ABSTRACT
Many of the features which are characteristic of the Japanese pharmaceutical industry have their origins in developments before the twentieth century. Throughout the nineteenth century many Japanese were convinced of the fact that their country was backward compared to the ‘West’. The early shoguns, Ieyasu and Iemitsu took a close interest in the progress of medical science as both of them had been cured of major illness by doctors. Leading intellectuals such as Hayashi Razan and Katayama Koan began the systematic study of medicine and they encouraged the work of others in the field later in the seventeenth century. Sales of patent medicines seem to have started in the thirteenth century but in the Tokugawa era the market came to be dominated by the medicine makers of the Toyama area. Central government made money available to support research into methods of production of 23 common drugs such as codeine, phenacetin and santonin.
