Level3 wrote:Japan needs MORE fashion, art, and game design graduates?!

Uh.
No.

We already have plenty of useless baitaas.

How about a program to recruit needed people, like nurses... oh yeah, they already fucked that up.

This Planet is being run by retards.

Mulboyne wrote:Presumably, this also implies the creation of a "sick foreigner spouse visa". I suppose that raises the question of what happens if things don't quite work out for the patient: probably the spouse will have to quickly clear out of Dodge or maybe you'll be able to convert to widow/widower status. Perhaps not the latter because there'll be fears that foreigners will start marrying the terminally ill to get into Japan.

Mulboyne wrote:For instance, after a number of unsuccessful consultations in Britain, this guy's problem was only correctly diagnosed in Japan.

omae mona wrote:Don't forget about the whole sub-genre of medical tourism in Japan revolving around diagnosis and treatment of YBF. Hey, can you get a visa for that, too?

LTLurker wrote:I've been going to Thailand -- the leading destination for medical tourism in Asia -- for annual physicals for a decade.

The government has drawn up a list of strategies aimed at boosting Japan's pop culture industry, thereby making Japan and its contemporary culture more competitive internationally. Japan's pop culture--namely its anime, games, food and fashion--is believed to have great potential for improving Japan's image and making its products more competitive in Asia, Europe and North America, where it is popular and being promoted under the name "Cool Japan." The draft of strategies was presented to a special committee of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry's Industrial Structure Council on Monday and is expected to be one pillar of the government's new growth strategy. The strategy urges the Japan External Trade Organization and private consulting firms to cooperate with small and midsize companies that have difficulty in operating overseas by themselves.

The strategy calls for setting up a system in which such organizations and firms consistently help small and midsize companies in doing everything from product development to finalizing sales contracts overseas. The draft includes the establishment of a public-private investment fund to support the content industry in its foreign endeavors, thereby improving the culture industry's sales. It also includes the hosting of cultural events in major Asian cities to promote Japanese fashion and lifestyle. The draft also urges a governmental review of the criteria for issuing work visas under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, in an attempt to lure more creators to the country. Total sales in related industries--including content and fashion--for 2004 were about 45 trillion yen, employing 2.15 million people. Even so, exports only account for 2 percent of total sales in the content industry, far below the 18 percent seen by the United States.

Health checks at Kitasato University Hospital in Minato Ward, Tokyo, have been piloted by a small number of Chinese medical tourists. 20 foreigners have received health checkups at 10 hospitals in Japan as part of a trial that will help hospitals prepare to enter the health tourism market. The medical tourists paid the cost of their checkups and travel, while the cost of interpreters was free. Kameda Medical Center in Chiba Prefecture and Southern Tohoku Medical Clinic in Fukushima Prefecture, are also preparing to enter the medical tourism market. The latter is Japan's leading center for cutting-edge medicine and provides a single destination for the early detection of cancer and other complex illness.

The government is considering creating a "medical visa" system for foreigners keen on receiving high-quality long-term medical treatment in Japan, senior government officials said Monday. The government wants to attract wealthy sufferers of a range of ailments in China and other Asian countries to Japan, so that the nation's medical industry can cash in on such patients, the officials said. The government intends to integrate the visa idea into a package of economic growth policies it plans to draw up possibly by the end of June, they said.

The Foreign Ministry and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry expressed willingness to create the new visa category in a hearing the same day of relevant bureaucrats by the National Policy Unit of the Cabinet Secretariat. Keisuke Tsumura, parliamentary secretary of the Cabinet Office in charge of national policy planning, told reporters, "Medical treatment is a major theme for our economic growth strategy, so we would like to incorporate the medical visa's creation into our growth strategy."

Under the current visa rules, foreigners keen on receiving Japanese medical services enter Japan on the basis of short-term tourist visas allowing them to stay for up to 90 days, and those who wish to stay longer to receive more medical care have to apply for visa extensions. But there have been cases where Japan has turned down such applications, which have dissuaded would-be foreign patients from traveling to Japan to receive long-term care.

Tsumura said the government is considering the creation of the new category by introducing visas whose holders would be allowed to stay past 90 days or by simplifying visa extension procedures. The government will have the two ministries and the Justice Ministry quickly deliberate on the proposal, the officials said. The health ministry has also proposed allowing foreign taxpayers in Japan to use the medical insurance system into which they have paid premiums in their own countries, in cases where they opt to receive medical services at Japanese hospitals, they added.

