On June 9th, JMEA delivered our petition for public assistance for ME patients with nearly 35,000 signatures to the 71 Diet members from both houses of the Japanese Diet who agreed to introduce the petition during this year’s extended Diet term. Deliberations on the petition are planned for end of the term. Some Diet members were in their offices when we arrived to deliver the signatures, and we were able to hand the petition to those members directly.
We gathered the signatures thanks to the combined efforts of many individuals since July 2014. The signatures were collected not only by ME patients and their families, but by many people who learned about ME for the first time and who wished to help bring about improvement in ME patients’ lives. We are deeply grateful to each individual who contributed to the petition.
The 2014 Ministry of Health ME/CFS patient survey exposed the serious situation of ME patients in Japan. Having come close last year with the petition being adopted by the House of Councillors’ in 2014, we will strength our efforts to realize the adoption of the petition by the House of Representatives in 2015.
Japan ME Association 