Multilingual Medical Services Urgently Needed for Rapidly Increasing Number of Foreign Visitors to Japan Hospitals with six-language capabilities are thriving, and multilingual website guidance is now available on LINE.

Miyata Gastroenterology and Dermatology Clinic (Location: Hyakunincho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Director: Naoki Miyata) has been providing medical services in six languages in accordance with regional characteristics, and its website is also available in six languages. Recently, the number of foreign residents, foreign students, and foreign tourists has been increasing, and the number of foreigners seeking smooth communication at medical institutions has also been increasing at our clinic. We have started to announce that our clinic website will be available in 6 languages on LINE from January 2025.

Clinic in operation 1

Clinic exterior 1

Many foreigners have difficulty communicating at medical institutions in Japan.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan in 2024 was 3.68 million, up 47.1% from 2.38 million in 2023, and is expected to increase further to 40.2 million in 2025, up 108.9% from the previous year. According to the MEXT's budget plan for FY2025, 27.1 billion yen will be allocated for "strategic acceptance of outstanding international students," and further increase in the number of international students is expected.

The medical care for foreign nationals is therefore required. The University of Tokyo's "Survey on Language Barriers" reported that many foreigners find it difficult to communicate in Japanese medical institutions. Currently, large hospitals are working to create an environment in which they can provide multilingual information and dispatch interpreters in order to enhance acceptance of foreign patients.

Hospitals with six-language capabilities are receiving a flood of foreign patients from far and wide.

The Miyata Gastroenterology and Dermatology Clinic in Shin-Okubo is a rare hospital that offers services in six languages, including Japanese. The director himself can speak directly in Chinese, Taiwanese, English, and Thai, and the professional staff can respond in Korean. 70 patients visit the clinic on average each day, more than half of whom are foreigners. Of these, 70% are Chinese and Korean, 20% are from Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Southeast Asia, and 10% are from Europe and America.

While tourists also visit the clinic, most of the patients are foreigners living in Japan, including French and Singaporean patients living in Kanagawa, and Chinese patients living in Saitama, who come to the clinic because they are worried about language barriers at other hospitals. Foreign patients say, "Your English is good, your communication is excellent, and you are very kind and a good listener. It is inconvenient for me not to be able to communicate my symptoms. Not only that, it is also difficult to understand the reservation and payment systems in hospitals, so it is a great relief to be able to communicate in English. I am very relieved to know that I can communicate in English.

I experienced the anxiety of seeing a doctor as a foreigner myself.

The director was born in Tainan, Taiwan, and raised in Japan from the age of one. At the suggestion of his father, a dentist, he visited a medical school in Taiwan when he was in high school and was impressed by the world's most advanced medical education in Taiwan, and was accepted into a very difficult medical school in Taiwan. He also obtained a medical license in Japan.

When he himself began attending university in Taiwan, his experience of going to a Taiwanese hospital because of poor health and feeling uneasy about communicating in an unfamiliar foreign language is etched in his memory. This experience, which I keenly felt was very important to have the peace of mind of being able to receive language-enabled medical care at a time of poor health and mental distress, has been utilized in my current practice.

From the Director, "Our goal is to maintain and improve the health of our patients, no matter what their nationality, so that they can live happy days with smiles on their faces. Although our focus is on foreigners, we aim to provide the most effective medical care according to each patient's health condition and symptoms so that even Japanese people can easily receive quality medical care." In January 2025, we will begin providing multilingual website information on line, and are working to make it easier for foreign residents to use our website.

Outline of Miyata Gastroenterology and Dermatology Clinic

Location: 2F, 1-11-2 Hyakunincho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan

Telephone number: 03-5937-0668

Services: Internal medicine, gastroenterology, dermatology, Chinese medicine, pediatrics

Office hours: 9:30-12:30 / 15:30-18:30

Closed: Thursday, Sunday, Holidays, Saturday afternoon

Director ： Naoki Miyata

HP ： https://miyata-clinic.com/

We do not accept inquiries for advertisements or promotions.