The doctor will see the moneyed and insured, but less fortunate also ail This article looks at the health care needs and medical services available for foreigners in Japan, comparing the luxury medical treatment available for rich foreingers with the problems in getting medical treatment for undocumented foreign workers or foreigners without medical insurance, or those who don't speak Japanese.
Migrant Integration Policy Index for Japan 2014 includes a section on health - scroll to the Policies- Summary section and click on the health icon.
Globalising Japan’s medical care An article that discusses both medical services of foreign residents in Japan and the employment of foreign medical professionals in the Japanese health service and which notes that Japan is focusing more on providing translation services than employing foreign medical workers
Hard Work, Furtive Living: Illegal Immigrants in Japan Includes a little information in paragraph 15 about the medical situation for undocumented foreign workers in Japan, Yale Online, 2 Mar, 2006.
Himawari Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Institution Information / 東京都医療機関案内サービス Information on hospitals and pharmacies in English/Chinese/Korean/Thai/Spanish and emergency interpretation services from Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
Information on medical treatment for asylum seekers and refugees in Japan from the the Japan Association for Refugees in English and Japanese.
Tokyo International Communication Committtee / 東京都国際交流委員会 Information Center for Foreigners in Japan provides information to foreign residents on many aspects of life in Tokyo including medical issues and has a Comprehensive Living Guide for Foreign Residents in Japan in English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and easy Japanese.
Center for Health and Rights of Migrants (CHARM) A non-profit organization in Osaka City established in 2002, that provides community support for people living with HIV. CHARM also works in collaboration with medical institutions, government agencies and other foreign residents support groups to create a multi-language environment so that people who require language support can gain access to medical and health services.
外国人のための医療ガイドブック (Medical Guidebook for Foreign Residents and various medical support services from Center for Multicultural Society Kyoto
Medical Advice in Foreign Languages from Tabunka Kyosei Center HyogoIVY (Yamagata Prefecture) IVY provides various services for foreign residents including the dispatch of medical/legal interpreters. See Support of Foreigners page.
Access to prevention, care and treatment to HIV/AIDS in Japan for African Migrants in Japan from Africa Japan Forum
Musashino International Association (MIA) has a Multilingual Medical Questionnaire in English and other languages
AMDA International Medical Information Center. This is an organization which provides foreign residents with medical advice and information.
SHARE a Japanese NPO that provides health support for migrants in Japan, including support for HIV positive migrants in Japan. 'In Japan, there are people with limited access to medical care. Quite a number of non-Japanese living in Japan find it difficult to go to the hospital because they are "not covered by Health Insurance," they are "not proficient in Japanese language," and so on.'
30 medical bases planned to serve foreigners ahead of Tokyo Olympics Foreigners in Japan will be able to consult medical coordinators and interpreters at around 30 health-care bases set up across the country by 2020, the year of Tokyo Summer Olympics. Asahi Shimbun, 7 Feb 2014.
Detention center staff fail to aid dying asylum seeker: NGO A Myanmar asylum seeker collapsed and died after staff at a Japanese immigration center refused other detainees’ requests to summon a doctor, allegedly because he was on his lunch break, a pressure group has said. Japan Times, Oct 27, 2013.
System ‘failing asylum seekers’ The recent death of a Myanmar detainee at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau underlines the inadequate medical treatment asylum seekers face nationwide from chronic staff shortages, experts say. Japan Times, 2 Nov 2013.
Two men die at immigration center Two detainees at an immigration center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, died over the weekend, an official said Monday, just months after the death of another man at the same facility. Japan Times, Mar 31, 2014.
Doctor hits immigration center health care: Long detention in packed cells spawns medical ills getting little attention An article about a report submitted by Dr Junpei Yamamura to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau on the health conditions of the detainees he saw between August 2003 and September 2004 at Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, that claims that foreigners without visas and people seeking asylum held at the center receive poor medical care, and some are suffering serious illnesses during their long detention. Japan Times, 16 Nov 2004. For a full report on medical conditions in detention centres, see below.
