks in the winter seasons? In Korea, it was often for warmth (can get pretty cold with Siberian winds blowing down in winter), but especially in Japan, it was common that if you had a cold, you wore a mask so as not to spread the germs (coughing, sneezing, breathing, etc) to others.
(I know all this through personal experience, btw)
So there is in fact a very different background to the whole Covid era world wearing masks phenomenon. Much, much more culturally normal for Japanese to wear these masks when Covid hit than a place like Oz or the US or Europe.
Not because of a lack of independent thought, but because in Japanese culture, making others the priority, not impeding others or making problems for others, is an extremely highly ranked cultural value.
From my read of the story, it is not as much claiming some recent move resulted in Japan's sudden deaths declining as it is calling to attention the fact that at some point in time, Japan changed how they vaccinate children, which seem to correlate with a drastic decline in sudden deaths.
Dunno that the change really impacted on actual practice, tho. Two of my kids were vaccinated in Japan, and we never batted an eyelid, even though it wasn't 'mandatory' by then.
Japan’s 1975 Policy: The article states that in 1975, Japan raised the minimum vaccination age to 2 years, after which SIDS "nearly disappeared," citing a 1988 study by Cherry et al. It claims SIDS rates fell from 0.55 per 1,000 live births (1970–1974) to 0.07 per 1,000 (1980–1984).
1994 Policy Change: It mentions Japan’s shift from mandatory to voluntary vaccinations in 1994, suggesting a correlation with reduced infant mortality, but provides no specific SIDS data for this period.
VAERS Data: The article notes that 78.3% of SIDS cases reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) from 1990–2019 occurred within 7 days of vaccination, suggesting a temporal association.
From Grok:
Actually, in Japanese society, you are going to have a much higher rate of compliance with the authority recommended thing that you will in other countries where recommended is taken less seriously.
eg extremely high immunization rates, despite the mandatory aspect being repealed.
Not saying I'm a fan of infant immunization practices, but only that one needs to keep an eye out for confirmation bias.
We should look at the list of vaccines excluded from under 2 years, and compare it with US schedule.. Things might start making sense. Perhaps not all vaccines are equally bad.
What a mess it all is.
I recall watching a film serious about the patriots in the US around the time of the revolution, and how the concept of inoculation was the then cutting edge of medical practice. Risky, but more effective than not.
I think the concept behind vaccines is inoculation, but as soon as it became a big industry driven and controlled by power and $$$$, stuff got twisted and bad.
Off the cuff, I'd say that not all vaccines are equally bad.
Think about it. Plandemic innoculated the Humanity against real biowarfare. Now if they try to start a new plandemic people will revolt. Thats why covid-2 ain't happening.
That every single person wears a mask, or so it seems, signals to me, a person quite ignorant of Japanese culture, that they are not disposed to independent thought.
Independent thought is one thing. independent behavior is another. It's really the latter that is key in the case of Japanese culture.
Did you know, Muck, that even in the 1980's onwards, it was very common practice in both Korea (south) and Japan for people to wear these sorts of face masks in the winter seasons? In Korea, it was often for warmth (can get pretty cold with Siberian winds blowing down in winter), but especially in Japan, it was common that if you had a cold, you wore a mask so as not to spread the germs (coughing, sneezing, breathing, etc) to others.
(I know all this through personal experience, btw)
So there is in fact a very different background to the whole Covid era world wearing masks phenomenon. Much, much more culturally normal for Japanese to wear these masks when Covid hit than a place like Oz or the US or Europe.
Not because of a lack of independent thought, but because in Japanese culture, making others the priority, not impeding others or making problems for others, is an extremely highly ranked cultural value.
Thank you explaining this to me, for telling me of the knowledge you have gained from personal experience.
From my read of the story, it is not as much claiming some recent move resulted in Japan's sudden deaths declining as it is calling to attention the fact that at some point in time, Japan changed how they vaccinate children, which seem to correlate with a drastic decline in sudden deaths.
Dunno that the change really impacted on actual practice, tho. Two of my kids were vaccinated in Japan, and we never batted an eyelid, even though it wasn't 'mandatory' by then.
Grok is wrong more than it's right, in my view.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7135324/#:~:text=Vaccination%20became
What the PMC Article Claims