Due to the westernization of Japanese lifestyle and the advancement of aging population of Japan, lifestyle related diseases have increasingly become a serious social concern. Taking measures against lifestyle related diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which are important risk factors for serious illnesses, is becoming more and more important. Given this situation, research into causes, treatment and prevention of lifestyle related diseases has been conducted at many medical institutions and it is very important to continue such research.

This program is designed to provide scholarships for researchers living in Japan to study at universities or research institutes outside of Japan with the goal of conducting research in the lifestyle related disease area. We hope this program helps top talent researchers to achieve research results at foreign institutes so that they can greatly contribute to the maintenance and improvement of people's health.

In FY 2014 the program scope was expanded from the "circulatory system research" to the "lifestyle related disease research".