Photo/Illutration A donor card shows the internal organs people wish to donate after their deaths. (Provided by the Japan Organ Transplant Network)

Organ donations from brain-dead donors have hit the 1,000 mark, 26 years after the Organ Transplant Law went into effect in October 1997.

The 1,000th organ donor was a man in his 60s who was admitted to a hospital in the Chugoku-Shikoku region, the Japan Organ Transplant Network said. The procedure to remove internal organs began Oct. 28.

The first organ donation under the law was made in 1999.

The number of cases initially ranged from a few to a dozen or so per year, but increased after the law was revised in 2010 to allow donations only with the consent of the family of the deceased.

In recent years, the number of cases has hovered at a little less than 100 a year. This year, there had already been 104 cases, the highest number ever, as of 1 p.m. on Oct. 28.

The Asahi Shimbun analyzed data on 991 donors released by the Japan Organ Transplant Network as of the end of September.

Males accounted for about 60 percent of the donors with females making up the remaining 40 percent.

In terms of age, 225 donors, or 23 percent, were in their 50s, followed by 196, or 20 percent, in their 40s and 128, or 13 percent, in their 30s.

Forty-seven, or 5 percent, were children under 15 years old, while 144, or 15 percent, were aged 60 or older.

Kidneys accounted for the largest number of donated organs at 1,757. Liver donations totaled 886, followed by lung donations at 840 and heart donations at 790. Pancreas and small intestine donations totaled 515 and 32, respectively.

Approximately 16,000 people are registered with the Japan Organ Transplant Network.

It said 455 people received transplants in 2022. They included organs donated from those whose hearts stopped beating. This means that only around 3 percent of those on the waiting list for an organ donation received transplants.

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