Company & History

Company InformationCompany info

Company name	Medi-Con International Co., Ltd.
Head office	5F Minoh Frere Building, 1-10-9 Senba-higashi, Minoh, Osaka 562-0035, Japan 0120-105-312（TEL）0120-705-312（FAX） TEL 072-749-5370　FAX　072-749-5380
Branch offices	Nagoya Office Room 4D, Nishiki Axis Building, 3-2-32 Nishiki, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 460-0003, Japan Fukuoka Office Room 507, Meito Building, 4-18-2 Hakataeki-minami, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka 812-0016, Japan
Representative	President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Hirokazu Okada
Date established	October 29, 1993
Bank	Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Juso Branch. Current account: 289889. Ordinary account: 1014747.
Principal customers	University hospitals; national, public and private general hospitals; research institutions; and clinics
Our Philosophy	Passion · Challenge · Creation We pursue new possibilities with passion, think and act with sincerity, and create a happier society by providing safe, reliable products. Trust · Growth · Contribution We aim to become a company that everyone trusts and values, and of which we ourselves can be proud. Through the sustained development and growth of our business, we contribute to society and to the happiness of all people. Gratitude · Honesty · Cooperation We cherish the Earth's greenery and are deeply grateful to everyone who supports our company. With a spirit of service, we approach everything with integrity and work in harmony with society to build a more prosperous future.
Current Core Products	Equipment, instruments, reagents and related products for assisted reproductive technology Sperm processing products · Culture products · Micromanipulation products · Sperm and embryo cryopreservation products · Plasticware · Equipment

HistoryHistory

October 1993	Founded as Medi-Con International Co., Ltd. at 5-1-21 Tsukamoto, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka.
November 1993 – June 1999	Worked to promote an autologous blood transfusion system using dedicated equipment, with the aim of reducing the risk of transfusion-related infections. Actively promoted its introduction at community and regional core hospitals, focusing on cardiovascular surgery, haematology, gynaecology and orthopaedics.
November 1993	Pioneered the introduction and sale in Japan of ready-made ICSI micropipettes and holding pipettes manufactured by HUMAGEN in the United States, contributing to technological innovation in infertility treatment.
January 1994 – June 1995	Supported the introduction and wider use of cryopreservation technology in cardiovascular surgery for the clinical application of biological heart-valve transplantation. Also supplied and sold experimental equipment for evaluating the safety of biological valves, helping lay the foundations for next-generation medical care.
June 1994	Began selling automated solution-preparation robots for laboratory testing and quality-control departments at hospitals, clinical laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturers and other institutions.
October 1994	Began selling tissue cryopreservation systems for cardiovascular surgery, dermatology and other fields.
December 1994	Began selling culture media for ART.
January 1995	Began selling equipment and instruments for ART.
May 1995	Began selling ready-to-use culture media for ART.
July 1995	To accommodate business expansion, relocated sales operations to the second floor of the Com House Hakushima Building, 2-25-8 Hakushima, Minoh, Osaka.
October 1995 – March 2009	Entered into an agreement with Vitrolife (formerly Scandinavian IVF Science) as its general importer and distributor in Japan, focusing on the first introduction and wider adoption in Japan of its sequential and blastocyst culture media. Following the manufacturer's establishment of a Japanese subsidiary, we ended the agreement in March 2009 in accordance with our company policy.
September 1999	Began selling G1™ / G2™ v.2 from Vitrolife, the first sequential media for ART. Began selling blastocyst media for ART.
May 2000 – April 2015	For the PolScope technology products SpindleView and Oosight from Cambridge Research & Instrumentation, Inc. (CRi), USA, we took over the medical and life-sciences business, which had been stagnant, from Kurabo Industries Ltd. and secured exclusive distribution rights in Japan. We actively promoted adoption in the domestic market and, at one point, recorded the highest unit sales among the company's distributors worldwide. The products were highly regarded in the field of assisted reproductive technology (ART). In December 2010, CRi was acquired by the US biotechnology company Caliper Life Sciences, which later became part of PerkinElmer. In 2015, the Oosight product line was transferred to Hamilton Thorne Ltd. of Canada. Following these changes in the business structure, our distribution agreement ended in 2015.
November 2001	To accommodate business expansion, relocated head-office and central sales functions to 5F Minoh Frere Building, 1-10-9 Senba-higashi, Minoh, Osaka.
November 2002	Invited a speaker to the 5th IVF Study Meeting.
April 2006	Crystal Phone, earphones decorated with crystals, won a runner-up award at the 61st Tokyo International Gift Show, Spring. As a pioneer in the decorative-accessory market, the product helped lead a new trend.
2006	Began selling Winetage.
January 2007	Invited a speaker for “ART in the 21st Century.”
January 2009	In response to our proposal, Microtech of the Czech Republic developed the world's first ready-made ICSI micropipettes with internal diameters of 4 μm and 4.2 μm. We began selling them under an exclusive distribution agreement for Japan.
June 2010	We took over from Nihon Nosan Kogyo the exclusive distribution agreement in Japan for the hardware division of Research Instruments (RI), UK. At the time, the Saturn laser system had the lowest share in the domestic market. Through our strategic initiatives, we successfully developed it into one of the most competitive products in Japan.
September 2011	Began selling Integra, RI's next-generation micromanipulation system.
September 28, 2011	Began selling Grade B Pasteur pipettes, washed and sterilized.
October 1, 2011	Began selling washed and sterilized light mineral oil in screw-cap bottles, tested for peroxide value (POV).
March 1, 2012	Began selling sperm cryopreservation medium in single-use 1 ml portions.
June 1, 2012	Began selling a new IMSI system from RI, allowing observation in standard plastic Petri dishes.
August 1, 2012	A new development in laser technology! Began selling Saturn 5 Active, a steerable laser system with automatic sequential firing.
October 1, 2012	A new development in laser technology! Began selling Saturn 5 Active with an added curve mode for automatic sequential firing of the steerable laser.
April 16, 2013	Began selling VISTEK benchtop vibration isolation platforms.
August 2013	Opened the Nagoya Office to support business expansion: Room 4D, Nishiki Axis Building, 3-2-32 Nishiki, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi.
September 1, 2013	Began selling plasticware for culture.
November 1, 2013	Began selling Integra3™ from RI, a state-of-the-art micromanipulation system.
January 6, 2014	Relocated the registered head office to Minoh, Osaka.
May 2014	Began developing wheelchairs.
March 2015	Began selling the RI Witness sample identification and monitoring system.
March 2015	Invited a speaker to the 10th meeting of the Japanese Society for Laser Reproduction.
March 2015	Held the Osaka session of “European PGD/PGS Workshop: Towards a New Generation of ART.”
April 2015	Held the Kyushu session of “European PGD/PGS Workshop: Towards a New Generation of ART.”
August 2015	Opened the Fukuoka Office to support business expansion: Room 507, Meito Building, 4-18-2 Hakataeki-minami, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka.
January 2016	Invited a speaker to the 21st workshop and scientific meeting of the Japanese Society of Clinical Embryologists.
March 2016	At the request of the chair of the 11th meeting of the Japanese Society for Laser Reproduction, we loaned our Saturn 5 Active laser system for all workshops at the meeting, which concluded with great success. We welcome requests from the chairs of other meetings.
August 22, 2016	Since 2010, under an exclusive distribution agreement in Japan for the hardware products of Research Instruments (RI), UK, we had introduced outstanding equipment, including Saturn laser systems, to the Japanese market and provided sales and after-sales service. Following RI's acquisition by CooperSurgical, Inc. of the United States, our exclusive distribution agreement in Japan ended on August 22, 2016.

