Researchers at Kyoto and Hiroshima Universities created iPS cells from bonobos, chimpanzees, and gibbons, then achieved the world's first differentiation into limb bud mesoderm cells. Inside Japan's Whole-Zoo iPS Cell Project and its work on primate evolution, conservation, and zoo veterinary medicine.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have built the CUBIC Organ/Body Atlas, a 3D map of every cell across all organs of mice and the entire body of newborn mice at single-cell resolution. Combining the CUBIC tissue-clearing method with a custom light-sheet microscope, the team pinpointed roughly 610 million cells in a newborn mouse. Published in Cell, the work points toward 3D pathology and whole-body drug evaluation.
Osaka University spinoff Reimei has launched the world's first corporate clinical trial of a corneal epithelial cell sheet made from donor-derived iPS cells, with the first transplant performed on July 9, 2026. How the approach could ease the global corneal donor shortage, what the Lancet-published first-in-human data showed, and where Japan's regenerative medicine regulation stands against the US FDA.
Eyewear that applies voltage to a liquid lens and refocuses automatically for myopia, hyperopia, and presbyopia. A look at where autofocus vision correction stands, centered on HOYA spinoff ViXion's 01S and the ViXion2 released in 2026.
Elevidys, priced at 304.97 million yen, became Japan's most expensive insured drug in February 2026. Coverage is limited to ambulatory patients aged three to seven. The US safety findings behind that limit, and what ultra-expensive drugs mean for universal coverage.
Japan's health ministry panel has cleared two iPS cell-derived regenerative medicine products, a world first. "ReHeart" for severe heart failure and "Amshepri" for Parkinson's disease are set to become the first commercially available iPS cell therapies. Twenty years after Shinya Yamanaka created iPS cells from mouse cells, Japan's groundbreaking technology is finally reaching patients.
What if your pajamas could heal you while you sleep? In Japan, "recovery wear" (clothing infused with ceramic minerals that emit far-infrared rays to boost blood circulation) has become a national craze, even earning a Word of the Year nomination. Budget chains Workman, Nitori and Aeon have pushed entry prices down to single digits in dollars. Here's what recovery wear is, why millions of Japanese are buying it, and how the sales numbers look through mid-2026.
No batteries. Just 280 grams of rubber. A Japanese bone-setter turned entrepreneur created "futto," a walking support device using rubber tubes as artificial muscles. Built with hardware store materials by a three-person family company, it now has peer-reviewed backing, a distribution deal with France Bed, and sales abroad. Here's how this $220 device answers a problem every aging society shares.
Japan-born IoT wearable "DFree" uses ultrasound to predict urination timing and has won the Grand Prize for Developmental Support Tools at BabyTech Awards 2025-26. How the 20-gram device works, why the judges picked it, how it came to be covered by Japan's long-term care insurance, and what it means for elderly care and children with disabilities.
Beef tendon, a common Japanese hot pot ingredient, is being transformed into knee ligament implant material. A Waseda University startup has developed decellularization technology that could eliminate the need to harvest patients' own tissue for ACL reconstruction. Clinical trials are underway with commercialization targeted for 2028.
Osaka-based Satosen's liquid metal stretchable circuit board has been officially adopted by ATR-Promotions for biosignal measurement electrodes. With self-healing wiring that withstands over 250,000 stretch cycles, this technology opens doors for wearable devices, flexible displays, and soft robotics.