The Journal of Occupational Health from 1959 to 2016

Historical origins of the Journal of Occupational Health (JOH) can be traced back to a series of events last century which paved the way for research and preventive efforts in Japanese occupational health. Japan’s first official legislation to protect the health of workers (the Mines Act) was promulgated in 1905, for example; followed by the Factory Act of 1911, which was enforced in 1916. In 1921 the first research institute to study the medical and psychological aspects of worker’s health (the Kurashiki Institute for Science of Labor) was founded, followed 8 years later by formation of the Japan Association of Industrial Health (JAIH) which held its first meeting in 1929. Gito Teruoka (1889-1966), foundation Director of the Kurashiki Institute, was elected first Chairman of the JAIH Board and had done much to establish both organizations 3 ) . International outreach in occupational health was also expanding during this time, with Tomoyoshi Ishikawa from the Industrial Hygiene Section of the Institute of Public Health, being one of the first Japanese researchers appointed to the Editorial Board of an American occupational health journal (in 1936). Japan experienced a dramatic recovery following the Second World War, and the immediate postwar period was seminal in the development of modern occupational health for a few reasons. Firstly, it was accompanied by some major advances in workplace protections including the Labor Standards Law and the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Insurance Law, which were both promulgated in 1947. Secondly, the academic dissemination of research was also expanding around this time, with the JAIH first publishing an association journal in 1946, and the National Institute of Industrial Health publishing a bulletin of research findings from their institute beginning in 1958. The JOH was officially launched by the JAIH in February of the following year (1959) with a dual title: Sangyō Igaku / Japanese Journal of Industrial Health. Bogo Koinuma ( 1891-1980 ) was appointed founding Editor-in-Chief, although he would only remain in this role for the first 4 issues of the journal in 1959. Koinuma had originally graduated in medicine from Tokyo Imperial University (later, the University of Tokyo) in 1917 and had become a Professor at Nagoya Medical University in 1935. Koinuma moved to Nippon University in 1956 and would later serve as 3rd President of the JAIH for 11 years, between 1959 and 1969. Interestingly, although Sangyō Igaku mainly published manuscripts in Japanese, Volume 1 in 1959 did include two English-language articles written by Osamu Nishikaze from the Research Institute for Tuberculosis in Hokkaido University. The journal’s Editorial Board went through various changes over the following decades, and a full list of Editors-in-Chief from 1959 to 1994 is shown in Table 1. The JAIH had also changed its name to the Japan Society for Occupational Health (JSOH) during this period after combining with the Japan Society of Industrial Medicine in 1971 ) . The 1970 s would ultimately prove to be a defining era in Japanese occupational health, particularly following enactment of the Industrial Health and Safety Law of 1972. Government bulletins with technical guidelines for assessments were also introduced during this decade (in 1976), and the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (UOEH) was established in 1978. Later (in 1981), the UOEH began holding annual symposiums with a particular emphasis on occupational health and preventive medicine. By the early 1990s, Japanese occupational health was expanding its international outreach and the proposal for an English-language version of the official JSOH publication was being seriously considered 15 ) . Tentative steps were taken, with an English-language version of the Instructions for Authors being included from 1991 onwards, with the intention of attracting new manuscripts from overseas. By early 1993, Yasuhiro Takeuchi (Editor-inPublished online in J-STAGE March 31, 2016 Correspondence to: D. R. Smith, University of Newcastle, Australia (email: [email protected])