Japan's ninth set of organ transplant operations got under way Sunday afternoon on two women, one in her 40s and another in her 50s, from organs donated by a brain-dead woman, the Japan Organ Transplant Network said.

Earlier in the day, doctors, including Satoru Todo of Hokkaido University, removed two organs from the donor -- a kidney for the younger woman at the municipal hospital in Sapporo and a liver for the older woman at Kyoto University Hospital, network officials said.

According to the officials, Todo and the other doctors assessed the donor's organs immediately after she was legally pronounced brain-dead on Saturday evening before starting the search for possible recipients. She was in her 60s.

The kidney recipient suffers from chronic glomerulonephritis, a progressive kidney inflammation usually resulting in permanent kidney failure, while the liver recipient suffers from primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic inflammation and fibrosis of all bile ducts.

The donor, who died of subarachnoid hemorrhage at a municipal hospital in Hakodate, Hokkaido, had indicated on an organ-donor card her willingness to donate her organs in the event of brain death. Her family supported her wishes.

The woman's other organs -- heart and lungs -- were deemed medically unsuitable for transplantation, the network officials said, adding that she had already donated one of her kidneys to a family member.

The liver was transported to the hospital in Kyoto by plane and bullet train, while the kidney, airlifted by network officials, arrived in Sapporo just after 10 a.m.

Under the Organ Transplant Law, which took effect in 1997, organs can be extracted from those officially declared brain-dead on condition that they express their willingness on a donor card and indicate the organs they wish to donate. Family members must agree to the transplant operations.

Since organ transplants from brain-dead donors were legalized in 1997 under the Organ Transplant Law, 30 people have received organs in eight transplant cases.