The Total Health Care for Artists Japan (THCA Japan) is the initiative in Japan to provide artists with various health care supports, to establish their profession as artists, and to promote development of the arts medicine and science field. According to the population census (2000), there are 270,000 survey respondents who identified themselves “artists”. It may be a public notion that artists generally lead a happy life in the limelight. However, this notion does not reflect the reality. Most artists actually face many challenges pertaining to their work and health, which obstructs establishment and development of artists' career. There are three major issues which are deep-seated in the society.
First, most artists earn quite low income under the very poor system of employment and of social security. Therefore, their talent and effort are seldom rewarded despite their special skills and hard work.
Second, incidence of injuries caused by their occupation is very high, especially in the dance field. What is worse, the medical expenses for their treatment are quite expensive since insurance mostly never covers costs for rehabilitation and body conditioning. There is also little compensation for the injured artists. Therefore, they often cannot afford to take care of their bodies, in spite of the fact that healthy body is an essential condition for artists.
Third, artists require specialized health care to prevent and overcome injuries and to improve their performance just like athletes. However, the field of arts medicine and science has not been fully established in Japan so that artists and students are still struggling with finding appropriate information and treatment, working through their injuries. Therefore, accumulation of information and research in arts medicine and science is essential to develop the field and improve this situation.
“Invigorate Japanese art community! Enrich Japanese society with arts and culture!”
Thus, the THCA Japan is determined to support artists in terms of health care to develop their talent, establish their profession as professional artists, develop the arts medicine and science field, and prolong artists' career. We hope this project will also contribute to enrichment of our life and bring the bright future to not only artistic circles but also the entire Japanese society. |