A possible key to high incidence of type-2 diabetes among Japanese Americans has been uncovered using data from the most ethnically diverse and longstanding study in the world, the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center’s Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) Study. The development of type-2 diabetes has been linked to visceral adipose tissue (VAT) or intra-abdominal fat, particularly in Japanese Americans with ectopic adipose tissue (EAT), excess fat in locations that are not commonly associated with fat storage. This recent finding is one of hundreds informed by data from the MEC since its launch in 1993.