In the year to March 2023, Mieru screened the sight of 1,016,334 people in seven countries, the first time the programme has passed a million in a year.
Most were schoolchildren, tested in their classrooms by teachers Mieru had trained, using the Landolt chart that every school in Japan uses. Those who needed spectacles received them, free, a median of 29 days later.
Most of the screening is now done by teachers rather than by Foundation staff, which is how the programme has grown from a van and two optometrists in Osaka in 2007.
The programme will now concentrate on what happens after screening, beginning with unannounced visits to see who is still wearing their spectacles.