No Liver Transplants Performed at 3 Designated Facilities; Ministry Considering Review of Standards for Certification

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:37 JST, September 30, 2025

Three of the 23 facilities designated nationwide to transplant livers donated by brain-dead individuals have not performed a single transplant in over 2½ years, a Yomiuri Shimbun investigation has revealed.

Organ donations are increasing, but the Yomiuri’s inquiries found that transplants are concentrated at certain facilities while some others do not perform any for long periods of time. Concerned that such facilities may not be able to guarantee the quality of their surgeries, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is considering revising the standards for certifying transplant facilities.

Transplant facilities are certified by a committee of the Japanese Association of Medical Sciences after being reviewed by relevant academic societies for each organ type, based on such criteria as the required number of physicians and experience with highly difficult surgeries.

According to the Japan Organ Transplant Network, an organ allocation agency, 315 liver transplants were performed between January 2023 and August 2025.

An analysis by The Yomiuri Shimbun revealed that three university hospitals — Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Mie University and Kumamoto University — did not perform any transplants during that time.

Mie University said there were no cases eligible for transplantation, while Tokyo Women’s Medical University said it had suspended liver transplants several years ago. Kumamoto University declined to comment.

All three institutions stated that patients awaiting transplants were transferred to other university hospitals and no patients was negatively affected.

The University of Tokyo performed the most liver transplants during the same period with 70 cases, followed by Kyoto University with 38 and Kyushu University with 36. The top five facilities accounted for 196 cases, or 60% of the total.

Requests for organ donations have become concentrated at some facilities, overwhelming their capacity and leading to situations where they had to decline to perform transplants.

“If a patient at a facility where transplants are difficult to perform wishes to undergo a transplant, they may need to seek another facility, risking the loss of their transplant opportunity,” said Keio University Prof. Yukiko Ito, an expert in transplant medicine.

“The government should not leave facility accreditation solely to academic societies but should proactively participate to ensure it can be reviewed based on performance,” Ito said.