光田健輔
In 1927, members of Japan's Lower House presented a bill stating that the present prefectural leprosy sanatoriums were insufficient and that the government needed to establish national sanatoriums. When the bill was passed, it was decided that the first national sanatorium would be built on an island, following the recommendations of leprologist and director of the Tokyo's Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium Kensuke Mitsuda.