Persecuted Foreigners--- Human Rights Violation at Immigration Center under the Ministry of Justice --- by Yamamura Jumpei M.D. A detailed report on the medical treatment and health conditions of asylum seekers and people without visas in detention centres that argues: "At Japanese immigration centers, prolonged confinement deteriorates the detainee’s health, yet no adequate medical care is provided". Solidarity with Migrants Network Japan, 22 March, 2005.
Two decisions of Japanese court on detained Afghan asylum seekers A short article in a medical journal that looks at the treatment of asylum seekers from Afghanistan in Japan and that argues there is the possibility of mental harm, especially in asylum seekers who are in detention, since they are at great risk of psychological trauma. The Lancet, Feb, 2002.
Graduate student aids asylum seekers in Nagoya "Maho Hadano, a 23-year-old student of the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University, is busy offering asylum seekers advice on everything from how to fill in application forms and where to receive medical treatment to finding a place to live." Japan Times, 6 Feb, 2013.
Decade-long wait takes toll on asylum seeker: Periods in detention, 10 years in legal limbo leave Iranian with mental, physical scars An article about Jamal Saberi, an Iranian asylum seeker who had spent 10 years waiting to get refugee status and the effects on his health of being held in a detention center, sometimes in solitary confinement. The article includes an interview with Dr Junpei Yamamura from the Minatomachi Clinic in Yokohama who regularly visits Yokohama Detention Center and says many asylum seekers have similar experiences and medical problems to Saberi's. Japan Times, 5 Oct, 2010.
Problems Faced by Foreign Women Living in Japan Indicated in the Telephone Counseling - Tokyo English Lifeline and Asian Women’s Fund, 2003. Parts IV and V consider health problems faced by foreign women. The report is in English and Japanese.
「新型コロナウイルス 外国人労働者は」（くらし☆解説）- NHK article, 16 April 2020
外国人の「コロナ切り」続出 解雇、雇い止め…全国で相談2000件超 – 西日本新聞, 25 April 2020
「消えてなくなりたい」コロナ禍の直撃を受けた外国人労働者を救えるか – DIAMOND online, 22 May 2020
仮放免中に発熱、健康保険証なし 利用できる制度は – 朝日新聞, 6 June 2020
ベトナム人女性が直面した債務労働と技能実習制度のひずみ＝コロナ以前から彼女が経験していた搾取と差別 – by 巣内尚子, Yahoo news, 19 May 2019
｢コロナ切り｣31歳ブラジル出身の彼が見た残酷, 日本の外国人労働者｢調整弁｣で扱われる現実 – 東洋経済online, 9 May 2020
Latin American immigrants have limited access to health insurance in Japan: a cross sectional study by S Pilar Suguimoto, Masako Ono-Kihara,, Mitchell D Feldman and Masahiro Kihara BMC Public Health, 2012. This study assesses the pattern of health insurance coverage and predictors of uninsurance among documented Latin American immigrants in Japan.
Migrant Health in Japan: Safety-Net Policies and Advocates' Policy Solutions An article by Neal S. Parikh "Japanese migrant policy prioritizes immigration control over migrant rights and welfare, which has clear consequences for migrant healthcare....disadvantaged migrant groups have poor health and face barriers in accessing mainstream healthcare, particularly for emergency, HIV/AIDS and maternal and child care. Advocates fashion a provisional safety net from existing policies to connect migrants with essential care, but this approach is of limited effectiveness. Policy solutions and relevant advocate opinion are considered in light of the failure of existing policies to meet uninsured migrants’ healthcare needs." Japan Quest, 22 March 2010.
Access to maternal and child care for undocumented migrants in Japan, by Tomo Calain-Watanabe and Setsuko Lee, Journal of International Health Vol.27 No.3 2012
Healthcare: Japan’s Case, Paper for Workshop “Migration and Competitiveness: Japan and the United States” (March 22-23, 2012) by Jun Inoue. This paper looks at the numbers of and situation of migrant workers in healthcare in Japan. Migration News.
