Myopia in a Japanese School

Many people have noticed the high incidence of glasses among Chinese and Japanese populations, worn to correct for myopia (near-sightedness). Alan Macfarlane visits Tsukuba Primary School in Tokyo to watch children at study and being tested. He learns of the extraordinarily high incidence of myopia in Japanese schools from the leading opthamologist, Dr. Takashi Tokoro of Tokyo Medical University. He speculates that the intense close vision caused by myopia may be linked to the famous detailed art and micro-electronics of the Japanese.

movie file size: 4MB.

shot on 14th April, 1999. Camera: Robyn Probyn.