Abstract
Since a revised Organ Transplantation Act was issued in 2010, brain organ donations in Japan increased to 40 cases a year, from 10. Some loads on organ procurement hospitals have reduced, but others remain or have increased. Therefore the Japan Council of Organ Transplantation Related Academic Societies (J COTRAS) has continually worked to reduce the load on organ procurement hospitals in collaboration with members of the National Diet, such as Dr. Tsutomu Tomioka and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In 2015, five rules were revised to reduce the burden as follows.
1. Confirmation of recipient's intent can be carried out after the first step of determination of the potential donor's brain death. 2. The potential donor can be transferred to another hospital to perform organ procurement if the hospital is directly connected physically to the donor hospital. 3. The legal determination of the potential donor's brain death can be helped by a physician who belongs to the other hospital. 4. The regulation of determination method of a so-called brain-dead condition is relaxed. 5. The amount of papers required for submission to the government's Verification Committee can be reduced if the donor hospital has experienced a brain-dead organ donation within the preceding five years and the donor is more than 18 years of age.
