The World NTD Day Japan Preparatory Committee held a special webinar event on January 30th, 2026, for “World NTD Day” to raise understanding and interest in Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of 21 infectious diseases designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Approximately 1.5 billion people are at risk of infection, particularly those in communities in low- and middle- income countries, and these diseases can have a tremendous impact on their health and lives. Despite the huge needs in terms of health technologies for diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs, NTDs are under-researched, under-treated and under-funded.

The webinar began with some words from Osamu Kunii (CEO & Executive Director of the GHIT Fund), Junichi Takahashi (Director, Office of Global Health Cooperation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), and Daisuke Imoto (DNDi Japan and Business Development Director, DNDi). GHIT Fund CEO Osamu Kunii said, "We need to see NTDs as a personal issue. To do that, we must first learn about the problems involved, and then put that knowledge into action.” He talked about how the new perspectives of the young participants in the webinar and contest would shape the future of NTD efforts.

The second part of the event was the awards ceremony for the Third Neglected Tropical Diseases Contest, a contest open to students from junior high school to graduate school level which was organized by the NTDs Youth Organization. Award winners, selected from among 75 participants in 37 teams in the A and B categories, were announced. Social media judging took place over the course of 13 days, from December 27, 2025, to January 8, 2026. Submissions were viewed a total of 8,230 times (up from 7,346 times last year), and by being widely shared online, this year’s submissions provided people with even more opportunities to learn about NTDs. The final round of judging was conducted on January 10th at the University of Tokyo’s Ito International Research Center in Tokyo. Members from the industrial, government, academic, and civil sectors involved in NTD activities performed final judging and selected the recipients of the Grand Prize in the A and B categories, along with other awards.

The GHIT Partnership & Innovation Award went to a high school student who created a card game that made learning about neglected tropical diseases fun. The game was highly praised for its card structure, which is based on a deep understanding of the 21 diseases, and the innovations and ideas that make the game easy to pick up.

Winning submissions:

https://worldntdday.jp/contest2026#award2025

 

 

 

(The final round of presentations)

 

 

In the third part of the event, a panel discussion titled “Next Generation NTDs: The Transformative Power of AI and Technology,” participants introduced examples of Japanese innovations that used AI and technology to combat NTDs. One speaker, Masahiro Yamaguchi of SORA Technology Co., Ltd., discussed mosquito-borne infectious disease countermeasures that used drones and AI. Shintaro Nakayama of OUI Inc. introduced measures for performing remote diagnosis and combatting medical inequality through the use of a smartphone-based ophthalmological treatment device. Throughout the panel discussion, there was a palpable sense of the tremendous hopes participants had for the future as they discussed the current results of efforts in infectious disease and health fields, including NTDs.

The webinar and contest not only gave participants, especially the younger generation, a deeper understanding of NTDs, but it also created a new sense of expectation for the possibilities of new technologies and surprised participants with what AI and technology were being used to accomplish. Many of the award winners expressed a desire to keep up with NTD developments and to continue thinking about this issue. The event provided precious opportunities that could lead to new, concrete action and perspectives by members of the next generation, contributing to the future. Watch a video of the webinar and award ceremony from the link below (in Japanese only).

Video( in Japanese only)

Event Website　( in Japanese only)

2026 World NTD Day website:https://worldntdday.jp/contest2026

World NTD Day Japan Preparatory Committee partners:https://worldntdday.jp/organization

References:

GHIT Fund support for the Third Neglected Tropical Diseases Student Contest
https://www.ghitfund.org/newsroom/events/detail/527/en