A law requiring the state to ensure safe, domestically produced supplies of blood products was enacted Thursday following approval by the House of Representatives.
The law stipulates that blood products should be based on blood donated within Japan and that the government must initiate comprehensive policies to ensure a stable supply of safe blood products.
It also gives the government authority to urge manufacturers of blood products to respect its basic stance about supply and its supply-demand plans. The law also requests that doctors "adequately use" blood products.
The bill stems from various debacles, including widespread HIV infection among hemophiliacs, who in the mid 1980s were administered unpasteurized blood products from abroad.
The HIV fiasco developed despite the fact that most countries had begun using safe, pasteurized blood products by the mid 1980s. It is still not clear why Japan continued to use unheated products despite widespread knowledge in the medical field that they posed a great danger.
Japan still depends on imported blood for treating hemophilia, cirrhosis and other illnesses.
The new law will take effect within a year of its promulgation, government officials said.
The Lower House also approved a revised bill for the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, which aims mainly to tighten state control on medicines produced from animal cells, including blood products, in a bid to prevent infection from unknown viruses.
The revised law requires drugmakers to ensure their drug safety assessment system by collecting information about any adverse effects of their products.
It also obliges doctors to inform the government of a drug's adverse effects.