[Pressing issues and future plans for immunization practice in Japan].

An outbreak of adult measles in 2007 in Japan revealed the poor immunization strategy that active implementation has not been conducted for fear of prosecution in vaccine adverse events. After 2000, many amendments in immunization law were promulgated but did not always provide a favorable circumstance for immunization schedule. Especially, the discontinuation of recommendation of Japanese encephalitis vaccine was decided soon after the occurrence of serious neurological adverse event and seemed a big fault for the prevention of illness in a long run. These are liable to cause misunderstanding for shirking the responsibilities. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was organized to discuss and consider the future immunization strategy in many countries besides USA. In Japan, we should organize the steering committee to manage the immunization law with flexibility in order to cope with the infectious diseases.