Dokkyo Medical University and the World Heritage-listed Nikko Toshogu shrine are teaming up to help the nation's tourism agencies and hospitals cash in on the growth of medical tourism. The university in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, and the shrine in Nikko in the prefecture will jointly establish the International Society of Tourism Medicine (ISTM) to look into ways of attracting people to visit Japan for medical checkups. The society will facilitate discussion between universities, medical institutions and tourism agencies over such issues as division of labor, customer service and practice standards. A general meeting is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Nikko, with representatives of several universities and hospitals expected to attend.

Every year, about 60,000 foreigners visit Nikko, which counts the shrine and the Kinugawa onsen resort among its top tourist attractions. Hotels in the resort offer medical service packages, which include a hotel stay and a complete medical checkup. The packages are targeted at both the domestic and international tourism markets. The medical component of the package is provided by the university's Nikko Medical Center, which in April established a department of tourism medicine. In July, the center made an agreement with a university hospital in Shanghai to provide aftercare to Chinese patients. People purchasing the medical service packages can also request that Chinese nurses take part in their checkup.

So far only two Chinese tourists have purchased such packages at the Kinugawa resort, but the center says it receives a steady stream of inquiries from tour agencies in China and South Korea, with some expressing interest in group bookings. While comprehensive medical checkups are common practice in Japan, the same is not true of some other Asian countries, where the idea of combining a general health with a trip to Japan is thought to have strong appeal. The government's new growth strategy, approved by the Cabinet in June, includes a plan to issue special tourist visas to people visiting the nation for medical treatment.

To expand medical tourism, the government plans to make it easier for Chinese and other Asians to obtain short-term medical service visas by providing information on Web sites of Japanese embassies and consulates. The goal is to make this country's advanced medical services accessible to wealthy Chinese and other Asians.

On the Web sites, the government plans to add the category "stay for receiving medical services" and provide information on the required documents. Though such visas have been available for some time, their existence is not widely known. The government hopes to increase the number of medical tourists without changing the current visa system for the time being.

A Cabinet meeting endorsed medical tourism in June as part of the government's new strategies to boost the economy. As part of the efforts, the government aims to provide wealthy Asians with such medical services as routine checkups and treatment, as well as encourage them to enjoy ordinary tourism.

The governments of such Asian countries as Singapore and Thailand have been accepting hundreds of thousands of medical tourists a year. For short-term visas for medical treatment in Japan, applicants are required to provide certification of their ability to pay for the travel, besides the documentation required for ordinary visas such as flight information.

Currently, the Web sites of Japanese embassies and consulates provide information on documents required to obtain visas to visit relatives and acquaintances as well as for sightseeing and short business trips. However, those seeking information about medical service visas need to visit embassies and consulates. The government is also expected to issue multiple-entry visas for people who need follow-up medical treatment.

Could medical tourists bring something more sinister than their own health problems with them when they come to Japan? Recent revelations of drug-resistant bacteria infections at Teikyo University Hospital and Dokkyo Medical University Hospital could be precursors of more superbug infections as medical tourism grows around the world, experts have warned...Some observers have suggested that the growing popularity of medical tourism--including the growing number of people coming to Japan for medical checks and treatment--is one cause of the increasing frequency of superbug outbreaks... Although medical tourism remains a fledgling industry in Japan, the government is considering promoting medical checkup tours as part of a new economic growth strategy. Some hospitals already accept medical tourists from abroad. However, Prof. Yasuyoshi Ike of Gunma University warned, "Medical tourism brings with it the risk of a superbug spreading across the nation in an instant"...

Mulboyne wrote:Yomiuri sees a downside:

According to Takaaki Nakamoto, director of the university's Nikko Medical Center, medical facilities in major Chinese cities like Shanghai are not much different from those in Japan, but the quality of medical technology and level of dependability are considered higher in Japanese hospitals.

The Nikko Medical Center has entered a collaborative arrangement with Tongji University Hospital in Shanghai, establishing a system for follow-up monitoring of their patients after they return to China. But because comprehensive medical examinations are not yet widely available in China, there have been misunderstandings in which Chinese patients have demanded not just check-ups during their stay in Japan but treatment as well.

Consequently, it was decided that a forum in which healthcare providers and other involved parties could review case studies and exchange information was crucial in establishing a full-scale medical tourism industry. Steps have since been taken toward the founding of IATM with plans to standardize the content of physical exams at all participating hospitals and collaborate with travel agencies in the future.

Mulboyne wrote:Pieces have fallen into place for the medical visas. Haven't seen anything about the "artistic visa" proposal raised at the same time.

Japan creates 6-month medical visa for foreigners to receive health care

Screwed-down Hairdo wrote:Japan can probably offer tremendous medical services, as I can, myself, attest....but the language problems is gonna fuck over too many people to ever make this a viable enterprise.

