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Abstract
In Japan, where a super-aging society is realized, we are most concerned about healthy longevity, which would ascertain the wellness of people by improving their quality of life (QOL). In 2014, the Cabinet Office proposed a strategic innovation promotion programme, launching a national project for the development of the agricultural-forestry-fisheries food products with new functionalities for the next generation. In addition to focusing on a conventional prevention of lifestyle-associated metabolic syndromes, the project targets the scientific evidence of the activation of brain cognitive ability and the improvement of bodily locomotive function. The project also involves the analysis of the foods-sports interrelation of chronic importance, and the development of devices for the verification of QOL-associated maintenance of homeostasis. In this review, we provide an overview of these studies, with special reference to cognition as a case of the gut-brain axis which the author is particularly interested in.
Incollaboration with current studies on functional foods, a new science in the relevant area has started as a national project with four research platforms.
Acknowledgements
The authors give special thanks to Dr. Soichi Arai (Tokyo University of Agriculture) who joined us in pertinent discussions at the time of writing. We also thank the scientists collaborating with us on the SIP project and those working on the gut-brain axis study. These include Dr. Ryuichiro Sato (the University of Tokyo), Dr. Shigenobu Shibata (Waseda University), Dr. Gen-ichiro Soma (Control of Innate Immunity, TRA); Drs. Shota Ushiama, Yoshiro Ishimaru, and Masataka Narukawa (The University of Tokyo); and Drs. Hiroaki Masuzaki and Chisayo Kozuka (University of the Ryukyus).