Reflecting a growing need for home-based care for the nation's aging population, on April 1, the health ministry started allowing clinics to provide care and treatment at patients' homes and nursing homes.

"How is your back pain?" Dr. Yoko Nishiyama asked a 99-year-old woman during a visit to a nursing home in Kawasaki in March. "It's so so," replied the woman, who has high blood pressure and other chronic ailments. After examining her and looking up the results of past checkups, Nishiyama changed her prescriptions.

"Visiting and giving consultations to patients who require nursing care and have difficulty visiting hospitals helps to prevent further progression of chronic symptoms or sudden changes in their conditions," said Nishiyama, who examined roughly 20 patients in the nursing home that day.