In Japan, the number of child donor is significantly low; less than 10 organ transplant operations annually, nationwide. For example, the number of organ transplant operation done is only than 3.4% compared to the United States. The number in Japan is obviously deficient. It is said that, people in Japan tend to associate the topic of organ transplant with death, and therefore have an unconscious tendency to avoid talking about this topic.
In order to combat this situation, we had to communicate with parents and let them understand to further increase the potential number of organ donors.
In order to proliferate the understanding of organ transplant operation for parents, we performed an “organ transplant operation for toys.” We used toys that are no longer played to perform a transplant on broken toys to fix them. By not just simply fixing the broken part, but performing a transplant to the broken area, the task of “transplant” itself became visible.
We designed the overall process to have mutuality, letting the recipient appreciate the transplant, but also reward the donor's act of giving, and communicate the meaning of being a donor through a thank you letter sent from the recipient.
Although the fact that agreed consent is required for organ transplant has certain recognition, there are only 12.6% of people who have explicitly stated about what should be done with their organs, and the challenge was to let the people discuss and make them declare whether they want to be a donor or not. Since being an organ donor in real life would be a very rare experience, if not impossible, by utilizing the toys as a motif, we aimed this process to be a "pseudo organ transplant experience" and communicate the meaning of organ transplant. Moreover, by making the transplanted toys cute and evident as they are, we aimed that the people would recognize about the transplant, and made the toys as living manifestation of something important that keeps on living after changing its appearance. The project clarified the meaning of organ transplant equally to be visible for those who donated, and those who received the transplanted toys. Moreover, by making the toys as means of donation, from the perspective of the donor, the financial obstacle was made relatively low.
We launched the website on December 28th, 2015. Since then, we have gathered recipient toys and donor toys, and operated numerous transplant operations for toys, and conveyed the meaning of organ transplant to the people. Volunteers, donors, and people requesting to have their toys fixed flooded from over 19 countries around the globe. The transplanted toys were displayed online, which were then used for PR, and resulted in gaining public attention from various media world wide.
The project has appeared on 1000+ media, worldwide, such as ABC, Channel8, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Mashable, Engadget, and Wired. Moreover, Japanese celebrities uch as top Olympic athelete, musician, politician, and actresses approved the campaign. Moreover, comments of approval gathered from many parents and organ transplant related organizations.
According to a research conducted by the Japan Organ Transplant Network, the number of people declared willing to offer their organs for transplant has increased 130% since the launch of the project. Moreover, the number of organ donor (after cardiac arrest) has increased 137% compared to the previous year. According to an agency research, after the launch of the campaign, the recognition of organ donor card increased by 19%. And people actually stating their will for the usage of their organs for transplant have increased by 9%. People who have spoken about the topic with their families have increased by 8%.