KOTRA targets Japan's healthcare digitalization push with K-health export drive in Osaka

As Japan grapples with severe shortages of medical and caregiving workers driven by its rapidly aging population, demand for digital healthcare solutions is surging. South Korean smart healthcare companies — offering AI-based health management platforms and wearable medical devices — are now targeting Japan's medical digital transformation, or DX, market.

KOTRA announced Wednesday that it held the Korea-Japan Smart Healthcare Partnership in Osaka, Japan, over three days beginning July 1. The event was organized to help domestic medical and biotech companies enter the Japanese market and to respond to Japan's growing demand for advanced medical technology.

Osaka, alongside Kyoto and Kobe, is considered one of Japan's leading biotech clusters, home to major pharmaceutical companies and medical research institutions. Its concentration of medical device and digital healthcare firms makes it a strategic gateway for Korean companies seeking to break into the Japanese market.

Japan's healthcare DX market is projected to reach 1.35 trillion yen ($8.31 billion) by 2035 — roughly 90 percent more than in 2024. The growth is being driven by the Japanese government's push to digitize medical data and by rising demand within healthcare settings for technologies such as telemedicine and AI-assisted diagnostics.

Japan has already begun overhauling its medical infrastructure, recently replacing paper-based national health insurance cards with a unified digital identification card system. As of January this year, people aged 65 and older accounted for 30.1 percent of the population — the highest share in the world. With an aging population and a shrinking healthcare workforce converging, healthcare DX has emerged not as an option but as a structural imperative.

KOTRA has been positioning itself to capitalize on this shift since 2024, when it established a K-Bio Desk at its Osaka trade office to support Korean medical and biotech firms entering Japan. For this event, it assembled a "K-Bio One Team" with the National Health Insurance Service, Daegu Technopark and Daegu Catholic University, selecting 20 domestic companies to participate.

Participating firms showcased smart healthcare products and technologies including AI-based health management platforms for the elderly, wearable visual assistance devices and AI-powered eye health diagnostic equipment. KOTRA's Osaka office, working with the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Tottori Industrial Promotion Organization, identified more than 50 Japanese buyers and arranged over 110 business-to-business consultations.

The event also produced concrete results. Pixelo, the developer of an AI eye health diagnostic kiosk called Naenun Kiosk, signed an MOU with Japanese IT company Future Spirits to cooperate on bringing the kiosk and related products to the Japanese market.

Alongside the export consultations, KOTRA held a seminar on strategies for entering the Japanese healthcare market. Participating companies also attended World Health Expo Osaka 2026, the largest medical and healthcare trade show in western Japan, expanding their networks with local firms and institutions.

Despite its growth potential, Japan's medical device market presents significant barriers to entry. Approval procedures through Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency typically take 10 to 14 months. Through its K-Bio Desk, KOTRA's Osaka office has been providing support on regulatory information, market trends, trade show participation and export consultations tied to Expo Osaka. To date, it has assisted more than 160 companies, 53 of which have successfully exported to Japan.

"Not only large conglomerates but also innovative companies — such as AI-based health management app developers — are actively moving into Japan's healthcare DX market, including by establishing local subsidiaries," said Park Yong-min, head of KOTRA's Japan regional headquarters. "We will do our utmost to help expand export results by supporting companies through the medical device approval process in Japan and connecting them with relevant institutional support programs."

KOTRA plans to continue follow-up consultations to help medical device companies expand their overseas reach. It is currently running a post-Middle East medical device export consultation program, connecting domestic firms online with Middle Eastern buyers who were unable to attend the 2026 Global Medical Device Export Consultation held in March. The agency also plans to hold medical device export consultations in Thailand and Singapore in September and in South Africa in October.