d availability and use of competitive foreign medical and pharmaceutical products.Pharmaceutical IndustriesOur opinion is that we could perfectly invest in the Japanese market if the government lets us. The problem is the high duties and fees we have to pay if we would export to Japan. The government does not want to let us export. We would have to increase our prices by 200 % to get earnings, and to make a profit with our drugs.There are about 1,550 pharmaceutical companies in Japan, of which approximately 450 supply drugs for medical care. Most of the large companies, such as Takeda, Fujisawa, and Tanabe, began as traditional wholesalers, and thus have developed more strength in sales promotion than in scientific research. Japan has a corresponding history of importing foreign products and selling them in the domestic market. Because the Japanese market grew rapidly with the implementation of national health insurance and was protected by the National Industrial Policy, Japanese pharmaceutical companies did not develop an institutional capacity to market their products in overseas markets nor did they innovate internationally acceptable drugs until the 1980s. At that time, the government was curbing drug prices to reduce health expenditures, and competition with foreign firms for the domestic market was increasing. Pressures on Japanese drug companies to develop domestic drug products and to market them internationally intensified.There are already many pharmaceutical industries from all over the world who cooperate with Japanese enterprises. Takeda (http://www.takeda.co.jp/index-e.html) works with Grunenthal GmbH in Germany, Cynamid Italia S.P.A. in Italy, and others. Sankyo works with Luitpold Pharma GmbH in Munich/Germany. The third biggest pharmaceutical company, Yamanouchi Taiwan Co., Ltd. (http://www.yamanouchi.co.jp/), works together with Royal Gist-Brocades Nv. Netherlands.Expansion of Pharmaceutical Marketing into Southea...
