Hospitals/Clinics in Japan
In the previous entry titled "Public telephones,Cell phones in Japan", I wrote that when you call for fire/ambulance in Japan, you will dial 119 and for police, you will dial 110.
As stated in the previous entry, after coming over to the states and learn to dial 911 for Police/ambulance (emergency number) was interesting thing for me because the number you dial here is basically a number backward dialing for fire/ambulance in Japan.
By now, I have experienced how American hospitals/clinics/insurance works a bit, and I have found there are some differences between American clinics/hospitals/health insurance and Japanese clinic/hospitals/health insurance. So I thought in this entry, I would write about how Japanese hospitals/clinics/health insurance works.
In Japan, 99% of the time, people are covered by some kind of health insurance whether you are unemployed or being employed.
If you were working for the companies in Japan, companies would be offering you the insurance coverage and, your families are covered by your companies' insurance.This type of health insurance is called "Ke-n-ko-u Ho-ke-n" in Japanese,and it is employee's health insurance in English.
Often times, you will pay up to about 30% of the cost and government pays 70% of the cost.How much you have to pay for the insurance is determined by how much income you get every month.
If you were unemployed in Japan, individually join in the national health insurance (ko-ku-mi-n ke-n-ko-u ho-ke-n in Japanese), and you are covered by the health insurance coverage program that is administered by local government.
I have noticed that the cost of dentist is very high over here in the states.Back home in Japan, I have been to dentist but with insurance, I do not remember paying more than $50 with cash.
In Japan, sometimes, dentist will give you local anesthesia on the gum, but I do not think dentists in Japan use anesthesia that will knock you out during the whole procesure.
When you join in the health insurance organization's program, insurance card is issued roughly the size of 4" x 5" and,the card has all the necessary information medical facilities would need such as your name, address, type of health insurance,insurance number and so forth.
Clinics/hospitals would provide you the hospital/clinic card which is about the size of your credit card and it has your name and patient number on them and every time you visit hospitals/clinic, you will drop the patient card into patient card box and if you were new to them, you will be asked to fill the paper forms and wait for your name be called.
In the states, you will show up at the receptionist window at your appointment time and fill out your name,doctor name and time of your arrival in their chart and receive the paper forms to fill, but in Japan, patient card will emit the step you normally take here in the states;filling out the name chart they have.
Each clinic,hospital has their own patient card so, you will get the card from each clinic,hospital you go to. Not one card fits for all the medical facilities you go to.
Another difference I found is the length of waiting time on the phone to get through to the receptionist at the hospitals here in the states.
In Japan, if you dial hospital/clinic numbers, receptionist will pick up right away but here, I had some occasions that I was on hold for good 15 minutes or more to just make an appointment for tests.
Another difference is that, here in the states, people go to general family clinic,and get referral to special doctors.
In Japan, you can go to almost all kinds of doctors without referrals. You can pick most appropriate department and look up the doctors specialize in the field and make an appointment with them.
If you had common cold, then, you may choose to go to general doctors at the clinic nearby,but if you had pain in the ear, you can make an appointment with doctors at nose/ear department (Ji-bi-ka in Japanese). If you had toothache,you can make an appointment at dentist (shi-ka in Japanese*).
When you say "shi-ka" (dentist), you would put strong intonation on "SHI". If you put strong intonation on "Ka", it changes whole meaning of the word and it means "Deer" in Japanese.
"A me" means rain, but if you read "a ME" (read it with strong accent on "Me"), it means "candy" in Japanese.
"HA-shi" (reading it with strong intonation on "Ha") means chopsticks in Japanese but, if you read "ha-SHI" (reading it with strong intonation on "Shi"), it means 'bridge" in Japanese.
With Japanese language, how you read the word can change the whole meaning of the word.
As you already learned from previous entry titled "Shopping smart for grocery", most purchase transaction in Japan is with cash,not credit card. Therefore, although things might have changed since the last time I was there in Japan, you will pay the cash to clinics/hospitals when you visited the hospitals/clinics.
