The MMR scare caused a low percentage of mumps vaccination (less than 30%), which resulted in outbreaks in Japan.[112] There were up to 2002 measles caused deaths in Japan while there were none in UK, but the extra deaths were attributed to Japan's application of the vaccine at a later age. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said that the discontinuation had no effect in measles, but also mentioning that there were more deaths by measles while MMR was being used.[113] In 1994 the government dropped the vaccination requirement for measles and rubella due to the 1993 MMR scare.[114][115]:2 Japan is nowadays the only developed country with large measles epidemics. It has been called a "measles exporter" by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[115] As another consequence of the scare, in 2003, 7 million schoolchildren had not been vaccinated against rubella.[116]