Table 1.

Initiatives by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) to promote AI in medicine

Field	Initiatives spearheaded by the MHLW
Genomic medicine	● Establishment of the Center for Cancer Genome Information Management within the National Cancer Center and aggregate genome information ● Creation of a central information database from which clinical and genetic information would be analyzed by the Cancer Genome Information Management Center
Image diagnosis support	● Creation of a diagnostic image database through a collaboration with various academic societies (Japanese Society of Pathology, the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the Japanese Society of Radiology, and the Japanese Society of Ophthalmology, etc.) ● Implementation of guidelines through the Medical Practitioners Act and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act
Diagnostic and treatment support	● Build an information infrastructure that covers a wide range of intractable diseases with research funding from the Japan Medical Research and Development Organization (AMED) ● Implementation of guidelines through the Medical Practitioners Act and the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act
Drug development	● Creation of a knowledge database to locate drug targets with the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation and Health and Nutrition (NIBIO) ● Matching pharmaceutical and IT companies with support from the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation and Health and Nutrition, RIKEN, and Kyoto University
Nursing care and dementia	● Provision of grants for the development of data collection and prediction tools for early detection and prevention of serious illnesses in nursing care
Surgical support	● Provision of grants for the standardization of the interface for interlinking surgical data