JAPAN

Japan's health care system edges foreign care in expat survey

A doctor examines an X-ray image at a hospital in Tokyo. An informal survey by The Japan Times has found that many users of the Japanese health care system view it as affordable and of high quality but rife with impersonal doctors and hard to navigate. | BLOOMBERG

By Tomoko Otake
Staff Writer

Feb 19, 2017

Just over half of non-Japanese residents feel Japan's health care system is generally better than that in their home countries, a trend particularly pronounced among U.S. citizens, with 3 out of 4 rating it more highly, an informal Japan Times survey has found.

The survey, which was conducted online from Feb. 5 till Feb. 9 and which drew responses from 263 people of 48 nationalities, including naturalized Japanese, also found that many think Japanese health care is affordable and high-quality but troubled by doctors' poor bedside manner and a system they say is too complicated to navigate.

Of all respondents, 29.3 percent said Japan's health care was "much better" and 25.1 percent said it was "slightly better," followed by 18.6 percent who said it was "about the same," 15.2 percent who said "slightly worse," and 11.8 percent who said "much worse."