Hiromichi Kikuchi, the de facto head of the nonprofit organization, 66, of Yokohama, was already serving an eight-month prison term after exhausting his appeals against a 2023 conviction for brokering organ transplants in Belarus without government permission.
Japanese biotechnology startup PorMedTec Co. said Monday that it will conduct Japan’s first clinical trials of pig-to-human kidney transplantation at two hospitals in the country as early as 2028. The two hospitals are Hokkaido University Hospital in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The transplantation of animal organs into humans, known as xenotransplantation, is expected to help address the chronic shortage of donor organs.
The Japanese health ministry is set to begin providing about 470 million yen in aid this fiscal year to medical institutions that conduct a large number of organ transplants from brain-dead patients.
Japan’s health ministry decided on Wednesday to lift restrictions on organ donations from individuals who have stayed in Europe, a measure introduced to combat variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The change is expected to take effect as early as this autumn.
Japan’s health ministry decided on Wednesday to lift restrictions on organ donations from individuals who have stayed in Europe, a measure introduced to combat variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The change is expected to take effect as early as this autumn. Previously, the ministry restricted blood donations from people who had stayed in Britain or elsewhere in Europe between 1980 and 2004 and imposed similar restrictions on organ donations.
Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry this year started rolling out an online system to enable about 70 institutions with minimal experience in the processes behind organ donations from brain-dead patients to connect with core medical institutions that have abundant experience. The initiative seeks to help the inexperienced institutions with declaring patients as brain dead and is part of an effort to increase the number of organ donations in the country.
Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry this year started rolling out an online system to enable about 70 institutions with minimal experience in the processes behind organ donations from brain-dead patients to connect with core medical institutions that have abundant experience.
A total of 509 patients in Japan gave up on organ transplant operations last year because hospitals were unable to carry out such procedures, a health ministry survey showed Tuesday. It was the first time the government conducted a fact-finding survey on the matter. A total of 3,706 people could not receive transplant operations last year, including 509 cases caused by reasons attributed to hospitals, such as the lack of hospital staff and insufficient space in intensive care units needed for operations.
Currently, over 14,000 people in Japan are waiting for a kidney transplant — by far the largest group when classified according to organ — with an average waiting period of 14 years and nine months. That compares with an average wait time of three to five years among 90,000 patients in need of kidney transplants in the United States.
Japan’s key organ transplant network has invalidated the organ donation wishes of all individuals officially recognized as being intellectually disabled, the health ministry said Wednesday.
According to the operational guidelines of Japan’s organ transplant law, if a mentally disabled individual aged 15 or older lacks the capacity to express valid intent, organ removal should not be carried out.
However, the guidelines also state that an individual’s attending physician should assess whether their disability prevents them from expressing meaningful intent.
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