I agree with Joe Conason. Anyone who would tell you that the medical system in Japan is not government run is ignorant.

I personally know of an elderly lady who barely has a grasp on reality that she would ask her son in America to stop by after work in the evening. Yet, the government agency does not deem her to be disabled enough to be admitted to a full care facility. Once, when her daughter, also living in America, came to visit for a few months, she noted that she ate small amounts of food 5 or 6 times a day. Then the lady told her daughter, "I think I'm sick, I'm never hungry anymore. She lives at home alone. "Not sick enough."

Another person I know was receiving dialysis and before the treatment was half finished, he was disconnected because some board decided that he was too sick to continue to receive treatment, and that the resource could be better spent for other patients. He died just a few days later. On the day he died, the nurses pounded on his chest and brought him back several times. Why? They weren't going to give him what he needs to live anyways! "Not worth treatment - too sick."

Since the government subsidizes the care, they decide who gets it and when.

Why do you suppose a large number of the best Japanese doctors practice in the United States? Same could be said of many good Canadian doctors, British doctors, French doctors, etc., etc. .....