Society
Unpaid Hospital Bills and a Tighter Door: Japan's Re-Entry Rule for Foreign Patients
The government will tighten re-entry screening for foreign nationals who leave Japan with unpaid medical bills, lowering the reporting threshold from 200,000 yen to 10,000 yen and widening its scope. On the same day, a Saitama city assembly member reported that Saitama City Hospital does not track unpaid bills by foreign patients and does not check passports, so it cannot say what nationality they are. Readers converged on the same answer: stop it at the door, not at the border.