Ningen dock: comprehensive health check ups
Living in the states, one of the thing I am not good about is to explain medical stuff;where it hurts, how it hurts, how much pain I feel etc. Sometimes, I have hard time understanding medical terms, or simply no idea what the doctor is talking about, and I ask her/him to explain one by one. If you travel to overseas, knowing medical terms, knowing body names in local language would help.
In the medical area, I found a couple of differences between USA and Japan.
First, I was surprised to experience long hold on the phone to get through to hospital receptionist for appointment reservation. 15 minutes, 20 minutes on hold was normal. In Japan, if you call to hospital, somebody would pick up the phone right away, if not, much much shorter on hold time.
Second, most of the time, here in US, clinics, hospitals have chart where you fill in your arrival time, your name, and date and it looks like receptionists do cross out as the doctors see the patients. In Japan, if you go to hospitals, you get a patient card. It is a plastic card and your name and hospital name on it and there is a card box where you slide your card in. What they do is to collect the card as it pile and call the patient in order.
Third, eye sigh test chart is different. Here in USA, I think I took eye sight test with alphabet going smaller as it read down. In Japan, most places have chart which you see circles going smaller as it goes down and one part of the circle is broken. So, you need to tell the doctor or nurse by pointing fingers which side is broken. How the result is shown is different too. I noticed here in USA, you get result like 20/40, 20/30, 20/20 etc. In Japan, very good result is around is 1.5 and very bad result number is around is 0.01 etc. I am not sure what Japanese result number is equivalent to US chart result number.
Since I did not grew up in US, I have no experiences to compare but, schools invites doctors for health check, vaccination in Japan. If my memory serves, I do not think health check up done at school was not so extensive. If you work for companies, you will visit designated clinic and workers show up to get comprehensive health check up.
In Japan, it is called Ningen dock. It is usually done yearly. The origin of the exam name came from ship actually. Ships that goes out long voyage in the sea usually get extensive check for any broken parts, and if any broken parts were found, they get it fixed and goes out for another voyage. This was believed to be the necessary step for safety voyage and people consider human life to long voyage of the ship and the yearly comprehensive health check up got the name " Ningen dock". At kameda medical center website, I have found a list of what you will be expecting to get things check up. If you choose, you can get two day check up as well. To see the list of one day check up list, please click here.
I think medical cost here in US is more than double and this is one of the things I was surprised about. I do not think we had cost we had to spend before any discount is applied either in Japan. Does USA has Ningen dock type of comprehensive health check ups? Ningen dock is great program if it exist in US as well because people can catch the early stage of any illness much faster and work against it.
In Japan, if you do not work, there is a health check you can get. It is scheduled by clinics, and you will make reservation and come visit the clinic. You will be going room to room, and by the time everything is finished, you will be tired. It takes hours to finish. If you choose, it takes 2 days to everything check up.
I do not go to gym for work out, but I got motivation to work out- Palette, Corgi the stumpy little dog with quirk. If she were not here, I imagine I would not go for walk as much as I do now with her. I went for walk even before she comes to our house but, not as much.
As long as weather is fine, we go for walk daily, we sometimes jog, we play ball, we play Frisbee, we play hide and seek inside the house, we will be running in the house like kids chasing each other.
What do you do for good health?
In the medical area, I found a couple of differences between USA and Japan.
First, I was surprised to experience long hold on the phone to get through to hospital receptionist for appointment reservation. 15 minutes, 20 minutes on hold was normal. In Japan, if you call to hospital, somebody would pick up the phone right away, if not, much much shorter on hold time.
Second, most of the time, here in US, clinics, hospitals have chart where you fill in your arrival time, your name, and date and it looks like receptionists do cross out as the doctors see the patients. In Japan, if you go to hospitals, you get a patient card. It is a plastic card and your name and hospital name on it and there is a card box where you slide your card in. What they do is to collect the card as it pile and call the patient in order.
Third, eye sigh test chart is different. Here in USA, I think I took eye sight test with alphabet going smaller as it read down. In Japan, most places have chart which you see circles going smaller as it goes down and one part of the circle is broken. So, you need to tell the doctor or nurse by pointing fingers which side is broken. How the result is shown is different too. I noticed here in USA, you get result like 20/40, 20/30, 20/20 etc. In Japan, very good result is around is 1.5 and very bad result number is around is 0.01 etc. I am not sure what Japanese result number is equivalent to US chart result number.
Since I did not grew up in US, I have no experiences to compare but, schools invites doctors for health check, vaccination in Japan. If my memory serves, I do not think health check up done at school was not so extensive. If you work for companies, you will visit designated clinic and workers show up to get comprehensive health check up.
In Japan, it is called Ningen dock. It is usually done yearly. The origin of the exam name came from ship actually. Ships that goes out long voyage in the sea usually get extensive check for any broken parts, and if any broken parts were found, they get it fixed and goes out for another voyage. This was believed to be the necessary step for safety voyage and people consider human life to long voyage of the ship and the yearly comprehensive health check up got the name " Ningen dock". At kameda medical center website, I have found a list of what you will be expecting to get things check up. If you choose, you can get two day check up as well. To see the list of one day check up list, please click here.
