Stem Cells in Japan

        In her paper Regulating Cell Lives in Japan: Avoiding Scandal and Sticking to Nature, Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner gives us a clear overview of the role stem cell research has played in Japan's recent past and how its social relevance has blossomed in recent years. Today this more relevant than ever, with the awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Shinya Yamanaka - discoverer of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSs) and one of the scientists mentioned in the paper - and Sir John Gurdon, who laid the foundations for this discovery in experiments carried out fifty years ago.
       Sleeboom-Faulkner starts by characterizing the social controversy in Japan revolving around the use of human embryonic stem cells (hES) in stem cell research, and how human embryos are viewed by the Japanese public. She points out many contradictory practices and viewpoints that highlight just how widely public opinion differs on the topic. In Japan, abortion is common but still illegal under the penal code. She notes that while many Japanese would say fetuses have no spirit, rituals honoring the spirits of aborted fetuses have flourished. In-vitro fertilization techniques have become more popular, and simultaneously value the embryos chosen for implantation and devalue those that are not selected (and subsequently discarded) (p230). As a consequence of these mixed social views, the general policy towards hES research in Japan has been to allow it but to regulate it to the point of inefficiency in order to avoid any potential controversy.
       It is for this reason that the discovery of iPSs - adult cells that are 'tricked' into reverting to their pluripotent state - was received with such exuberance by the Japanese public and government. In the media's portrayal of iPSs, you could now have all the potential benefit of hESs without having to wade through the latter's ethical/moral quagmires. In the two years following the discovery in 2006, public literacy concerning stem cells and pluripotency essentially went from nonexistent to universal (p233). Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) immediately moved to set a side millions of dollars in funding for iPS research.
       I find it interesting just how much this focus on iPS research is driven by public perception and social factors. Scientifically, it's risky to put all your eggs in one basket, and the best course of action would be to diversify research into all the different methods of stem cell generation. As the scientists interviewed by the author put it, putting all this money into just iPS research is scientifically "reckless" (p236). I've actually personally witnessed firsthand a different, but related example of this sort of resistance to popular pressure affecting science/medical policy. I was in Massachusetts for a medical school interview and I managed to find my way into a medical student body meeting for the Massachusetts Medical Society. They were going over the Society's official stance on current hot topics in medicine, and I was surprised to hear that it was against the legalization of medical marijuana. There has been a lot of recent support for the widespread adoption of medical marijuana, and as it turns out this was the precise reason for the MMS for opposing it - as the chairman put it, it had become too politicized and decisions regarding medical legislation should not be influenced by popular opinion.


Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner (2011): Regulating cell lives in Japan: avoiding scandal and sticking to nature, New Genetics and Society, 30:3, 227-240