Neonatal intensive care has experienced
tremendous progress in recent decades in Japan,
achieving a neonatal mortality rate of 1.10 per 1,000
live births as of 20051. These dramatic improvements
in outcome have been brought about through the
combination of rapidly progressing technology and
the development of regionalized perinatal care
systems, in which facilities are stratified on the basis
of the level of available care and cooperate with
each other for maternal and neonatal transport