The establishment of the Cochrane Japan is the culmination of concerted efforts over the past several years to widely promote Cochrane and The Cochrane Library in Japan. Since 2010, we have coordinated various Cochrane activities including the delivery of regular seminars and training workshops for author teams in Tokyo and Kyoto, developing training materials and recruiting new authors. In 2012, a strategy for capacity building was implemented and generated a significant increase in the number of review authors in Japan, particularly in the area of pregnancy and childbirth. This led to the establishment of the Japanese Satellite of the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth in 2013. The Japan Branch of the Australasian Cochrane Centre was launched in 2014 to serve this rapidly expanding author base and to address the need for additional capacity to provide further training, support and management to review authors in Japan. Cochrane Japan was promoted to a center under the direct control of the Cochrane Headquarters in 2017.