TOKYO: The Japanese government plans to strictly limit foreign investment in makers of medical goods and drugs amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, informed sources said Wednesday.

The government fears that if foreign capitals, particularly Chinese, buy up Japanese manufacturers of ventilators and other advanced medical apparatuses, it will become difficult to sufficiently check domestic production and exports of such products, whose stable supply is indispensable to national security.

To protect Japanese products from increasing international "enclosure" moves targeting medical and pharmaceutical supplies, the government will add as early as July the medical sector to the list of industries with great security significance under the revised foreign exchange and foreign trade control law, set to go into force in May.

The amended law, enacted last November, requires companies in industries deemed important for security to report in advance investment deals with foreigners and have the deals examined by authorities, if planned foreign stakes reach one pct. Before the law amendment, they did not have to report below-10 pct acquisition deals.

Foreign investments in companies in 12 particularly important sectors, including nuclear energy and cybersecurity, have to go through especially rigorous advance checks.

To newly come under the stricter protection from foreign control are producers of advanced medical equipment such as ventilators, artificial lungs and dialyzers, as well as developers and manufacturers of pharmaceutical ingredients and blood serums, the sources said. Vaccine makers are among the original 12-industry group.

Elsewhere on the globe, the United States has applied the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to control the production of goods by the private sector, to medical supplies in view of increasing deaths and serious sufferers from the coronavirus. Israel is said to be using its intelligence agency to gather face masks and virus test kits.

JIJI Press