May Health Awareness: GME Promotes At-Home Mail-In Testing for Family Health, Hypertension, Smoking, and Preventive Care Gaps

May brings together several occasions related to family and health, including Mother’s Day, Hypertension Day on May 17, and World No Tobacco Day on May 31. Data from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare highlights three major health challenges: an estimated 43 million people in Japan have hypertension, equivalent to roughly one in three adults; the adult smoking rate remains at 14.8%, posing risks not only to smokers but also to family members through secondhand smoke; and while the health checkup rate for company-insured employees is about 90%, the rate for dependents remains around 48%, revealing a major gap in preventive care. GME Co., Ltd. said it will strengthen initiatives targeting family members and dependents who face barriers to medical checkups, such as lack of time or absence of symptoms, by offering mail-in tests that can be completed at home. Since last year, the company has been rolling out mail-in testing services covering lifestyle-related diseases, female hormones, allergies, and cancer risk, and its user base has roughly doubled over the past six months. GME’s lineup includes female hormone tests, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk checkers, lifestyle disease tests, and cancer tumor marker tests. The company highlights three reasons its services are chosen: high-precision analysis at its registered clinical laboratory, fast online results from as early as the day after sample arrival to within several days, and privacy protection through anonymous testing and discreet shipping. GME aims to help people objectively understand their current health status through testing and connect them to medical care when necessary, contributing to a society where anyone can access appropriate self-medication and testing anytime, anywhere. The company notes that the service is not intended to diagnose diseases, but to support self-checking as a complement to medical visits and regular health examinations.