Licensed Entity Eyed to Assist Organ Transplant Mediation, Fujita Health Univ. Plans to Apply to Health Ministry

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, October 26, 2025

Fujita Health University in Aichi Prefecture will establish an entity with its partners as early as November to apply to the health ministry for a license to operate organ transplant mediation services.

If it is approved as a body dedicated to explaining organ donation and obtaining consent from families of would-be donors, it will be the first case in which the tasks of the Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOT) are partially transferred under the medical transplantation system reform being promoted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. A new entity could begin operations as early as within the current fiscal year.

In medical transplantation, the JOT handles explaining organ donation to family members of patients wishing to donate organs, as well as selecting would-be recipients of donated organs, among other relevant tasks.

However, with the JOT’s workload strained, the ministry has stepped up reforms to transfer some operations to entities in each region, launching a solicitation for such entities in late September.

The university will establish a general incorporated association with a transplant promotion group among others in the Chubu region to apply for a license to conduct organ transplant mediation services based on the Organ Transplant Law.

The ministry will decide whether to issue the license after hearing from a third-party organization.

An envisaged entity will employ several nurses and staff with previous experience at the JOT. When it gets contacted by hospitals in Aichi, Mie, Shizuoka, Gifu, Fukui, Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures about patients wishing to donate organs, it will dispatch staff to assist the families. It will also be in charge of bringing in doctors from other hospitals for harvesting organs and securing organ transport methods.

The ministry plans to subsidize the new entity’s labor costs and equipment purchases.

In September, medical professionals nationwide attended a meeting the ministry held to explain about the establishment of such entities.

Fujita Health University Hospital has one of the highest numbers of organ transplants from brain-dead donors in Japan. When a patient shows signs of brain death, the hospital has been providing family members with options regarding organ donation as a preliminary step before a formal explanation. It concluded that the expertise it has cultivated can be applied to the operations of a new entity.