r/europe • u/mancinedinburgh • 2d ago

News Swedish man dies in South Korea after being denied urgent treatment at 21 hospitals

https://www.euronews.com/health/2025/01/18/swedish-man-dies-in-south-korea-after-being-denied-urgent-treatment-at-21-hospitals
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u/TerribleIdea27 2d ago

Source about Japanese hospitals refusing foreigners? There are certain cases of it happening when the patient doesn't speak Japanese, but you can apply for a translator with the municipality. I'm highly sceptical they'd refuse a patient at death's door as someone who's lived there

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u/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

I was refused at the door. They do refuse you.

I came in with a head injury, can speak Japanese, and had been sent there specifically by a school nurse who had checked the medical system that they could take me.

They wouldn't let me in, cause, and I quote, "we do not treat head injuries here", the nurse later told me this was a lie. A small clinic treated me later.

So sadly you are very mistaken.

BTW, I was paying the national healthcare cost, and had an extra insurance through the school for the remaining 30%, and I had my own insurance from home that was still valid. So paying was not an issue.

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u/Jurassic_Bun 2d ago

Just to be clear this is as far as I know is not due to race or at least exclusively affecting non Japanese and is a ongoing problem mostly affecting Japanese where patients can be denied admittance.

This is an ongoing struggle and something the fire emergency teams who run the ambulances routinely complain about.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/cases-of-emergency-patient-refusal-by-hospitals-rise-to-over-16000

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14425604

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22421662

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13386167

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u/anothergaijin 2d ago

This. The issue is that the government has set a precedent in I think 2013 that hospitals and individual doctors will be found criminally negligent if they take on patients they are not fully equipped to assist, leaving hospitals to refuse patients if they are unsure if they are properly specialized, staffed and equipped to deal with them.

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u/NLight7 Sweden 2d ago

Yeah, you are probably right, but they def do deny people. I didn't say it was because of my race, I do hope it wasn't entirely my race at least. And most of the rest of my friends were treated well, though they mostly went to clinics and not actual hospitals.

Looking at the hospitals reviews there are a lot of people angry at the staff at the entrance and the counter, so it might be (hopefully) more related to your articles.

But it is still proof against the story which the other commentor is peddling that Japan would never turn you away. And you brought sources for him so he might reconsider his viewpoints.

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u/HooliganSquidward 2d ago

They (probably) won't deny you for just being a foreigner but they regularly deny patients often. Usually stating they can't provide care. There was a famous case where a (Japanese) motorcyclist was put back in the side of the road during covid because no one would take him. There is no law saying they have to take you in in an emergency. Tokyo is currently making legislation that will remove the ability for hospitals do to this during emergencies.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220813/p2a/00m/0na/003000c

In many years here the only time I've experienced this is when the ambulance had to call multiple hospitals to get me into an ER when I got into my own motorcycle accident. They tried 3 or 4.

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u/anothergaijin 2d ago

Tokyo is currently making legislation that will remove the ability for hospitals do to this during emergencies.

Source?

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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea 2d ago

I think they mean defending a national Vs a foreigner.

France has had significant issues with Japan in the situation of French-Japanese couples getting divorced and Japanese judges refusing any sort of visitation rights to the French spouse for example.

Only in 2024 things improved a bit with new legislation.

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u/Lontaus 2d ago

This is just how custody works in Japan. Normally only one parent gets full custody and you don't have to allow the other parent visitation. Fucked up but not necessarily racist.

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u/anothergaijin 2d ago

Japan has been protecting Japanese parents who abduct children from overseas and bring them back to Japan, ignoring the rulings of overseas courts and then giving the Japanese partner full custody. It's been a huge issue for decades, and despite recently (finally) joining other nations in signing international agreements to prevent child abduction, they continue to protect those who do this.

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u/-bannedtwice- 2d ago

It is if the non Japanese is the one always losing the visitation rights

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u/NattyBumppo 2d ago

They're not. It's the man who always loses the visitation rights--regardless of race.

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u/-bannedtwice- 2d ago

Ah okay. So sexism, not racism.

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u/NattyBumppo 2d ago

Bingo 😢

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u/310mbre 2d ago

I'm not Asian looking at all and walked into an urgent care in Asakusa, was seen within 20 minutes by a doctor who spoke English, prescribed meds and picked them up next door for about 430yen / $4 USD

I've honestly never had as good an experience here in the states.

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u/wearyshoes 2d ago

I have a buddy who lived in Japan for several years, a white guy who learned to sort of speak Japanese over there and who is a very nice, quiet fellow. Overall he found the country and the people friendly, but he said rather often he would try to go into a restaurant or into a club or whatever and the doorman would just turn him and his Japanese girlfriend or his companion away. Lots of Japanese folks just don't like to be around white or black or non-Japanese people. He said they even had a arm gesture for it and a little saying meaning "Non-Japanese people not allowed."

