A 54-year-old Filipino woman living in Inage, Chiba Prefecture, was taken ill in April and had to use an ambulance to go to a hospital in the city of Chiba. She was suffering from acute appendicitis and needed immediate surgery.
The hospital, managed by the Chiba Municipal Government, asked if she was covered by health insurance. She wasn't. The woman, who asked not to be named, has been overstaying her visa since late 1995.
Her family knew that medical care for an uninsured patient would be extremely expensive in Japan. But they were outraged when they found that Chiba's two city-run hospitals charge uninsured patients 50 percent more than numerous other hospitals do.