The Kyushu Chapter represents eight prefectures, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, and Okinawa, and has a total of 1,948 individual members (as of March 2007). Kyushu was quick to establish a society for patients with diabetes, which strives to promote knowledge about the disease and to carry out educational activities. The Chapter has a history of contributing to the advancement of medical care for Japan’s diabetics. For instance, it lobbied for and achieved insurance coverage for self-administered insulin treatments, which had long been the wish of diabetes patients. Furthermore, many advanced studies have been conducted in the Kyushu area, including clinical and epidemiology studies of diabetes like the Hisayama and Kumamoto studies, as well as, more recently, sib-pair method analyses of Type 2 diabetic patients’ disease susceptibility genes.
In addition to holding regional annual academic meetings held every fall, the Kyushu Chapter has been working to advance diabetes research and treatment as well as carrying out educational activities for the public tailored for local characteristics throughout Kyushu.