A research report produced by an Australian economics consulting firm claims to be the first study to quantify the burden of visual impairment in Japan. The research, aimed at policymakers and published in Arch Ophthalmol (Vol. 128, No. 6, pp766-771), reports the direct and indirect healthcare costs attributable to visual impairment. The existence of extensive health and financial data in Japan may now be used to assess and model the economic benefits of new preventive or treatment strategies.