I think medical cost here in US is more than double and this is one of the things I was surprised about. I do not think we had cost we had to spend before any discount is applied either in Japan. Does USA has Ningen dock type of comprehensive health check ups? Ningen dock is great program if it exist in US as well because people can catch the early stage of any illness much faster and work against it.
In Japan, if you do not work, there is a health check you can get. It is scheduled by clinics, and you will make reservation and come visit the clinic. You will be going room to room, and by the time everything is finished, you will be tired. It takes hours to finish. If you choose, it takes 2 days to everything check up.
I do not go to gym for work out, but I got motivation to work out- Palette, Corgi the stumpy little dog with quirk. If she were not here, I imagine I would not go for walk as much as I do now with her. I went for walk even before she comes to our house but, not as much.
As long as weather is fine, we go for walk daily, we sometimes jog, we play ball, we play Frisbee, we play hide and seek inside the house, we will be running in the house like kids chasing each other.
What do you do for good health?
I found this very informative and interesting to see how things were done in Japan. Sounds like they have a well working health system there. Do serious problems get taken care of quickly by specialists?
There are a lot of programs that the larger companies have that provide their workers with health plans that include free or low cost health screenings once a year, but it is definitely not what everyone can afford.
I was really blessed to work with the County as an Aide for the Severely handicapped, and we had a wonderful health plan. since I worked with them for so long, when I took my disability retirement last year, I got to keep the same plan, but I pay %25 of the costs of the plan now. Still, it is way wonderful because it is a great health plan.
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Thank you for your comments. If any problems were found during yearly health check (Ningen dock), you would most likely be informed what you should check out further. And with your own schedule, you seek out doctors and get things check up.
I think yearly screening program is very good to catch illness at early stage and, I think it is nice if US had affordable yearly health check up program.
Since our main transportation in Japan is train, I wonder if people in Japan might be walking much more in daily life than people here in US does, and as a result, doing better for themselves. I know I got step counter thing and it maybe interesting to compare how many steps in average I walk here in daily life and there in Japan.
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I see what you mean... Everyone gets a yearly checkup and then each person pays for anything further? It probably would be a good idea.
I do think that people in other countries get more exercise in general and it probably does keep them healthier over all. We have a lot more fatty and sugary foods, too, that we are raised on. Makes our palettes tuned to that kind of food, and that translates to bad eating habits that aren't good for us as we get older and more sedentary.
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Since I live in USA for some years, I had to ask my family to get more latest information on them. Here are what my family told me.
If you work for companies, you can get Ningen dock price covered with insurance. If the price turned out over the limit of insurance companies can cover, you are responsible for extra cost.
If you don't have insurance for health, all cost incurred via Ningen dock is your responsibility. As I have put a link to in the entry as example of what are to be checked through this check up, there are different courses. Some are one day course, some are two days, some are half day course.. and you get to choose what you like.
If doctor has found something wrong from check ups, you get notified what you need to get it check for further and you will be finding a doctor and get further check on what needs to be checked more in detail at your cost.These further check is covered by health insurance and you will be responsible for certain % of cost.
Depending on how old you are, whether you are female or male, things that will be checked will be different. Younger people get shorter list of check ups.
As for diet, yes, I feel food here are much sweeter, more use of butter etc and serving portion is much bigger than plate you get at Japanese restaurant. Common breakfast menu is different too. It was kind of culture shock to find my host family years ago when I came over for home stay program served me sausage,Bacon,waffles,pancakes etc for breakfast.
Since Japan is surrounded by sea and has great fish market in Tokyo called Tsukiji Fish Market ( they are popular for fresh fish and I think the market had appearance in Food network TV show called "Next Iron Chef America"), many people in Japan eat more fish too. I find that variety in fish sold at grocery store here in US is narrower than ones you find in Japan.
I admit, sometimes, I have big crave for fish and find myself ordering fish dish at BBQ restaurant, where 99% of people in the restaurant is munching on delicious ribs or brisket
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Oh, Ok... so not everyone can afford to get this done. I didn't see how they could, but I just misunderstood.
Fish where I live is to terribly expensive. I take fish oil capsules to try to get in the Omega 3's, but would love it if I could afford to eat more fish. The cheapest is tilapia and it is usually abour $3 + a pound. Roughy is up to $7-8 a lb. Salmon is around $5 give or take 50 cents. Chicken is usually under $2 so that's what I usually eat.
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I do not think kids pay to school to get yearly check up. Whether you (adult) have to pay for check up or not will be depending on coverage of insurance. But overall, I think I get charged more than double over here in US and, cost of medical in Japan probably much cheaper.
I usually plan weekly menu for family and, I try to make one day for fish. Palette eats salmon and other fish in her diet but I cannot cook salmon for family because my family does not like salmon (they love salmon spread I make though..). I love salmon, but because of this, I usually find myself ordering salmon dish at restaurant, and at home, giving eye of envy to my dog while she is dining her salmon
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