Four medical institutions have been approached by individuals and organizations that appeared to be organ transplant brokers, the health ministry said after surveying hospitals following a similar case that came to light in November.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said, without providing many details, that it found out about the four cases when it sent written inquiries to hospitals and other medical facilities nationwide in which it instructed them not to cooperate with illegal transplant brokers and urged them to report suspicious cases.
All four institutions declined requests from suspected transplant brokers over the last few years, the ministry said. Two of the institutions are hospitals in the Kanto and Kinki regions.
The ministry surveyed nearly 250 facilities following the revelation that a man suspected of illegally brokering organ transplants overseas approached a doctor at Kanagawa University Hospital in Ishikawa Prefecture last November for cooperation in helping a patient there receive a transplant in China.
The organ transplant law prohibits transplants being arranged without government permission. The Japan Organ Transplant Network is the sole organization certified as an intermediary.
In written instructions issued Monday, the ministry warned facilities to be careful when issuing referral letters because patients could be exploited by illegal organ transplant brokers.
The ministry also referred to ethical guidelines set by the Japan Society for Transplantation, which prohibits the use of organs taken from executed prisoners both at home and abroad, and asked the medical facilities to notify patients of the potential ethical problems presented by transplant brokers.
Japanese patients are allowed to go to the United States and Europe to receive organ transplant procedures after obtaining letters of referral from their physicians at home.