East Asia/Pacific Regional Office

Overview

The CDC East Asia and Pacific (EAP) Regional Office is strategically located in Tokyo, Japan and works across an expansive region to strengthen global health security disease detection and response. CDC enhances strategic collaboration bilaterally and multilaterally to address regional health security.

The EAP Regional Office fosters stronger collaboration and partnerships, improving the ability to detect public health threats across the region and stop them at their source. Additionally, it improves information exchange and shared best practices within the region. These efforts bolster regional and U.S. global health security.

Key areas of focus

Working together, CDC and partners will:

• Strengthen collaboration and partnerships with partner governments, international organizations, academia, and other public and private partners to improve regional and global health security.

• Improve detection and rapid response to emerging threats and diseases of public health importance.

• Improve knowledge and information exchange between U.S. CDC and the region on effective public health practices and public health threats.

Regional goals

U.S. CDC and partners are collaborating to:

• Enhance existing and develop new partnerships to advance health security priorities.

• Strengthen capability of the public health workforce.

• Strengthen the capacity of governments to effectively respond to public health emergencies.

• Enhance use of data to improve public health response and development of policy.

• Strengthen surveillance systems to better understand and predict disease trends.

• Promote science and innovation in public health.

• Strengthen public health laboratories.

• Improve ability of countries in the region to address vaccine preventable diseases.

• Work to eliminate diseases of public health importance.

The 2026 U.S.-Japan Health Security Committee Meeting

U.S. CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response joined several Japanese health agencies in Tokyo, Japan, for the 4^th U.S.-Japan Health Security Committee meeting to strengthen bilateral preparedness for public health emergencies. Japanese counterparts included the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Cabinet Agency for Infectious Disease Crisis Management, and the Japan Institute for Health Security.

The group discussed public health planning for mass gatherings such as the World Cup, preparedness against attacks involving dangerous materials or weapons, and response to infectious disease outbreaks, including hantavirus and Ebola. Participants also advanced three areas of ongoing collaboration: medical countermeasures, health emergency management, and epidemic intelligence and information sharing.

Building upon this information-sharing and collaborative work, participating health officials held a tabletop exercise examining how each country detects cases, shares outbreak information, and coordinates resources during a public health response. The exercise highlighted areas for continued collaborations, including bilateral notification processes, internal and external communications, sample sharing, and the triggers that formally activate a joint emergency response.

These efforts advance U.S-Japan commitments made during the March Head of State bilateral meeting to strengthen outbreak detection and response. The United States and Japan will continue building on this cooperation when the committee reconvenes in the U.S. in 2027.

Resources