Globalisation of the Healthcare Services Sector: Employing Foreign Physicians in National Strategic Special Zones in Japan

With the continuing increase in the ageing rate of the population, Japan must establish a system for the quantitative expansion of healthcare services and the improvement of the efficiency of service provision in order to respond to the increasing demand for the provision of healthcare services. In addition to these quantitative needs, the country needs to respond to the diversification of healthcare needs. The diversification of needs requires careful approaches towards changing disease structures and complex needs; healthcare needs that have diversified as a result of the increase in the number of foreign patients give rise to the need for diverse restructuring of the conventional healthcare service system in Japan. Discussing the viewpoint of globalisation which is needed in order for healthcare services in Japan to focus on guaranteeing denizenship, this study introduces the following measures as means to respond to the diverse medical needs of residents, including foreigners: development of a system for multilingual healthcare services in medical practice; consideration of the social customs of foreign patients and the lifting of restrictions on foreign doctors practising in the National Strategic Special Zones. Keywords—healthcare, foreign physicians, national strategic special zone, denizenship.