As Filipino Anamaria Ogahara can testify, going to a hospital in a country whose language you don't speak fluently can be a highly challenging and unnerving experience.
Fears about the language barrier prevented Ogahara, a resident in Motosu in Gifu Prefecture, from visiting a local hospital in time, causing a benign tumor in her uterus to rapidly spread.
As a result, the 46-year-old homemaker decided to volunteer as a medical interpreter to help other Philippine residents in Japan from suffering the same fate and to prevent them from experiencing the pain she endured.