Rising myopia burden in Japanese children calls for early public health action
A nationwide claims-based study in Japan has documented the escalating prevalence of myopia among children aged ≤14 years, adding to mounting evidence of a growing vision health crisis across East Asia.
Key Findings:
- Among approximately 15 million children aged ≤14 years in Japan, 36.8% had myopia as of October 2020, with prevalence rising sharply from 19.4% at age 6 to 83.2% at age 14.
- The prevalence of high myopia increases with age, peaking at 0.46% in children aged 10–14 years, with annual incident cases continuing to grow in both younger (5–9 years) and older (10–14 years) age groups.
- New myopia cases were highest at age 8, with incident rates rising from 853.3 to 910.7 cases per person-year between 2015 and 2020.
- A sharp, sudden increase in new cases was observed in children aged 8–11 in 2020, coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic and associated behavioural changes such as increased screen time.
Reference: Kamei T, Miyake M, Kido A, et al. Annual Trend of Myopia and High Myopia in Children in Japan: A Nationwide Claims Database Study. Ophthalmol Sci. 2025;5(4):100729.
