Finnish health businesses seek new market in Japan

There are thirty or so Finnish health care companies that operate in Japan. Their combined exports to Japan are on an upward trend, with peaking at €80 million in 2023. In 2024, their exports to Japan stood at to €67 million. These are businesses in pharmaceutical development, imaging, in vitro diagnostics and wellness solutions. The figures do not include service exports or software companies.  

A dozen Finnish companies and organizations are participating in top health events in Japan on the last week of June with Business Finland.  These companies and entities are: STM, Hus (Clever Health Network), Sitra, Orion, Nightingale Health, Fujitsu Finland, Efima, Fepod, and Nordic Healthcare Group. Minister Kaisa Juuso has joined the delegation to market Finland's expertise in the health sector. 

“Japan is the third largest health market in the world. One reason for the high export potential is Japan's ageing population, which is growing very quickly. They urgently need innovative solutions. Japan considers Finland and the Nordic countries to be excellent examples of wellbeing and sustainability. Interest is growing, but there still aren’t many concrete ways to link them to products, services or business models”, sums up Business Finland's Eeva Salminen, who is responsible for the health theme at Business Finland. 

Japan's pharmaceutical market is the third-largest in the world, following the United States and China. OrionPharma opened its own office in Japan in 2024. 

"We attend the Health Week in Osaka to explore further opportunities within Japan's pharmaceutical market, and to further strengthen our brand by enhancing its visibility and engagement with key stakeholders in the region," says Outi Vaarala, Executive Vice President, Orion Pharma. 

 Japan and Finland face similar challenges in social and healthcare, such as population aging – but also share strong technological capabilities, which provide a foundation for new solutions.  

“At Efima, we are developing AI-based tools to make daily caregiving tasks easier. For example, our speech recognition-based solution saves our client up to an hour of manual record-keeping per shift. We are looking forward to the Osaka exhibition – it offers a unique opportunity to share best practices and learn from other industry leaders globally,” commented Tero Salminen, CEO of Efima Oyj. 

Pioneer of robotics behind in other areas of digitalization 

“The selling points of our companies, such as our focus on people, work-life balance, personalized health care and remote care, are things that Japan holds in high regard. In digital health care solutions, Japan lags behind Finland and the OECD nations in general. Finland has a lot to offer in this regard. Japan, however, is a robotics powerhouse, which opens up different options for cooperation,” describes Meria Heikelä from Business Finland’s internationalization network, who has followed the Asian health sector for years. 

Demonstrating Finland’s personalized healthcare products and services is a good introduction. As an example, our Kanta system is always something that the Japanese are interested in. 

Health Week Events in Japan: Finnish Health Day at Osaka EXPO Tuesday, June 24, Japan Health June 25–27 Tech Tour Wednesday, June 25 and Nordic Health Summit Friday, June 27.