| Verified against primary record | |
| Medical stay visa introduced | 17 December 2010, initially as a one-year trial[1] |
|---|---|
| Maximum stay | Up to 6 months; over 90 days requires a Certificate of Eligibility[1] |
| Maximum validity | Up to 3 years, single or multiple entry[1] |
| Activities covered | Treatment, full check-ups, examinations, dental care and recuperation[1] |
| Accompanying persons | Permitted as needed, and need not be family members[1] |
| Guarantors | Registered travel agencies and registered medical coordinators[1] |
| Accreditation scheme | JMIP, run under the health ministry since fiscal 2012[2] |
| Independently reported | |
| Japanese residents among foreign patients in South Korea (2025) | 29.8 per cent of 2.01 million[3] |
| Provider-supplied | |
| Guarantor role in practice | A national university hospital states it is not a guarantor organisation and issues no letter of guarantee[4] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. No official Japanese count of foreign patients treated in Japan was located, and none has been estimated. The Korean figure is included because it is an officially derived measure of Japanese outbound medical travel, published by another government; it is not a Japanese statistic. No typical cost range is given because no official Japanese source publishes prices paid by foreign patients. | |
Medical tourism in Japan is organised around two government instruments, a dedicated medical stay visa and an accreditation scheme for hospitals that accept international patients, rather than around published patient statistics. Japan has a clear legal route for an incoming patient and a formal quality mark for the hospitals that treat them, but no official series counting how many such patients there are. The one well-documented quantity is the flow in the other direction: Japanese residents are the second largest group of foreign patients recorded in neighbouring South Korea.
The medical stay visa
Japan introduced a medical stay visa on 17 December 2010 through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented at the time as a one-year trial with the government reserving the right to tighten the requirements or discontinue the scheme if problems emerged.[1]
The terms are broad. The visa permits a stay of up to six months as needed, with a validity of up to three years and either single or multiple entry. Stays exceeding 90 days in hospital require a Certificate of Eligibility. Any hospital or clinic may serve as the treating institution, with no accreditation condition attached to the visa itself. Applicants must demonstrate adequate financial means.[1]
Notably, the visa is not restricted to treatment of illness. It covers any care the medical institution directs, expressly including full medical check-ups, examinations, health checks, dental care and recuperation. Accompanying persons are permitted as needed and, unusually, need not be family members. Guarantors are registered travel agencies and registered medical coordinators.[1]
The inclusion of health screening and recuperation, and the allowance for non-family companions, make the Japanese visa one of the most broadly drawn medical travel permissions in use, covering what other systems would classify as wellness or diagnostic travel rather than medical treatment.
How the guarantor requirement works
The guarantor arrangement is where the system becomes demanding in practice, because the treating hospital and the guarantor are usually not the same body. A Japanese national university hospital states plainly that it is not a guarantor organisation under the medical stay visa system, that it does not issue letters of guarantee, and that it provides no guarantor services. It directs prospective patients to engage a registered medical coordinator instead, and recommends doing so early.[4]
What such a hospital does supply is clinical rather than administrative: medical acceptance documentation, a treatment schedule, a certificate of planned medical services and supporting medical documents, each depending on the condition, the treatment plan and departmental review. The clinical department decides whether it can accept the patient at all and may ask for further information. The same hospital notes that visa issuance remains at the discretion of the Japanese government and that neither it nor its international office can guarantee approval.[4]
These statements come from a single provider and describe that provider’s own policy. They are included because they illustrate the division of responsibility the visa framework creates, not because they establish national practice.
Accreditation
Alongside the visa, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare runs an accreditation scheme for medical institutions accepting foreign patients, known by the abbreviation JMIP. The scheme began in fiscal year 2012 and is delivered through an implementing organisation selected by open call, administered by the ministry’s office responsible for international development of medical care.[2]
The ministry page documenting the scheme publishes no list of accredited institutions, no statistics or surveys on foreign patient numbers, and no guidance on charging foreign patients. Accreditation is therefore a quality signal rather than a counting mechanism, and it does not generate volume data.[2]
Japanese patients abroad
The best-evidenced quantity concerning Japan comes from South Korea, whose statutory reporting system counts foreign patients by nationality. On figures the Korean health ministry released in April 2026, Japan accounted for 29.8 per cent of 2.01 million foreign patients treated in Korea in 2025, second only to China at 30.8 per cent. More than 62 per cent of that Korean caseload was in dermatology, which indicates the character of the travel.[3]
That is a Korean measurement of activity in Korea, expressed as a share of a Korean total. It is not a count of Japanese residents travelling for treatment, and no Japanese source quantifying outbound medical travel was located.
Limits of the evidence
Japan’s framework is well documented and its volumes are not. No official Japanese statistic on foreign patients treated in Japan was located, whether from the health ministry, the accreditation scheme or the visa system. The visa terms described here are those announced in 2010, and no later amendment was examined for this article, so the current detail may differ. The guarantor description is one hospital’s own statement of policy. Any figure presented elsewhere as the number of medical tourists visiting Japan should be traced to a named official source before it is relied on.
See also
- Medical tourism in South Korea, whose statutory count supplies the one firm figure about Japanese patients
- Health screening abroad, expressly covered by the Japanese medical stay visa
- Medical travel coordination, the registered coordinator role the visa depends on
- Companions in medical travel, permitted here without a family relationship
- International patient departments, the hospital units that handle these admissions
References
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Medical stay visa announcement. 17 December 2010. Verified against primary record: the announcement was opened and the trial basis, the eligibility and financial condition, the six-month maximum stay, the three-year validity, the entry options, the covered activities including check-ups and recuperation, the position on accompanying persons and the designation of registered travel agencies and medical coordinators as guarantors were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. Call for implementing organisations, JMIP accreditation promotion project. 2019. Verified against primary record: the page was opened, confirming that the accreditation scheme for medical institutions accepting foreign patients began in fiscal year 2012, that it is administered through a selected implementing organisation under the ministry’s international medical development office, and that the page carries no list of accredited institutions, no patient statistics and no guidance on charging foreign patients. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Korea JoongAng Daily. Number of foreign patients top 2 million for first time in 2025. Reporting figures released by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare on 24 April 2026. Independently reported: the article was opened and the Japanese and Chinese shares of the Korean total and the specialty breakdown were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Kobe University Hospital, International Medical Communication Center. Medical Stay Visa and Guarantor Requirements. Provider-supplied: the page was opened and the hospital’s statements that it is not a guarantor organisation, that it issues no letter of guarantee, that it refers patients to registered coordinators, and the list of clinical documents it will issue were read. This describes one hospital’s policy, not national practice. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: this entry documents a framework rather than a market, because no official Japanese count of foreign patients was located and none has been estimated. The one quantity given is a Korean government measurement of activity in Korea and is labelled as such rather than presented as a Japanese figure. The guarantor material is drawn from a single hospital and is placed in the provider-supplied band for that reason. The visa terms are those announced in December 2010; later amendments were not examined.