Professor Katsunori Kondo

Dr Katsunori Kondo is a Professor of social epidemiology and health policy at the Center for Preventive Medical Science, Chiba University and the President of the Japan Agency for Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES Agency). He is also Head of the Department of Gerontological Evaluation at the Center for Gerontology and Social Science, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology.

He is the Principal Investigator of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES Study), which one of the first prospective cohort studies to investigate the influence of social determinants of health and community social capital on health outcomes among older people. The JAGES Study has been conducted in collaboration with municipalities, with 66 municipalities participating in the most recent 2019-2020 survey, and researchers from 97 universities and research institutes in order to obtain scientific evidence for healthy aging.

He has experience to develop social capital indicators and indicators for monitoring and evaluating the progress of measurements by municipalities for the prevention of long-term care. He is advising national and local governments on utilization of indicators for evidence-based policymaking and PDCA cycle management.

His study team has developed a tool to visualize the data, called JAGES HEART (Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool), in collaboration with the WHO Kobe Centre for monitoring and evaluating the progress and impact of policies by national and local governments.

He has published more than 250 papers in English, 370 papers in Japanese, and more than 20 books, selected as technical adviser to the WHO, WPRO, ministries, and municipalities in Japan, including serving as a member of the meeting on Developing Indicators for Global Age-Friendly Cities Network (August 2012) and Steering Committee for the second joint WHO-UNHABITAT report on urban health (2014–2015). He was honored with Medical Award 2020 of the Japan Medical Association.