ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that, Beijing Century Kounre Hospital (headquartered in Beijing, China; President：Zhu Jinming; hereinafter “Century Kounre”), in which ITOCHU has invested, has concluded a partnership agreement with Fujita Academy Incorporated Educational Institution, Fujita Health University (headquartered in Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture; Kiyotaka Hoshinaga, Chairman of the Board; hereinafter “Fujita Health University”) and General Incorporated Association Tokushukai (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Takao Suzuki, Chairperson of the Board; hereinafter “Tokushukai Group”), an entity serving as the group’s administrative headquarters respectively.

With the establishment of these partnerships, ITOCHU will offer support aimed at establishing Japanese-style knowhow for managing hospital operations and promoting medical staff/skill exchange programs among Century Kounre Hospital, Fujita Health University and Tokushukai Group, while initially focusing on addressing the needs of patients for inbound treatment and medical checkups.

Century Kounre Hospital operates 11 hospitals (7,000 beds) mainly in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. It is one of the largest private general hospital groups in China, with an eye on increasing the number of beds to 20,000 within the next five years. ITOCHU and CITIC Capital Holdings Limited jointly invested in Century Kounre Hospital in March 2019.

Fujita Health University is an acute care medical facility with the largest number of beds in Japan, and also one of the top medical universities in Japan, specializing in robot-assisted surgery and rehabilitative therapy under the philosophy of “Dokusouichiri,” the belief that the present students unlock their future by leveraging their creativity. Faced with requests for support from many medical universities and institutions abroad, Fujita Health University concluded a partnership agreement with Century Kounre Hospital on August 26, 2018, at the request of ITOCHU, following a series of discussions exchanging views with the Chinese counterpart. Consequently, Century Kounre Hospital has become a teaching hospital (a partner hospital) designated by Fujita Health University.

The Tokushukai Group is the largest group of private hospitals in Japan, which has operated since its foundation under the philosophy of “All living beings are created equal,” with over 350 institutions (including 71 hospitals) providing medical, nursing and welfare services all over Japan, specializing in emergency or acute care medicine in the area of cardiac dysfunction and others.

The Tokushukai Group has taken steps to develop cooperative relationships, signing memoranda on medical cooperation with medical institutions in 40 countries all over the world since 2003. Following a series of discussions with Century Kounre Hospital, the Tokushukai Group concluded, at the request of ITOCHU, a partnership agreement with the Chinese counterpart on September 9.

With an increasing number of foreign nationals seeking medical services at hospitals in Japan, there are cases where appropriate medical treatments are not available due to the quality problem of the companies involved or issues on clarification of where responsibility lies. Medical institutions in Japan often shoulder significant burdens, and improvements have been called for on these issues.

ITOCHU believes that, by making Century Kounre Hospital a Chinese-side contact point for inbound medical treatments and checkups in Japan, and allowing Century Kounre Hospital to have direct contacts respectively with Fujita Health University and Tokushukai Group, it enables Chinese patients to have appropriate medical services in Japan, and allows communicating information about patients between hospitals in Japan and China, which also provides the patients appropriate follow-up at Century Kounre Hospital after returning home.

In line with the Japanese government’s initiatives to promote overseas expansion　of medical technologies and services (outbound), ITOCHU will support Fujita Health University and Tokushukai Group in developing their activities in China, starting from the collaboration with Century Kounre Hospital.

The Chinese government is actively using private-sector capital and encouraging the development of private hospitals in response to the rising demand for medical services, while controlling medical expenditures, which has been in excess of 100 trillion yen per year. At Century Kounre Hospital, which has been expanding its business on the strength of this demand, further improvement in the quality of its medical services along with more efficient management has been sought.

ITOCHU will remain focused on expanding hospital-related business, seeking to achieve further enhancement in added value for hospitals in China, while accommodating those demands through partnerships with Fujita Health University and Tokushukai Group.