Many people in Japan dying of lung cancer?

So this isn't just happening with my wife's family, but I thought I would share this story to show just how common lung cancer is in Japan.

About 3 years ago, my wife's uncle died of lung cancer, then my wife's father died 2 years ago from lung cancer and just today she told me that her aunt was diagnosed with lung cancer.

So my wife's father died from small cell lung cancer which was from constantly inhaling small particles from his construction job, which he had for decades.

As for her uncle and aunt, they have a really short history of smoking, but it seems strange that they developed lung cancer many years after quitting.

I even read a health and science article on Japan that mentioned even as early as 1999, lung cancer surpassed stomach cancer as the country's 4th leading cause of death. Stomach cancer, which is still super common is ranked at 5th leading cause of death.

So my question is...if you aren't a big smoker...what is the cause of lung cancer here in this country?

It seems like a genetic problem, but that is still different from developing the disease through hereditary because even if some people carry a predisposition...there still needs to be a trigger for it to develop right?

big smoker or little smoker. you are still smoking. and second hand smoke up until recently was fairly excessively common. since most restaurants still have smoking area or floors, you still breathe that crap in your lungs.

Yeah, Japan is full of enclosed spaces with smoking. It's like going to Vegas, completely unavoidable.

Yes, all this is true.

Good thing I always eat at my apartment and I only eat a restaurants here in Japan a few times a year.

I do my best to avoid second-hand smoke and I don't smoke and drink either.

I know that stress can lead to cancer as well, so been staying relaxed everyday.

It is just alarming how common lung cancer is.

It's just around you, my Japanese husband's family doesn't smoke, he doesn't either, neither do his coworkers, so there isn't cases of lung cancer from who I know, none of them have lung cancer, but I do know that alot of Japanese smoke, it just happens everyone I know doesn't smoke, maybe because I know alot of people with masters or phd degrees, but I have seen in public the smoker type people I just don't personally know any Japanese who smoke.

I'm a Japanese resident, and I too don't personally know anyone who has suffered lung cancer as opposed to other types of cancer, but just from a quick internet search, we can see that lung cancer shares about the second or third percentage of cancers in Japan.

It is said that one of the major reasons can be air pollution, and like any cancer, check-ups help you start the cure at an early stage. I think most municipals provide financial support for check-ups for those over a certain age.

I think it's more common for people in Japan to get stomach cancer because of the large consumptions of rice in the Japanese diet.

Sorry to hear about your wife�fs aunt. Hope she is getting good treatment.

Actually it seems that lung cancer due to smoking incidence rates in Japan are slightly lower than elsewhere:
http://wclc2017.iaslc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-WCLC-Fact-Sh...

https://www.verywellhealth.com/the-japanese-lung-cancer-smoking-parado...

You can also get lung cancer if you never smoked and aren't in construction. I believe radon can also be a cause.

My aunt is the USA has lung cancer. We don't know how she developed it. She never smoked and always ate a healthy diet and is thin.

There are a lot of unknowns with cancer. I am sorry about your aunt.

@rkold Thanks, I am sorry about your aunt as well.

@Like Bike Yes, that is true. I did notice this even before making this post. Thanks for saying that. I hope she survives as it seems most people don't because they find out when they are already stage III or IV.

@butterfly Although stomach cancer is super common, statistics show that lung cancer has actually surpassed stomach cancer.

@Uco I was actually thinking about this as well. I know pollution from China carries over into Japan and there is also a lot of pollution within big cities like Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, etc. Actually, I'm going to check if lung cancer is a problem in China, because places like Beijing have pollution levels that are way off the charts. Much much worse than Japan.

Lung cancer is indeed a big problem in China. And air pollution also includes things like radiation and heavy metal.

It's an interesting question. However, pathologists, oncologists and others who work in the field can seldom explain definitively why any one person gets cancer. Both environmental and genetic factors can be involved.

I think it's more common for people in Japan to get stomach cancer
because of the large consumptions of rice in the Japanese diet.

Please post a link to relevant research. I would like to see it.

Actually, in the past, when talc was regularly used to polish rice, the talc often contained asbestos fibers, and asbestos is a known carcinogen. So for years there was considerable speculation about a link, such as this:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5098957

However, the high incidence of gastric cancer in Japan still remains largely unexplained.

For many cases, research now points strongly to a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori, which seems to be particularly virulent in Asia, and if you have an annual physical exam in Japan, your physician may recommend that you have a test for H. pylori. It's a fairly routine exam at our clinic.

Just to add as an ordinary resident, the pylori theory explained by E. Ryojin is very commonly known among us middle-aged Japanese residents, because the older generation tends to carry pylori since they grew up when hygiene was less sophisticated in Japan. As mentioned, it's easy to have yourself checked to see if you carry pylori or not, and if you do carry them, it can be easily taken away by medical treatment.

if you live longer, you will have more chance to get cancer diseases or you will have more possibility to die by cancer diseases.