Unfortunately I cannot be a blood donor in Japan, for the same reason UK citizens can't be a blood donor in the Netherlands. While I have enjoyed donating up to nearly 20 times, the fear of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is very high in Japan and excludes most inhabitants from West European countries from donating.
The Japanese Red Cross Society declined very kindly and unnecessarily assured me it didn't imply I would get sick (ha):
Thank you very much for your e-mail.
Regarding your query, we have criteria for selecting blood donors for both safety of patients and blood donors.
In case of Netherlands, if you have stayed in Netherlands for more than 6 months from 1980 to 2004, you cannot donate blood in Japan because of vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) risk.
However please be assured that it does not mean that people from Netherlands will become vCJD.
This is a preventive measure in Japan.
Such being the case, we are really sorry that we have to decline your kind offer.
While our response may disappoint you, we look forward to your continuous support to the activity of Japanese Red Cross Society.
This blog has a more extensive list of exclusions that are not translated on the website of the JRCS itself. While explaining this situation to friends, the following remark was made: 'if you have enough supply, you can tighten your standards.' It made me consider the validity of accepting higher risks due to lack of resources.
I hope you can still donate blood if you want to. There is always the possibility of donating something else (it's back to donating time and knowledge for me).
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