Market Overview

In consideration of financial performances at leading laboratory testing centers as well as at small and middle-size centers, the domestic clinical laboratory testing service market for FY2023 was estimated at 623.0 billion yen, a decline by 10.6% from the preceding fiscal year, based on sales at contract service providers.

The market of clinical laboratory testing service had once rapidly expanded when COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, surging the demand for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of novel coronaviruses. By FY2022, however, as NHI points for a PCR testing was reduced, the commission fee for the testing has nosedived. For FY2023, against the backdrop of novel coronavirus being downgraded to class 5 under the Infectious Diseases Control Law, the number of PCR testing decreased, which shrank the entire clinical testing service market size.
*The market size basically does not include voluntary PCR testing that has been done at the expense of the recipients.  

Noteworthy Topics

As Business Environment Moving for Deterioration in Revenues Service Providers Grope for Work Efficiency

Currently in 2024, the mainstream of novel coronaviruses testing is the rapid antigen detection test (qualitative), and demand for the PCR method for clinical tests for the viruses seems to have overall subsided.
Because various costs for materials and manpower needed in testing have skyrocketed during the past few years, the business environment for clinical laboratory testing services is on the deterioration. There have been some cases of alliances between service providers with work efficiency in mind, and there may be some other moves for industrial reorganizations.

Future Outlook

As the clinical laboratory testing service market related to novel coronaviruses has already lost ground, the market hereafter is likely to center on conventional clinical testing items just like it used to be in FY2019 or prior to that and to return to a slight increase.


Because the market basically can be directly affected by fallen medical remuneration points, there is little factor to expand the entire market. It is a market environment that can be somewhat boosted by some of the high-added clinical testing market such as genetic testing for cancers.

Research Outline