Hospitals/clinics used to give prescription from doctors working at their facility and, you could pick up your medication at the pharmacy department in the same facility and no other trip to pharmacy stores was required.
I think they now give medication prescriptions to patients just like doctors here in the states and patients go pick up their medication at nearby pharmacy.
On the talk of hospitals, if you happen to be in the situation you would visit your friends at the hospitals, here are some of the things you would like to remember.
In Japan, just like people in the states see the number "13" unlucky number, there are a couple of numbers people in Japan do not like.
One is number "4" because number 4 is pronounced "Shi" in Japanese when written in Chinese character and the word "death " pronounce the same as number "4";"shi" and people do not like the number,and consider them as unlucky number in Japan.
Another number is "9" because number nine is pronounced "ku" when writen in Chinese character and it has the same pronunciation to the word "suffer/agony".
Therefore,people avoid bringing the unlucky number of get well gift to the patients.
Also, people in Japan avoid bringing the flower in the pot because it can symbolize the word "Ne-tsu-ku";patients will be rooted in the hospital and prolong the illness.
Therefore, when you visit friends staying at the hospitals you should bring cut flowers, not flowers in the pot.
If you look closer, you will find there are no seat number "4","9" and "13" in the airplane.
Also, we do not like the number "42" because it can read "Shi-ni-n" meaning "the dead" in Japanese. I do not think you would find the room #42 at the hospitals.
The reasons behind them is all because of these unlucky numbers.
Good number,on the other hand, is number "8" and the number is called "Su-e Hi-r-ga-ri" and when you write the number in Chinese character, two lines one on each side goes wider on the bottom, and because of the shape of Chinese character, it is believed to welcome the good luck in the future.
To see how the number "8" in Chinese character is written at japaneseabout.com website, please click here.
To see how each department of hospitals/clinics are called in Japanese at japanabout.com website,please click here.
To see general basic condition you can describe in Japanese for doctors at japanabout.com,please click here.
As stated in the previous entry, after coming over to the states and learn to dial 911 for Police/ambulance (emergency number) was interesting thing for me because the number you dial here is basically a number backward dialing for fire/ambulance in Japan.
By now, I have experienced how American hospitals/clinics/insurance works a bit, and I have found there are some differences between American clinics/hospitals/health insurance and Japanese clinic/hospitals/health insurance. So I thought in this entry, I would write about how Japanese hospitals/clinics/health insurance works.
In Japan, 99% of the time, people are covered by some kind of health insurance whether you are unemployed or being employed.
If you were working for the companies in Japan, companies would be offering you the insurance coverage and, your families are covered by your companies' insurance.This type of health insurance is called "Ke-n-ko-u Ho-ke-n" in Japanese,and it is employee's health insurance in English.
Often times, you will pay up to about 30% of the cost and government pays 70% of the cost.How much you have to pay for the insurance is determined by how much income you get every month.
If you were unemployed in Japan, individually join in the national health insurance (ko-ku-mi-n ke-n-ko-u ho-ke-n in Japanese), and you are covered by the health insurance coverage program that is administered by local government.
I have noticed that the cost of dentist is very high over here in the states.Back home in Japan, I have been to dentist but with insurance, I do not remember paying more than $50 with cash.
In Japan, sometimes, dentist will give you local anesthesia on the gum, but I do not think dentists in Japan use anesthesia that will knock you out during the whole procesure.
When you join in the health insurance organization's program, insurance card is issued roughly the size of 4" x 5" and,the card has all the necessary information medical facilities would need such as your name, address, type of health insurance,insurance number and so forth.
Clinics/hospitals would provide you the hospital/clinic card which is about the size of your credit card and it has your name and patient number on them and every time you visit hospitals/clinic, you will drop the patient card into patient card box and if you were new to them, you will be asked to fill the paper forms and wait for your name be called.
