Sufficient persistence with therapy is important to achieve the desired benefits of antihypertensive therapy. This study was designed to describe the rates of persistence with antihypertensive therapy for 1 year and to assess the effect of patient education by a periodic newsletter on persistence rates in general practice in Japan. Information on 5,324 patients who received the newsletter once a month for 1 year (intervention group; 53.9% of those originally registered) and 666 patients who did not receive the newsletter (control group; 94.3% of those originally registered) was obtained from a physician questionnaire (response rate: 54.3%). The rate of persistence with antihypertensive therapy in the intervention group was similar to that in the control group (91.7% vs. 90.7%, respectively). The patient questionnaire (response rate: 28.2%) indicated that most patients consistently read the newsletter and found it useful in understanding the management of hypertension. The results of this 1-year study showed that about 90% of patients persisted with therapy for 1 year. Although most of them evaluated the newsletter favorably, no clear effect of the newsletter on their persistence with therapy was revealed. However, these results do not rule out a possible effect of education on persistence with therapy over the long-term, and thus there is need of a longer-term study employing follow-up questionnaires.