6 Medicare of foreign nationals and social security
		6-1 Public assistance 6-1-1 The right of a long-term or permanent resident to claim livelihood assistance shall be guaranteed. 6-1-2 Livelihood assistance shall be applied mutatis mutandis to foreign nationals other than long-term or permanent residents. In the event that a foreign national requires urgent medical care, the local government shall take appropriate measures to apply livelihood assistance to him at its discretion. 6-2 National health insurance 6-2-3 As a rule, the whole nation shall be covered by insurance. Approval for foreign nationals not covered by health insurance (social insurance) to join the national health insurance system according to his/her actual circumstances shall be given. 6-2-4 Appropriate measures shall be taken promptly to qualify those foreign nationals for national health insurance who have filed an application, for example, for special permission for residence and want to reside here on a long term basis by meeting certain requirements. 6-2-5 Complete the criteria and procedures to qualify foreign nationals for national insurance regardless of status of residence because of the fact that they have lived here. 6-3 Health insurance (social insurance) 6-3-6 Migrant workers and their family members shall be covered by social insurance, regardless of their status of residence when they work at a workplace eligible for such insurance. 6-3-7 The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare shall have the employer know about health insurance and give instructions to him to use the health insurance system. (See 2-1-8.) 6-3-8 The procedures to make sure of his eligibility for such insurance shall be completed in order for the employee to get an insurance policy upon request, going back to the time that he started to work. 6-4 Local government's responsibility 6-4-9 The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare shall have the local government know that public services in such fields as children, mother and children welfare and public hygiene may be available to migrant workers and their families, regardless of status of residence, and that the local government render these services equitably. 6-4-10 The local governments shall render legally applicable services fully to foreign nationals, making the best use of the current legal system. 6-5 Exemption of obligation to report 6-5-11 Personnel working in the fields of medicare, insurance and welfare shall give priority to confidentiality according to the national public servant law and local government servant law over such obligation to inform as required by the Immigration Control Law. 6-6 Access to medicare 6-6-12 Medical institutions shall prepare in-house criteria to charge medical expenses calculated at a rate of ?10 per point for those migrant workers and their families who are excluded from eligibility for health insurance. 6-6-13 Medical institutions shall make efforts to budget for the employment of staff who speak one or more foreign languages and to ask for interpreters. 6-6-14 The local governments shall be equipped with a public interpreter dispatching system, shall organize voluntary interpreters, and budget the necessary expenditures to secure medical interpretation. (See 7-4.)

	|  Site Top  |  English Top  |  Sitemap  |
	Solidarity network with Migrants Japan