In the states, you will show up at the receptionist window at your appointment time and fill out your name,doctor name and time of your arrival in their chart and receive the paper forms to fill, but in Japan, patient card will emit the step you normally take here in the states;filling out the name chart they have.
Each clinic,hospital has their own patient card so, you will get the card from each clinic,hospital you go to. Not one card fits for all the medical facilities you go to.
Another difference I found is the length of waiting time on the phone to get through to the receptionist at the hospitals here in the states.
In Japan, if you dial hospital/clinic numbers, receptionist will pick up right away but here, I had some occasions that I was on hold for good 15 minutes or more to just make an appointment for tests.
Another difference is that, here in the states, people go to general family clinic,and get referral to special doctors.
In Japan, you can go to almost all kinds of doctors without referrals. You can pick most appropriate department and look up the doctors specialize in the field and make an appointment with them.
If you had common cold, then, you may choose to go to general doctors at the clinic nearby,but if you had pain in the ear, you can make an appointment with doctors at nose/ear department (Ji-bi-ka in Japanese). If you had toothache,you can make an appointment at dentist (shi-ka in Japanese*).
When you say "shi-ka" (dentist), you would put strong intonation on "SHI". If you put strong intonation on "Ka", it changes whole meaning of the word and it means "Deer" in Japanese.
"A me" means rain, but if you read "a ME" (read it with strong accent on "Me"), it means "candy" in Japanese.
"HA-shi" (reading it with strong intonation on "Ha") means chopsticks in Japanese but, if you read "ha-SHI" (reading it with strong intonation on "Shi"), it means 'bridge" in Japanese.
With Japanese language, how you read the word can change the whole meaning of the word.
As you already learned from previous entry titled "Shopping smart for grocery", most purchase transaction in Japan is with cash,not credit card. Therefore, although things might have changed since the last time I was there in Japan, you will pay the cash to clinics/hospitals when you visited the hospitals/clinics.
Hospitals/clinics used to give prescription from doctors working at their facility and, you could pick up your medication at the pharmacy department in the same facility and no other trip to pharmacy stores was required.
I think they now give medication prescriptions to patients just like doctors here in the states and patients go pick up their medication at nearby pharmacy.
On the talk of hospitals, if you happen to be in the situation you would visit your friends at the hospitals, here are some of the things you would like to remember.
In Japan, just like people in the states see the number "13" unlucky number, there are a couple of numbers people in Japan do not like.
One is number "4" because number 4 is pronounced "Shi" in Japanese when written in Chinese character and the word "death " pronounce the same as number "4";"shi" and people do not like the number,and consider them as unlucky number in Japan.
Another number is "9" because number nine is pronounced "ku" when writen in Chinese character and it has the same pronunciation to the word "suffer/agony".
Therefore,people avoid bringing the unlucky number of get well gift to the patients.
Also, people in Japan avoid bringing the flower in the pot because it can symbolize the word "Ne-tsu-ku";patients will be rooted in the hospital and prolong the illness.
Therefore, when you visit friends staying at the hospitals you should bring cut flowers, not flowers in the pot.
If you look closer, you will find there are no seat number "4","9" and "13" in the airplane.
Also, we do not like the number "42" because it can read "Shi-ni-n" meaning "the dead" in Japanese. I do not think you would find the room #42 at the hospitals.
The reasons behind them is all because of these unlucky numbers.
Good number,on the other hand, is number "8" and the number is called "Su-e Hi-r-ga-ri" and when you write the number in Chinese character, two lines one on each side goes wider on the bottom, and because of the shape of Chinese character, it is believed to welcome the good luck in the future.
To see how the number "8" in Chinese character is written at japaneseabout.com website, please click here.
To see how each department of hospitals/clinics are called in Japanese at japanabout.com website,please click here.
To see general basic condition you can describe in Japanese for doctors at japanabout.com,please click here.
Posted by yassy at 11/13/2011 11:53 AM 
Categories: Japan
Tags: japan hospitals lucky numbers unlucky numbers
Categories: Japan
Tags: japan hospitals lucky numbers unlucky numbers
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