Insurance and Health

Whenever you go abroad, you should get travel insurance. While you might think it unnecessary in Japan, which is after all a developed country, it is if anything more important. You are unlikely to be abducted as you might be in some countries; you are unlikely to catch Malaria as you might in equatorial Africa; you probably won't break a limb bungy-jumping in central Tokyo as there are few opportunities to do so. However, if you are taken ill or injured by something unforeseeable (a case of appendicitis, a car speeding through a red traffic light, an unexpected gap between a shinkansen and platform) then hospital care is very expensive. For the sake of a hundred-dollar policy, you could find yourself in debt for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

So, even if you are on a limited budget, make sure you get a decent policy. You probably won't need it, but in the event you do, you will be very grateful for it. Most travel companies offer travel insurance, or you can shop around the specialised insurance companies.

National Health Insurance

If you are studying in Japan on a student visa, you are eligible to join the National Health Insurance system. This costs about 15,000 yen per year (although payments vary - they are based on the amount that you paid in tax during the previous two years. Thus if you were not in Japan you pay the minimum amount which makes this a very cheap option. If you worked both years, it gets a little more expensive, but is still good value for one year's cover.)

The policy covers 70% of all medical fees. You have to pay the remainder, so sometimes if you are at university, there are supplementary policies that help with this portion. Language schools do not have such policies, being too small to arrange them. Application is at the Town or City hall, and takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to process. You will need your Alien Registration Card, proof of your status as a student (student card from the school or university), and possibly your passport (best to take it along just in case).

Health care in Japan

Japan is a developed country, with one of the best medical health care systems in the world. There is no need to worry that you will be getting inferior health care to what you would get in your home country. However, there is always the problem of language. For historical reasons, most doctors in Japan can read and write German, even if they don't speak much (modern western medicine was largely introduced from Germany, and all doctors in Japan used to study and write academic articles in German as all the early texts tended to be in that language). However, there is an increasing number of younger doctors who speak English due to the influence of American medical science. However, as a rule you should try to get someone to come with you to the hospital to translate - it will speed up the process and reduce the chance of misdiagnosis.

Most towns have large municipal or "shimin" hospitals, which generally have world-class facilities. However, in Japan it is also common for doctors to set up small clinics on their own, so there is certain to be an ophthalmologist, ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist, Internal Medicine specialist, and Dermatologist running a small clinic near you. These tend to vary in quality; some are run by excellent doctors who have vast experience and will diagnose your problem within moments; others are run by elderly doctors who have been doing the same routine for the last fifty years and seem not to have changed ideas or read a medical journal for the past forty at least. So, look from the outside and work on the same principal as for a restaurant - if there is no one in the waiting room, then it probably isn't very good.

If you are uncertain, try a larger hospital, or ask at your school - they may be able to recommend a clinic for whatever ails you. Try to get a recommendation if you can.

Some Japanese words to help you spot the most common clinics:

Clinic	Pronunciation	Hiragana	Kanji	Problem
Hospital	byouin			All problems
Ophthalmologist	ganka			Eye problems
Dermatologist	hifuka			Skin and sexually transmitted diseases
ENT Clinic	jibika			Ear, nose and throat ailments
Internal Medicine	naika			Problems related to internal organs
Dentist	shika			Teeth

If you aren't sure which one to go to, go to any one of the above and they will be able to help by directing you to the correct location. While dental surgeries are named "xxx-shika" (e.g. Kawamura Shika, Miura Shika, etc.), they are referred to generally as "haisha" (ha, tooth and isha, doctor).