New Japanese Prime Minister Vows Changes to Healthcare

The Japanese government has recently taken steps to speed up its regulatory process for medical devices, and has signaled increased willingness to streamline product approval efforts. The outcome of the country’s recent election has many industry watchers wondering how new leadership will help or hinder the progress made so far.

In September, Japan’s opposition leader, Yukio Hatoyama, was elected as the nation’s 93rd prime minister. At the Sept. 16 parliamentary special session, Hatoyama won 327 out of 480 available ballots. He has promised to reinvigorate the country’s economy and shake up its government. Hatoyama unveiled a cabinet, which primarily consists of key members of the left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which ended more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

In August, the DPJ won a landslide victory in the election for the House of Representatives—the lower house of the Diet, Japan’s Congress. DPJ won 308 seats, increasing 193 seats from previous election, while LPD lost 181 seats, totaling 119 seats. Members of the DPJ also won the election of the House of Councilors last year and became the leading party, but it did not reach a majority in the House of Councilors. To build a bipartisan coalition, the new prime minister has reached out to members of other parties to fill spots in his cabinet.

The newly elected prime minister’s principal political philosophy is called “Yuai,” the Japanese word for fraternity.

Hatoyama has positioned himself as different from the aged politicians in the LDP. Nicknamed “Alien,” perhaps because of his different world of ideas, if not his unconventional appearance, Hatoyama has attacked the LDP, criticizing the party’s political focus as “cemented hardware,” and attacking elite government bureaucrats.

Yoshio Mitsumori is the president and CEO for Tokyo-based ADMIS, a consultant specializing in the medical device industry. He has more than 25 years of experience in the medical industry, including positions with the Itochu Corp., U.S. Surgical, National Medical Enterprises and Century Medical. A member of RAPS, he has spoken at many industry events and worked extensively in international trade of medical products and technologies. He can be reached at [email protected].