Traveling To Give Birth In Japan

This topic recently came up in a class discussion and became curious and wanted to learn more about it. Can two US citizens travel to Japan live their for 9 months throughout their whole pregnancy, give birth there, have access to Japanese medical facilities and doctors and then move back to the U.S. with their kid? Or is this illegal?

What would be the purpose of doing so?

Japan does not have free health care and the child would not be a Japanese citizen. Also you would need to qualify for a visa that would allow you to be there for that long, visa waiver entry is only 90 days. Also, you would almost certainly need at least a basic level of ability in spoken, and probably written, Japanese. You would also have to find a hospital that would accept you as, unlike the US, they don't have to.

If you were able to get an appropriate visa and able to pay for living expenses and medical expenses I guess it would be possible.

Thank you for your response! I already knew the child wouldn't be a Japanese citizen and the health care wouldn't be free, but I didn't know about the other parts you mentioned. I heard they have great facilities so I just got curious if it would possible.

Petaris said:

What would be the purpose of doing so?

Japan does not have free health care and the child would not be a Japanese citizen. Also you would need to qualify for a visa that would allow you to be there for that long, visa waiver entry is only 90 days. Also, you would almost certainly need at least a basic level of ability in spoken, and probably written, Japanese. You would also have to find a hospital that would accept you as, unlike the US, they don't have to.

If you were able to get an appropriate visa and able to pay for living expenses and medical expenses I guess it would be possible.

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The main purpose would be just for the experience. Living in Japan and immersing oneself in a different country. Also, they have great facilities and programs for pregnant women. But thinking about it now it would probably be costly and they may not accept foreigners in certain hospitals like you mentioned.

I would contact St. Luke's and tell them you may be in Japan during pregnancy and ask them what out of pocket pregnancy care and birth would cost.
I also suggest considering contingencies like what happens if emergency care or NICU care is needed. In the U.S. trying to pay for that out of pocket would bankrupt you. Not sure about Japan.

I'll look into that!

Sounds complicated, expensive, and stressful. Some places are set up for medical tourism, but Japan isn't. I think Japan may be beginning to accommodate some types of plastic surgery or dental procedures for visiting foreigners, but pregnancy is a different story. I think most doctors would hesitate to take on a patient who was not a long-term resident. Anyway, if St.Luke's has English language assistance, they can give you better info.

kitkat1234 said:

Also, they have great facilities and programs for pregnant women.

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What lead you to this conclusion?

Coming from the US you would likely find the facilities less than impressive and would probably not be thrilled to be sharing a room with other patients.

I am curious as to what programs you found as well? Customarily women go to live with their parents during their pregnancy and that is their support system. There are likely some programs through local townships however I don't believe you would be eligible unless you were considered a resident.

Petaris said:

What lead you to this conclusion?

Coming from the US you would likely find the facilities less than impressive and would probably not be thrilled to be sharing a room with other patients.

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That's if you're going to do it on the cheap. In Japan, insurance doesn't cover pregnancy so there are many levels of facilities.
If you have the money you can pay for extras like private room with in-room shower. Oak Clinic promotes their food made by their in-house chef.
They even have a picture of a non-Japanese baby on the front page so I'm sure they would welcome foreigners.
Here's a bunch of birth experience comments from Japanese mothers. You can read in a browser like Chrome, turning english translation on.
Most don't sound very pleasant but this one was appealing:
I gave birth at a hospital with the largest number of births in Japan.
The price was about 400,000 yen, the food was gorgeous, there was a cake buffet, postpartum beauty treatment and nail care, etc., so I really enjoyed my stay in the hospital.
The doctors and nurses in charge are kind and listen to me, and I want to give birth again.
If most of the experiences were like that I think the birth rate in Japan would go up. But this was very rare.
Considering that a birth with insurance is likely to cost up to that much in the U.S. this sounds like a pretty good deal. A completely out of pocket cost of a birth with no complications in the U.S. is sure to be more than $10,000. But, in Japan, realistically the main problem would be the language barrier and low availability of doctors/nurses that you could communicate with.