While this is sure to come as bad news for the increasing number of people in the country suffering from pollen allergy, doctors are urging sufferers to seek proper diagnosis so they can be treated effectively.
Norio Sahashi, chairman of the Palaeontological Society of Japan and director of the Association of Pollen Information, said the high temperatures, low rainfall and abundant sunshine last summer were conducive to producing abundant cedar and cypress flowers.
Sahashi, who travels to different parts of the country to check on the condition of cedar and cypress trees, said pollen levels this year are likely to be around double the average over the past decade in most regions.
"But they will not surpass the levels seen in 2005," when extremely high levels of cedar and cypress pollen were recorded, Sahashi said.
He said northeastern, eastern, central and some parts of western Japan will probably see double the average levels, while levels in the Chugoku region in western Honshu and Shikoku in southwestern Japan will remain around the same as average, and Kyushu in southwestern Japan could even see below-average levels.
Cedar and cypress pollen dispersal, usually from early February to early May and from early March to mid-May, respectively, should commence within the normal range or could start slightly later this year, Sahashi said.
To brace for the coming hay fever season, doctors are recommending early preparations to control and ease symptoms.
People can take simple preventive measures such as wearing masks when outdoors as well as gargling and washing faces after going outside, according to information on the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry website.
Commonly available medications to ease symptoms include antihistamines, decongestants and nasal sprays.
Hay fever can also be suppressed over the longer term by immunotherapy injections that expose sufferers to low levels of allergens so that their bodies can get accustomed by the time the season commences.
But immunotherapy is often accompanied by side effects and is known to be more effective when a sufferer continues treatment over several years, according to Minoru Goto, an allergist who teaches at Nippon Medical School's otorhinolaryngology department.
Goto stressed that as with any other illnesses, it is "important to get tested for hay fever in order to pinpoint the cause so that appropriate treatment can be given."
Just because a person experiences allergic symptoms in the springtime, it does not necessarily mean that that person is allergic to cedar or cypress pollen because there are other allergens around at the same time such as alder pollen, while household dust can cause problems year-round.
There are several ways to test for allergies, including blood tests, skin tests and infusion tests, which involve sufferers actually consuming allergens to test for a reaction.
While it usually takes about a week for sufferers to get the results of blood tests, Goto said there is a new simple testing device being used on a trial basis in Japan that uses a few drops of blood from a fingertip to determine in 20 minutes if a person is allergic to eight common allergens, including cedar pollen and ticks.
Koichi Iwai, president of Phadia K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of a Sweden-based pharmaceutical company that specializes in allergy testing, cited data from a 2009 report on nasal allergies that showed the prevalence of pollen allergies in Japan had increased from 19.6 percent in 1998 to 29.8 percent in 10 years.
To meet the growing need for allergy testing, the company, which also makes the simple testing device, has developed large-scale equipment that enables clinical testing centers to conduct up to 960 regular blood tests in the space of an hour.
"There is definitely an increasing trend in terms of the prevalence of allergies in Japan and around the world, so we're seeing more and more patients in need of allergy testing," said Jean Forcione, chief operating officer of Phadia AB on a recent visit to Tokyo to announce the launch of the equipment.
The "largest-ever instrument in allergy testing" was developed in response to the needs of large Japanese commercial laboratories that "run an immense number of tests that are highly automated and sophisticated, and they were asking us for better solutions to further automate their laboratories," Forcione said.
"Cedar and cypress pollenosis are real issues in Japan and therefore an increase in prevalence (has led to further) need for testing," he added.
As for the future of allergy treatment, Goto of Nippon Medical School mentioned a new immunotherapy method being clinically tested that does not require as many visits to the doctor as the one involving injections because sufferers can take small amounts of allergens, such as by placing pieces of bread soaked with allergens under their tongues.
via Mainichi