In a move unusual for an overseas medical institution, Raffles Medical Group of Singapore will expand its operations to an area being developed near JR Osaka Station, it has been learned. RMG's plan comes as the Japanese government promotes medical tourism in this country as part of its new growth strategy adopted in June. The Singaporean medical group's inroads into Japan could facilitate rapid growth of this nation's medical tourism market, according to observers. Umeda North Yard, the 24-hectare redevelopment area to host RMG, is located north of Osaka Station and referred to as the last prime land in the Kansai region. Singapore has been far ahead of Japan in the medical tourism field, which seeks to attract foreign tourists who need medical services.

Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, Inc., which is among the area's developers, invited RMG to take part and aims to reach a basic agreement with the Singapore medical group by the end of March. The planned advanced development zone will feature bases and offices of cutting-edge international research and development organizations. RMG plans to open a 1,000-square-meter outpatient clinic to be staffed by Japanese doctors fluent in foreign languages. They will examine foreign residents, their family members and tourists from overseas. RMG plans to offer medical services to wealthy people from China, Russia and other countries using Japanese cutting-edge clinical laboratory equipment. The group also plans to organize tours for such patients to receive treatment at RMG's affiliated hospitals in their home countries or at hospitals in Singapore. In the future, RMG hopes to establish a general hospital in Japan if it convinces the Japanese government to ease regulations to permit foreign doctors to examine patients in this country.

Established in 1976, RMG's sales in fiscal 2009 were about 14 billion yen. The group operates clinics and hospitals at about 70 locations in Singapore as well as general hospitals in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It has treated more than 1 million patients in Singapore, one-third of whom are foreigners hailing from more than 100 countries. They include many foreign residents of Singapore, along with the increasing number of medical tourists to Singapore, according to sources. Last month, RMG Chairman Loo Choon Yong visited Japan and met with executives of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings and Osaka Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu. He told them of RMG's intention to make a foray in Osaka and inspected the construction site, the sources said.

Of Umeda North Yard's 24 hectares, the seven-hectare advanced development zone on the eastern side is scheduled to open in the spring of 2013. Usage for a second development area on the western side has not been decided, though plans include dedicating some space to green parkland. The Development Bank of Japan has estimated potential demand for medical tourism in Japan at about 430,000 people, and that market size, including other traditional forms of tourism, will expand to about 550 billion yen in 2020. In its plan to market medical services for foreigners, the government created a medical stay visa valid for up to six months, beginning this month, to encourage foreigners to visit Japan for medical testing and treatment.

A Saudi Arabian man who successfully underwent cutting-edge cardiac surgery left the Osaka University Hospital in Suita, Osaka, on Tuesday. Saleh Alshareeda, 58, who suffered from a severe cardiac illness, received surgery using muscle cells taken from his legs to restore heart function. He was the first foreign patient to undergo the surgery at the Osaka hospital. For patients suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy--a disease in which the heart becomes swollen and unable to pump blood efficiently--the Osaka University Hospital is the nation's only medical institution that provides the surgery, considered to be a viable alternative to heart transplants. The hospital said Alshareeda, who was diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy five years ago, visited Japan for the treatment as a "medical tourist." Osaka University Hospital Prof. Yoshiki Sawa said, "I hope this will give Japan the opportunity to make an international contribution [by treating foreign patients]."

The hospital's medical team removed muscle tissue from Alshareeda's leg in December and cultivated the cells extracted from the muscle tissue to form them into sheets about five centimeters wide. In the Jan. 28 surgery, the diseased heart was wrapped with 30 of the sheets. Alshareeda held a press conference in Osaka on Tuesday and said his physical condition has been good. "This treatment is just great, which I believe will help tens of thousands of patients in the future," he said. The treatment method, which was pioneered by Sawa and his medical team, has successfully restored the heart functions of nine Japanese patients. Sawa said he has received inquiries from a dozen prospective patients, mainly from Middle Eastern nations.

Thug4Life wrote:This is all a very, very funny and entertaining joke now! Disgusting Jap mother fockers are now down on their god damned knees and BEGGING for the gaijin to come. Serves the rat faces right! And who in focking hell would want to actually go to radiation-filled Japan now? Da Fuck! Japan is already expensive enough, but add on the sky high yen fx rate and the upcoming new tax increases and that makes everything almost five or six times more expensive than other much safer, cheaper and much more enjoyable destinations. Niggas please!

In a few short years from now, when the full effects of radiation sickness have started burning millions and millions of Japs up from the inside, the world will collectively ban all travel to and from Japan. Planeloads full of Japs will be shot out of the sky. Boatloads will be sunken at sea. Living conditions will become even worse than North Korea. In ten years, Japan as a nation and all Japanese culture and language will no longer exist. Good riddance.

Location: HANGZHOU

chokonen888 wrote:Ehhh, you really feel much safer there?