Photo/Illutration Documents seized by police compiled by a nonprofit organization that supported organ transplants abroad (Tsubasa Setoguchi)

The leader of a nonprofit organization was arrested in Tokyo on suspicion of mediating an organ transplant overseas without receiving approval from the health minister.

Hiromichi Kikuchi, 62, was arrested over his arrangements for a Tokyo man to travel to Belarus for a liver transplant in February 2022, the Metropolitan Police Department said Feb. 9.

The Organ Transplant Law requires approval from the health minister before mediating an organ transplant.

Kikuchi told investigators that he thought approval was not needed for organ transplants conducted overseas, according to sources.
He is first person arrested in Japan over an organ transplant abroad. His NPO also faces possible charges.

The Tokyo man received the liver in a Belarus hospital. His family paid Kikuchi’s organization about 33 million yen ($250,000) for the cost of the operation and travel to Belarus.

According to investigative sources, the liver recipient’s condition deteriorated while he was returning to Japan and he was hospitalized in Tokyo.

Although he received part of a liver from a relative, the man died in November 2022.

Sources also said other people who received organ transplants abroad mediated by Kikuchi’s organization became seriously ill after the operations.

The NPO’s website said it was established in 2007 and provided support for travel overseas to receive kidney, liver, heart and lung transplants.

But in January, the website said it would stop accepting new patients after April.

Many Japanese have traveled abroad for organ transplants because there are so few donors in Japan.

According to the Japan Organ Transplant Network, there are 0.62 donors for every 1 million Japanese, while the ratio is 41.88 in the United States and 11.22 in Germany.

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