- Global Health
September 18, 2026
Eisai is engaged in various initiatives aimed at contributing to the health of people around the world, including improving access to medicines in developing countries and developing treatments for neglected tropical diseases. As part of these efforts, members of our Sustainability Department visited after-school childcare facilities during summer vacation to help kids learn about global health.
Around the world, there is a group of diseases known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which are prevalent primarily in tropical and subtropical regions. NTDs are closely associated with various social factors, including sanitation, access to healthcare, and poverty. Their impact extends beyond health, restricting opportunities for education and employment.
During these visits, we aimed to raise awareness regarding these global health-related social challenges, including schools and school meal programmes around the world, infection prevention measures such as handwashing, and diseases prevalent in different regions, through quizzes and games in order to consider together how these issues are connected to our daily lives. Together with the children, we reflected on what is happening around the world, how it is connected to those of us living in Japan, and what we can do ourselves.
The children raised many curious and candid questions, as well as sharing a range of imaginative ideas that you would be unlikely to hear from adults. For example, when asked, “What could you do if someone needed to take medicine but did not have access to clean water?” their answers ranged from the charmingly imaginative “Make a teru-teru-bozu (a traditional Japanese handmade doll believed to bring good weather) to make it rain!” to “Send clean water from Japan!”
What was particularly striking through these conversations was how the children understood global challenges not simply as something happening in “faraway countries,” but rather as issues connected in some way to their own lives.
By the time today’s children grow up and become active members of society, learning, working, and living alongside people from different national and cultural backgrounds will likely be even more commonplace than it is today. Recognizing what is happening around the world, understanding how it connects to their own lives, and reflecting on diverse members of society and social challenges are valuable experiences for children as they prepare for the future. We hope that this initiative will inspire the children to take a greater interest in the world around them.
These visits also provided us with many new insights, allowing us to refresh our perspectives on the global health challenges we work on every day, through the children’s imaginative ideas and creative viewpoints.
We will continue our efforts to contribute to the health of people worldwide, while discussing global health with people from various generations and backgrounds.
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