The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has recently begun offering interpreters for Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Thai residents who have come down with tuberculosis.
More than 2,000 people in Japan died from TB in 2004 and the number of non-Japanese sufferers in Tokyo has been rising in recent years, according to the metro government. It wants to ensure people get proper care and help stem the spread of the contagious disease
The metro government is focusing on ethnic groups that figure prominently in government TB statistics.