Medical Health Care for Foreign Residents - In an Era of Multiculturalism, by Lee, Setsuko and Shigeta Masanobu, Journal of International Health Vol.23 No.1 2008
Immigrant Health Issue in Japan: The Global Contexts and a Local Response to the Issue by Yoshiko Sugie and Toshiko Kodama, 2013. "The context of immigration in Japan has produced a vulnerable immigrant population that experiences difficulty in accessing health care due to language barriers, discrimination and lack of health insurance. The Japanese government’s response has focused on tightening immigration controls rather than addressing the health and human rights of immigrants. Local grassroots movements have risen to fill the gaps in government health services". The paper looks at one of these local movements, the SHARE immigrant health promotion program.
A Comparative Study of Oral Health Status in a Migrant / Japanese Sample by Jiro Otsuru, Masayuki Ueno, Kayoko Shinada, Vladimir W. Spolsky, Carl A. Maida and Yok o Kawaguchi. Med Dent Sci 2006. The aim of this study was to compare the oral health status of migrants to Japan with that of Japanese using the questionnaire and the Oral Health Status Index (OHSI). The study focuses on patients at Minatomachi Dental Clinic, a private facility that is owned by labors union, and about half of the patients in this clinic are migrants to Japan, mainly from Asia and Latin America.
外国人労働者と公的医療・公的年金, 岩 村 正 彦, 季刊・社会保障研究 Vol 43, No 2, 2007.
在 日外国人の母子保健統計指標に関する研究 ―国籍（出身地）別 乳児死亡、死産、妊産婦死亡45年間（1958年～2002年）の分析 / Research on the foreign mothers and children's health statistics -the analysis of infant mortality, still birth and maternal mortality by nationalities for 45 years (1958-2002), by S Lee. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan, 2003. (in Japanese)
AMDA International Medical Information Center. This is an organization which provides foreign residents with medical advice and information.
SHARE a Japanese NPO that provides health support for migrants in Japan, including support for HIV positive migrants in Japan. 'In Japan, there are people with limited access to medical care. Quite a number of non-Japanese living in Japan find it difficult to go to the hospital because they are "not covered by Health Insurance," they are "not proficient in Japanese language," and so on.'
Center for Health and Rights of Migrants (CHARM) A non-profit organization in Osaka City established in 2002, that provides community support for people living with HIV. CHARM also works in collaboration with medical institutions, government agencies and other foreign residents support groups to create a multi-language environment so that people who require language support can gain access to medical and health services.
Medical Advice in Foreign Languages from Tabunka Kyosei Center HyogoIVY (Yamagata Prefecture) IVY provides various services for foreign residents including the dispatch of medical/legal interpreters. See Support of Foreigners page.
Access to prevention, care and treatment to HIV/AIDS in Japan for African Migrants in Japan from Africa Japan Forum
Musashino International Association (MIA) has a Multilingual Medical Questionnaire in English and other languages
Information on medical treatment for asylum seekers and refugees in Japan from the the Japan Association for Refugees in English and Japanese.
International Social Service Japan ISSJ counsels asylum seekers who come to Japan on issues including medical problems.
Catholic Tokyo International Center (CTIC) / カトリック東京国際センター Provides counselling on medical issues, as well as other support, for asylum seekers.
Refugee Assistance Headquarters (難民事業本部) This is the government affiliated organisation for providing support for refugees. It operates RHQ Support Center, which provides some medical support as well as Japanese language instruction, help with adapting to Japanese society and employment guidance for refugees.
Tokyo International Communication Committtee / 東京都国際交流委員会 Information Center for Foreigners in Japan provides information to foreign residents on many aspects of life in Tokyo including medical issues and has a Comprehensive Living Guide for Foreign Residents in Japan in English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and easy Japanese.