Top-leading Japanese prefecture for production of medical devices and components

　Fukushima Prefecture has the production sites of Olympus Medical Systems Corp (Aizu Olympus and Shirakawa Olympus corporate divisions). Approximately 70% of their gastrointestinal endoscopes available worldwide are manufactured in Fukushima Prefecture.

　Fukushima Prefecture has major domestic import and production sites of the leading U.S. medical device manufacturers: Johnson & Johnson K.K., Becton, Dickinson and Company. Furthermore, approximately 50 medical device manufactures operate in Fukushima Prefecture such as Novo Nordisk Pharma Ltd., Hakuzo Medical Corp., Fuji Systems Corp., and Tomy Inc.

Medical device related centers through medical-engineering collaboration

NEWCAT: Nihon University College of Engineering Worldwide Research Center for Advanced Engineering & Technology

　NEWCAT was established in April 2002, with an appointment by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), to research next-generation engineering technology to be utilized in society. The center has undertaken a number of huge research projects, which led NEWCAT to initiate collaborative research with medical device manufacturers for commercialization of the university’s haptic (tactile sensor) technology in minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic devices.

　The center is also pursuing the development and commercialization of leading-edge diagnostic and therapeutic devices utilizing outcomes of the research; as well as optical, miniaturization, and information-processing technologies.

Fukushima Medical University

　Clinical studies are actively conducted, mainly at an industry-academia-government regional collaborative research center and medical engineering courses, to commercialize new pharmaceuticals and minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic devices.

• Medical device production gross profit: 97.6 billion yen, ranking 5th nationwide
• Medical device commissioned production gross profit: 18.7 billion yen, ranking 1st nationwide
• Medical device component production gross profit: 12.9 billion yen, ranking 3rd nationwide