ABSTRACT
Japan's medical care system, like those of most Western industrialized nations, is based on three essential objectives: ready access, high quality, and reasonable cost. Japan's ability to finance a substantial increase in its per-capita expenditures for medical care during the 1970s without major political or public complaint derived from the rapid growth of its economy. This chapter discusses the current status of Japanese medical care, a fee-for-service system cherished by its citizens because they believe steadfastly in the medical model and the physicians who symbolize it and because they place a high value on their personal health. One of Japan's responses to its rapid urbanization and other social phenomena has been the embrace of sophisticated, high technology medical services delivered by physicians. The vast bulk of medical care in Japan is financed through a health insurance system that accounts for more than 90% of total medical expenditures when patients' cost-sharing amounts are included.
