Akiho Iwashita

I find my job at KWE worth doing because I can contribute to the distribution of pharmaceutical products in Japan. And especially when I serve customers with manufacturing plants overseas. In Japan, imported pharmaceuticals that are manufactured outside the country must pass through a domestically licensed factory before being distributed to the market. At the logistics terminal where I work, in addition to ISO13485 certification, we are licensed by the Japan authority to manufacture pharmaceutical products, which include pharmaceuticals, non-medicinal products, cosmetics, in-vitro diagnostics, and medical equipment. I provide the support in coordination with the forwarder that enables our customers to sell their products in Japan without any problems.

Our logistics terminal handles many different kinds of products, such as clinical diagnostic reagents and catheters. Recently a number of our customers have told us they want to launch PCR and antigen test kits and other products related to covid-19 into the Japan domestic market as in-vitro diagnostics, so I have been proposing operational plans meeting their requirements to make that happen.

A new startup is likely to encounter some problems, but when the products are finally manufactured and then shipped for the first time I feel a sense of accomplishment, as well as the realization that my work is indirectly contributing to the medical industry. KWE is an international logistics company whose framework is of course the logistics industry, but I hope to contribute to other industries and society as a whole through our services to customers.