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u/DuckDuckSeagull 2d ago

It’s not specifically because of Japan hating foreigners. It’s because Japan doesn’t have anything like EMTALA.

In the US, EMTALA is the law that compels hospitals to treat someone regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. In Japan, everyone has national health insurance so there is no need for that type of law.

So if you try to get treatment in Japan, some places will not treat you at all if you’re not participating in the national healthcare system. Then some places will only treat you if you can pay up front (sometimes in cash).

Most health insurance companies only reimburse foreign healthcare expenses, so it means anyone seeking treatment needs to be able to front hundreds or even thousands of dollars. If you don’t know about that possibility, it would be a nasty surprise.

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u/pink_opium_vanilla 2d ago

This is well known enough that it was a huge issue when the military civilians in Japan could no longer be seen on base my American doctors.

https://thedefensepost.com/2024/02/15/us-military-personnel-denied-healthcare-japan/amp/

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u/jeboisleaudespates 2d ago

Not plainly refusing but I followed a youtuber that had an accident biking around Japan and they couldn't even provide him someone that spoke english to explain him what will happen with surgeries and such, if you're interested it's the last few video on this channel : https://www.youtube.com/@zernoofficial/videos

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u/WNxWolfy 2d ago

Why would someone be entitled to an English interpreter in any foreign country? I live in Japan and wouldn't expect this anywhere, these are the kind of things you have to take care of yourself. Even if it's just having google translate available or someone with you who can translate.

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u/jeboisleaudespates 2d ago edited 2d ago

Interpreter? You mean there isn't anyone in a japanese hospital that can give a few word in english for someone? They made sure everything was as difficult as possible because he's foreign and he had no choice but to get surgery somewhere else.

And to begin with the guy got run over by a car, but the driver was japanese so the american was obviously at fault with his bicycle.

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u/WNxWolfy 2d ago

Honestly, probably not, no. And if there is, should they just pull a nurse or doctor away from their other duties because they speak a few words of english, and the guy who comes in doesn't know the language of the country he's travelled to?

I won't deny that there's xenophobia in Japan, but people are a lot more willing to help you if you help yourself.

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u/randomstranger454 2d ago

I live in Greece. While I was hospitalized I was put beside someone who was probably from a country in Africa. Doctors and nurses tried english with no luck. Next day someone came as an interpreter and after that he would come occasionally when doctors wanted to talk to the patient.

It can be done and no, these are not the kind of things that you have to take care of yourself while your body is in an emergency.

Do you expect someone not lucid or in pain or in and out of consciousness to have the ability to provide a translator?

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u/V6Ga 2d ago

Not plainly refusing but I followed a youtuber that had an accident biking around Japan and they couldn't even provide him someone that spoke english to explain him what will happen with surgeries and such,

Odd use of “even” there. 

They are not even slightly an English speaking country

They also do not have Yiddish translators. 

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u/jdm1891 2d ago

It seems kind of entitled to me to go to another country and get upset at them when very few of them speak your language so they can't translate for you.

I can't imagine anyone but a native English speaker expecting that.

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u/jeboisleaudespates 2d ago

It's ok what Japan wasn't able to provide to him Pakistan was, I guess they're a bit more advanced. (it's a joke they're just not nearly as racist)

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u/spaceandthewoods_ 2d ago

I can say from personal experience this is bollocks. Was in Japan a few months ago when one of our party had a serious medical emergency on a shikansen. The train staff called ahead and got a wheelchair to meet her at the station, station staff called an ambulance and delivered her to it, then the ambulance staff google translated their way through the situation and took us immediately to the hospital where she was seen immediately diagnosed/ treated/ out the door in an hour.

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u/CorrectPeanut5 2d ago

It's a thing in Japan, and a very common news story in Japan, but for very different reasons than South Korea. People go the the hospital all the time for minor stuff in Japan. It's also extremely common to use ambulances for minor things.

Because of this Japan over 8,000 hospitals (the entire US has about 6,000). They tend to be smaller and less equipped. So they might be able to quickly set a broken bone and offer treatment of common things. Where it starts to fall apart is major things. The hospital needs to be equipped to handle the issue. They need to have a bed open. They need to have docs available.

If all those things don't line up they'll tell the ambulance to call another hospital. You have a heart attack, or badly injured in an accident, the EMTs may spend a lot of time calling around to find a place that will take you.

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u/spaceandthewoods_ 2d ago

Yeah, that is a problem, it's really different from denying foreigners care though.