Japanese Companies Forging Ahead in Medical Equipment Market
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, “Japan’s market for medical devices and materials continues to be among the world’s largest.” Figures from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) show Japan’s market hit a record of 2.9 trillion yen ($27 billion) in 2018, a rise of nearly 35 percent from a decade earlier. The global surgical instruments market was valued at $945 billion in 2019 by Verified Market Research, which projects it to reach $1.51 trillion by 2027. Japanese small-to-medium-size firms have taken a significant share of this growing market.
Demand Spurs Innovation
“In the 1990s, America was the leader in our field but at that time there were no guidewires that could penetrate blood clots in the artery,” Asahi Intecc President and CEO Miyata Masahiko explains. “Japanese doctors told us they wanted a guidewire to enable a catheter to penetrate blood clots within the artery.” Asahi Intecc succeeded in producing a clot-busting, “minimally invasive” guidewire that can obviate the need for surgery and be far less traumatic for patients. Asahi Intecc now claims a 77 percent share of the domestic market for catheter guidewires, 30 percent in the U.S. and nearly 50 percent in Europe.
Futaku Ryozo, President of Kyoto-based FUTA-Q, which produces precision pipes and needles for medical equipment, emphasizes the need for perfection. “We don’t want to say ‘no’ to our clients,” he says. “We want to examine how we can respond to their demands. It’s less about pursuing profitability and more about satisfying our customers. We have to ensure that the product is perfect and that the customer can trust us.”
In 2011, FUTA-Q’s single-mindedness saw it develop processing technology for beta-titanium – prized for its strength and flexibility – and it became the first company in the world to produce β-titanium tubes with an internal diameter of just 0.3 millimeters. FUTA-Q uses β-titanium and other materials to make items that are used in catheters, endoscopes and analysis machines. “It’s important to understand that these devices penetrate people’s bodies and must be extremely precise,” Futaku says. “This pursuit of meeting clients’ needs is the way that Japanese companies approach manufacturing.”
MANI, which specializes in single-use surgical needles, dental equipment and ophthalmic knives, focuses its research and development in Japan. “One of our principles is that all our products should be developed by our own technology,” President Takai Toshihide explains. MANI makes its products from stainless steel wire, which it transforms into the world’s thinnest needles and sharpest ophthalmic knives. “In terms of handling the tools they use, Japanese doctors are really number one in the world, so we are confident that if we can satisfy doctors in Japan, then our product can be sold around the world.”
Communication and Collaboration
While these three companies concentrate their research and development in Japan – Asahi Intecc even constructed an operation room to allow doctors to simulate surgeries – they understand the international nature of their business. Asahi Intecc has an R&D facility in California and consults with foreign doctors. “We want our team to have the mindset of a global company,” President Miyata says.
MANI President Takai says that talking directly to those who will use his company’s products is one of the keys to sales and brand building: “For us, it’s clear we’re not selling enough products in the United States. The key is how we communicate about our world-level quality to make progress in the U.S. and that might involve working with an OEM or maybe a venture capital company.” MANI has actively sought to grow outside of Japan. Its main manufacturing plant is in Vietnam and it brings employees from there to Japan to learn the language and the business. “I want to emphasize that it was extremely important for us to start our operation in Vietnam 24 years ago and that has been one of our strengths,” says Takai.
Asahi Intecc sees collaboration as a means to expansion and development, both with companies in similar areas as well as with venture capital companies for new areas of business. This helps not only to boost sales, but also to increase the profile of the company as a brand. “One of the large-size companies we collaborated with was Boston Scientific,” President Miyata explains. “When you look at their products, you are able to see Asahi Intecc written on them. It’s almost like Intel’s case where you can see the Intel stickers on finished products.”
Japan has been proactive in assisting companies in the medical field, establishing the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development to assist companies as they research and develop new products. Assistance helps, but the single-mindedness of these Japanese companies to be the best in their field has been the driving force for success. “We have to make sure we are able to provide a product that people can trust,” says FUTA-Q President Futaku.
Growth in the Asia-Pacific region for surgical equipment is projected to be 12.2 percent over the next five years and globally the medical products market is expected to grow 6 percent annually. METI notes that the market for medical equipment has doubled over the last decade, while the OECD says that health expenditure will outpace GDP over the next decade, providing Japan’s medical equipment manufacturers with plenty of opportunities to grab more of this expanding market.
Note: All Japanese names in this advertorial are given in the traditional format, with the family name preceding the given name.
To learn more about FUTA-Q, click here.
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To learn more about Asahi Intecc, click here.
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