With its aging population, South Korea should look to Japan for lessons and opportunities that can be applied to its health care industry, a government trade promotion agency said in a report Monday. 

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said in its global strategy report titled, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution Era: Japan’s Medical and Health Care Industry,” that Japan is making an all-out push to strengthen the global competitiveness of its health care industry, with a focus on integrating the health care and medical industry with information and communication technology. Through the initiative, Japan’s government aims to enlarge the market from 1.6 trillion yen ($14.3 billion) in 2013 to 3.7 trillion yen in 2030.

To promote such integration, Japan has eased regulations and eliminated unnecessary restrictions, resulting in the development of new business models such as telemedicine and smart health care using big data, according to the Kotra report.

“The smart health care industry had already risen as a new growth engine more than 10 years ago, but the (Korean) government is still carrying out regulatory review,” the report said.

South Korea could also benefit from Japan’s growing health industry -- currently the world’s third largest after the US and China -- especially in the areas of biosimilars, generics and medical devices, it added.

Japan’s plans to use more generic drugs and biosimilars would provide opportunities for domestic companies such as Samsung Biologics Co. and Celltrion Inc. Japan aims to expand the proportion of generic drugs from the current 55 percent of total drug usage to 80 percent by 2020.

The health care industry is considered to be a new growth engine for rapidly aging countries. By 2050, 36.3 percent of the total population will be 65 years old and above in Japan, and 35.1 percent in Korea, according to a United Nation forecast in 2015. 

By Park Ga-young  (gypark@heraldcorp.com)