Goichiro Toyoda, 34, has an impressive resume. A graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo faculty of medicine, Toyoda worked as a brain surgeon in Tokyo before leaving to become a research scholar at Children's Hospital of Michigan.

Toyoda, however, eventually quit what looked to be a perfect medical career path for an elite doctor, hoping instead to work from the outside to make Japan's health system sustainable and efficient.

"Japan's current health system cannot be sustained if it continues to be the way it is now," said Toyoda, co-CEO of Medley Inc., a Tokyo-based medical venture.