Patients in 20 prefectures receive illegal umbilical blood injections

August 28, 2017

MATSUYAMA, EHIME PREF.- Patients in some 20 of Japan's 47 prefectures received illegal injections of umbilical cord blood at clinics, investigative sources said Monday.

Some 30 percent of the patients are foreigners, many of whom are Chinese nationals, according to the sources at a joint investigation headquarters set up by Ehime and three other prefectural police departments.

On Sunday, the police arrested six people, including Tsuneo Shinozaki, 52-year-old head of an umbilical cord blood dealer based in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a 40-year-old doctor who runs a clinic in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, on charges of violating the law for the safety of regenerative medicine. Jiji Press