Generally, what we see coming from the Ministry of Health and Welfare is a bill for services.

FORBES: The Budget Numbers are In, and They are Ugly

The Ministry of Health and Welfare is encouraging this trend by awarding bonus payments to hospitals that get patients out in less than 20 days.

ECONOMIST: Japanese medical suppliers

Not only is the industry a prime candidate for customer-help lines, but the Ministry of Health and Welfare is currently reviewing which drugs can be sold over the counter.

ECONOMIST: Japan��s bell curve

In January the Ministry of Health and Welfare published a new set of figures which suggested that Japan's working population, now 87m, has already peaked, even though the population as a whole, now 126m, is still rising.

ECONOMIST: The trouble with getting old

According to the latest bulletin from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 4, 513 people have been tested so far.

FORBES: Market Scan

As if on cue from the polio success, the ministry of health and family welfare declared, on 16 January, that 2012 would be India's year of intensification of routine immunisation - the customary six vaccinations most people give to their children.

BBC: India's battle to finish off polio

While he was health minister last year, the populist Naoto Kan announced that the Health and Welfare Ministry was in the process of lifting the ban on oral contraceptives.

ECONOMIST: Japan