Japanese hospitals have performed more than 200 organ transplants involving brain-dead donors since such procedures became legal in 1997.
The law initially applied only to donors who gave consent to use their own tissue, but a revision in July 2010 allowed next of kin to authorize organ removal even when the wishes of the donor are unknown, rapidly increasing organ availability.
The 200-case milestone was reached Nov. 14 when a man in his 20s suffering from encephalopathy was declared brain dead at a hospital in the Kinki region. His organs were extracted and transplanted the same day.