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Approximately 1 in 2 Japanese people are estimated to be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. Cancer still remains the leading cause of death in Japan, therefore the government of Japan has decided to develop a better cancer control policy and launched the Cancer Genomic Medicine (CGM) program. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW) held a consortium at their headquarters with leading academic authorities and the representatives of related organizations to discuss ways to advance CGM in Japan. Based on the report of the consortium, the CGM system under the national health insurance system has gradually been realized. Eleven hospitals were designated in February 2018 as core hospitals for CGM; subsequently, the MHLW built the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics (C-CAT) as an institution to aggregate and manage genomic and clinical information on cancer patients, and support appropriate secondary use of the aggregated information to develop research aimed at medical innovation. As the first step in Japan's CGM in routine practice, in June 2019 the MHLW started reimbursement of 2 types of tumor profiling tests for advanced solid cancer patients using the national insurance system. Japan's CGM has swiftly been spreading nationwide with the collaboration of 167 hospitals and patients. The health and research authorities are expected to embody personalized cancer medicine and promote CGM utilizing state-of-the-art technologies., (© 2020 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.)

Since 1961, all Japanese citizens have belonged to one of the available medical care insurance systems. This "universal care" system has contributed to the maintenance of health: the life expectancy at birth was 84 years in 2016, and the infant mortality rate (the number of infants dying before reaching 1 year of age) was 2.0 per 1,000 live births, which is one of the lowest rates in the world. The Japanese government initiated the National Program on Rare and Intractable Diseases in 1972. This program has promoted research and expanded support for patients with rare and intractable diseases. Registered patients are eligible for a subsidy scheme that helps to cover medical care costs. Among the 331 diseases that are currently included in this program, more than half of the diseases are Mendelian disorders. The National Program on Rare and Intractable Diseases has fostered research in medical genetics in Japan and many causative genes for Mendelian diseases have been identified by Japanese geneticists. Recently, the Japanese government has determined to support several genomic medicine initiatives including the undiagnosed disease program (Initiative on Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases) and pathogenic variant databases., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Big projects in biology - such as the human genome project and a number of related and ensuing enterprises - require big funding. A new tradition is growing in which some types of basic research take place within commercial organizations. This article reviews some of the reasons for this and some of the key players, in the USA, Europe and Japan, and highlights some issues to be considered when deciding whether particular research belongs in a company rather than an academic setting.