Patents
Patents granted, including international patents
November 2008	Method for manufacturing a fibrin glue preparation (equipment for automatically purifying autologous fibrin glue) Patent No. 4217843. Patent holder: Hirokazu Okada.
May 2009	Biological sample culture apparatus Patent No. 4310653. Patent holder: Hirokazu Okada.
October 2019	Semen storage container Patent No. 6605704. Patent holder: Hirokazu Okada.
August 2021	Holder and file Patent No. 6934900. Patent holder: Hirokazu Okada.

President's MessageMessage from the President

“Talking Back to My Boss!”

“Who chews gum at work?” The shout rang through the office one day, not long after I joined the company. Yet, as my boss shouted while blowing cigarette smoke into my face, I found myself replying, “I think chewing gum bothers other people less than smoking does,” forgetting my position as a new employee. Looking back, that incident seems to have been the trigger for starting my own business.

Even now, I blush when I recall talking back to my boss—it was certainly an act of youthful indiscretion. Before long, however, I put my desire to start a business into practice. The conviction that I should not compromise my beliefs, whoever I was dealing with, became a firm foundation for my management and remains so today. From the company's founding, through the sale of medical equipment, instruments and research reagents across a broad range of fields, and by introducing the latest overseas technologies and information to medical professionals, I took pride in making a modest, if indirect, contribution to medicine each day. Then, in the summer of 2011, a serious accident changed my life completely.

While surfing in Hawaii, I developed a devastating condition called spinal cord infarction. From that moment, I was unable to stand at all and faced a lifetime in a wheelchair—something I had never imagined. My seven months in hospital were a struggle with physical and emotional pain. One day, however, I felt a deep sense of gratitude that my life had been saved: under slightly different circumstances, I might have drowned in that sea. Having become disabled myself, I also came to understand acutely how difficult it can be for people with disabilities to live in our society. My gratitude gradually became a sense of purpose—the belief that I had been saved because there was a mission for me to fulfil.

This led me to enter the welfare sector in 2014. I am planning to develop new wheelchairs from my own perspective as a person with a disability, as well as equipment to help people with disabilities and older people live in better environments. I also plan to undertake support activities and establish a nonprofit organization.

Thanks to the tremendous support of our customers and partners, our ART business also continues to expand steadily. We consistently examine and evaluate products from the customer's perspective, seek to reduce costs wherever possible and strive to keep prices low. We provide the quality, prices and service that satisfy our customers, without compromising the processes needed to achieve them. This approach is, of course, equally central to our work in the welfare sector.

“Unwavering integrity” and “an uncompromising commitment to quality”: at every turning point, I have felt strongly that these are the only ways to meet our customers' expectations and earn their trust. Continuing to deliver excellent products carefully selected according to these beliefs is both our mission and our greatest pleasure.

President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer)Hirokazu Okada