ABSTRACT
By any definition, Biobank Japan is among the world's largest and best-funded efforts to build a large-scale biorepository linking biological materials, DNA samples, and data on genetic variation and clinical information taken from actual patients. At the same time, Biobank Japan is one of the least debated or controversial of the large biobank projects currently being developed. This chapter will discuss this apparent paradox in Japanese biobank governance and map the transformative potential of this 'invisible project' within the context of Japanese biomedicine.
