Takehide Asano • Norihide Fukushima
Takashi Kenmochi • Naoto Matsuno
Editors

2014

Current and Future Status

Organ procurement from brain-dead donors was not socially accepted for a long time in Japan. For that reason, organ transplantation in this country involved accumulating experience in using organs from donors after circulatory death (DCDs) and from living donors, adhering for the most part to criteria that exceeded the usual standards for organ donation. It was first shown by Yoji Iwasaki and his colleagues in the 1960s that kidneys procured from uncontrolled DCDs could be transplanted safely [Iwasaki Y et al (1969) Cadaveric renal transplantation (I): patient selection and transplantation method. J Jpn Soc Transpl 4(1):72–78 (in Japanese); Iwasaki Y et al (1969) Cadaveric renal transplantation (II): post-transplantation course and care.