Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the awards ceremony for the Akahige Grand Prize of the Japan Medical Association held in Tokyo.

The Prime Minister said in his address,
"I understand that all of the award recipients have been engaged in medical activities for many years and are all indispensable to their respective communities.
What we need from community medicine today is not simply the treatment of illnesses, but access to a 'personal physician.' These are people residents can consult with about any health-related issue and who help local residents live with peace of mind.
I understand this year's recipients include a physician who has been working his fingers to the bone to safeguard the health of residents 24 hours a day in sparsely-populated areas and remote islands, a physician who established a network of experts across organizations, and a physician who is leading a hospital and is at the forefront of team medicine.
Your noble sense of mission and ability to take action to protect community medicine truly makes each of you a 'Dr. Akahige' (a famous doctor from a film by Akira Kurosawa) of the contemporary era.
Thanks also to the immense contributions made by everyone in the medical community, Japan has established itself as a leading nation in terms of longevity that is unequalled anywhere else in the world, based on a system of universal health insurance. Medicine can be considered one of Japan’s assets, and as such, in order to make further advancements in this field, the Government has currently positioned medicine as a pillar of the growth strategy. 
It is important for us to aim for cutting-edge medicine, including the development of the latest medical technologies and medical equipment. However, above all, the Japanese medical system cannot be sustainable without the existence of 'personal physicians' like yourselves who are standing close by and watching over the people.
The Japanese population will continue to age even further and the people's expectations towards medicine will grow even higher. I believe having access to locally active 'personal physicians' will become even more important for people who wish to remain in their current homes, in the communities they are accustomed to living in. I believe the prizes you have received will provide encouragement to other physicians throughout Japan who are engaged in community medicine and are working hard day and night without drawing attention to themselves. The Government will make further efforts to enhance community medicine."