ABSTRACT
Bioethics is the field in which one examines and tries to solve ethical problems imposed on society by science and technology – pertaining to the genetic, developmental, reproductive, and clinical manipulations of human life. This chapter describes the management in Japan of bioethics and other vexed social problems associated with science and technology. The problems of bioethics may arise in part as an outcome of the tension between traditional moral values and the findings of modern science. A country like Australia, with a federal government and several state governments for a population of 14 million people, is, in principle, better suited to bioethical decision-making than a country like Japan with a centralised government for a population of 120 million people. The important aspect in contemporary Japan is the preparedness of the medical profession to be involved in human experimentation.
