Revitalizing Japan's biomedical ecosystem: Policy initiatives, challenges, and future directions

Japan's international competitiveness in biomedical innovation is declining, as evidenced by its expanding trade deficit in pharmaceuticals. One reason for this is that the ecosystem connecting academic research outcomes to startups and new businesses, and promoting commercialization and industrial applications is not functioning adequately. Recently, the Japanese government has implemented policy measures to revitalize biomedical ecosystems. This study reviews the current state and characteristics of the biomedical ecosystems in Japan. Several biomedical ecosystems, both with and without geographic concentration, have been established and operated over the past 25 years, most of which are relatively small-scale and driven by governments. Recently, the Japanese government has aimed to form larger biocommunities, including biomedical innovations, to expand the bioeconomy. This study discusses these policy initiatives and their associated challenges. Furthermore, it outlines recent government initiatives to strengthen the drug discovery ecosystem, which focuses on attracting talent, companies, and new drug developers from overseas. Based on these analyses, this study addresses the challenges faced by Japan's biomedical ecosystem and discusses future directions.