The Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) will organize and host a project to produce and publish a special series on Japan in The Lancet in September 2011. The series will examine how Japan has achieved the longest life expectancy in the world and grapple with another half century of universal health coverage since 1961 given new challenges of a rapidly ageing society, emergency of chronic diseases, and escalating health care costs. This project will be governed by a Japanese committee commissioning five theme papers and six commentaries. The Lancet Japan process will bring 40 Asian experts to a major conference in Tokyo in September 2010 to discuss preliminary findings, supplemented by meetings in Bangkok and Japan with the aim of engaging other Asian scientists, especially from China and Southeast Asia.