In two Japanese cohorts the PNPLA3 rs738409 variant was significantly associated with NAFLD (OR: 1.66, 95% CI 1.43–1.94, p = 1.4x10−10), and, in particular, a more severe histological subtype (Kawaguchi et al., 2012; Kitamoto et al., 2013), with similar findings in a large Korean cohort (Chung et al., 2018). The gene discussed is PNPLA3; the disease is metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease.