IntroductionIn 1998, the first Japanese practice guidelines on osteoporosis was published. It has been updated several times, with the most recent being the full-scale 2011 edition and its abridged edition. The present guidelines provide information for the managements of primary osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and men over 50 years old, a summary of the evidence for the treatment of secondary osteoporosis, and a summary of the evidence for the prevention of osteoporosis in younger people.MethodThe present Executive Summary is primarily based on the content of the 2011 Japanese abridged edition. One of the key changes is revision of the criteria for initiation of pharmacological treatment, along with an introduction of the fracture risk factors used in FRAX®. Key figures and tables were selected from the Japanese abridged edition and a reference list was added.Result and conclusionsThe essential points of the Japanese practice guidelines on osteoporosis were translated into English for the first time. It is hoped that the content of the guidelines becomes known throughout the world.

Weekly s.c. administration of teriparatide at a dose of 56.5 μg may provide another option of anabolic treatments in patients with osteoporosis at higher fracture risk.

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In 1995, the Japanese Society for Bone and Mineral Metabolism (now the Japanese Society for Bone and Mineral Research) established the Osteoporosis Diagnostic Criteria Review Committee. Following discussion held at the 13th scientific meeting of the Society in 1996, the Committee, with the consensus of its members, proposed diagnostic criteria for primary osteoporosis. The Committee revised those criteria in 1998 and again in 2000. The Japanese Society for Bone and Mineral Research and Japan Osteoporosis Society Joint Review Committee for the Revision of the Diagnostic Criteria for Primary Osteoporosis aimed at obtaining international consistency and made a revised edition based on the new findings in 2012.

We attempted to investigate whether vitamin K 2 (menatetrenone) treatment effectively prevents the incidence of new fractures in osteoporosis. A total of 241 osteoporotic patients were enrolled in a 24-month randomized open label study. The control group (without treatment; n ‫؍‬ 121) and the vitamin K 2 -treated group (n ‫؍‬ 120), which received 45 mg/day orally vitamin K 2 , were followed for lumbar bone mineral density (LBMD; measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry