＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
1. Increase in the number of hospital problems involving foreign visitors to Japan
With the increase in the number of foreign visitors to Japan, there has been a series of troubles at Japanese medical institutions involving foreign patients requesting unreasonable paperwork to extend their period of stay or not paying medical fees, and the field is struggling to cope with the situation.
The revised Immigration Control Act, which aims to expand the acceptance of foreign workers, was enacted in 2018 and came into effect in April 2019. This is expected to further increase the number of foreign patients, so immediate action is needed!
(1) Unpaid medical fees
According to the results of a survey compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare at the end of March 2018, 372 hospitals (18.9%) out of 1,965 hospitals in Japan that accepted foreign patients during the month of October last year had medical fee receivables, with an average of 8.5 cases per hospital, amounting to 423,000 yen on average, some of which exceeded 1 million yen.
Foreigners who stay in Japan for a long period of time for study or work are required to enroll in Japan’s public medical insurance, but foreigners who visit Japan for sightseeing or to visit relatives must pay the full amount on their own.
While the average amount of unpaid medical insurance for foreign residents in Japan is just over 20,000 yen, the average amount of unpaid medical insurance for foreign visitors to Japan is just under 50,000 yen, more than twice as much.
(2) Unreasonable demands
There was a case in which a foreigner who came to Japan to visit his relatives came to see a doctor and asked to prepare a document to be submitted to the Immigration Bureau when his status of residence is extended, saying, “I want you to write ‘I need to be hospitalized for an examination even for one day.
There is absolutely no need for hospitalization, and this is an illegal and false request for a medical certificate. Even though the hospital refused the request, the foreigner persisted.
(3) Cases of “impersonation of foreign residents”
There have been cases of foreigners visiting Japan misusing their insurance cards by impersonating foreign residents whom they know.
3. Measures to deal with problems
(1) For unpaid medical fees, it is necessary to ensure cashless payment and prepayment.
(2) For unreasonable demands, it is necessary to firmly reject them, and in some cases, it may be necessary to report the matter to the police.
(3) For cases of impersonation of a foreign resident, it is necessary to ask for a resident card with a photograph and to thoroughly check the identity of the foreign resident at the counter.
The revised Immigration Control Act, which came into effect in April of 2019 and aims to expand the acceptance of foreign workers, is a bill that has not yet been boiled down to its detailed points. To prevent the troubles described above, it is necessary to establish detailed laws and response manuals as soon as possible in the future, assuming various types of foreign patients.
There is also an urgent need to develop human resources who are fluent in Japanese and foreign languages. The need for such personnel is much greater than it was before the “Heisei Era.