Doctors in private practice earned an average of ¥25.22 million in fiscal 2008, some 1.7 times higher than the income of doctors employed by hospitals, a health ministry report showed Friday.
The amount for hospital doctors in the year to last March stood at ¥14.50 million.
The income difference between private-practice physicians and hospital doctors narrowed marginally from the fiscal 2007 survey.
In that survey, the annual income of practicing doctors was 1.8 times higher than that of hospital doctors.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry filed the report Friday with the Central Social Insurance Medical Council, a panel of representatives from health insurance unions, medical, dental and pharmaceutical associations, and neutral bodies for deliberation mainly of health care charges.