A government working group adopted a set of policy measures Thursday to support hospitals dealing with a surging number of foreign visitors to Japan, including recommending the purchase of travel insurance in advance and establishing assistance for hospital staff using medical translation services.
The government also plans to stop admitting foreign nationals who have a record of failing to pay high value medical expenses for treatment they received at hospitals in Japan.
In recent years some foreign tourists, in particular those from developing countries, have found it difficult to pay medical fees here as they did not have insurance coverage during their stay. In many such cases emergency hospitals suffered financial losses, experts say.