Japan faces the possibility of being hit by a severe shortage of donated blood, due to a decrease in young donors.
Donated blood, collected at special rooms and buses run by the Japanese Red Cross Society, is checked for pathogens at the organization's facilities around the country before being used for transfusions to patients undergoing treatments or surgeries, or as ingredients in medicines for infectious and other diseases.
It is impossible to make blood artificially or to store blood for a long period, making a steady supply of blood vital.