As an example for the whole island kingdom, special attention is paid to the health care of the population. The mountainous prefecture boasts that its residents eat far more vegetables than the national average every day. According to the motto “prevention is better than treatment”, doctors and nurses began to be sent to the villages for regular examinations shortly after the Second World War, says Shusuke Natsukawa, honorary director of the Saku Central Hospital in Nagano. Today, such group surveys are common in corporations and communities across Japan.
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On a nearby wooded hilltop, Satoko Fujioka runs an innovative medical facility that, in cooperation with Natsukawa’s hospital, organizes home visits and at the same time offers young and old a creative community space. Surrounded by books, musical instruments and toys, professionals look after disabled children in the cozy wooden house, while elderly women voluntarily cook for everyone next to them. “A place with a clinic and a large kitchen,” Fujioka describes her “hotch lodge” with a smile.