Japan to tighten re-entry screening over medical bill nonpayment

The tightening, designed to prevent nonpayment of medical bills by foreign nationals, is part of a package of measures under consideration by the government to make adjustments to rules related to foreign nationals.

The package was presented at the first meeting Wednesday of a project team working on the matter under the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Headquarters for Foreign Nationals Policy.

The headquarters will examine the discussion results at three groups including the project team and submit a set of proposals to the government as early as next January.

At present, the government collects information from medical institutions about nonpayment by visitors from abroad.

Cases of nonpayment worth 200,000 yen or more are registered with the Immigration Services Agency for stricter re-entry checks.

In response to opinions that the rule is too lax, however, the government began discussions to lower the threshold to 10,000 yen, effective from fiscal 2026.

The government is also discussing broadening the scope of the registration in fiscal 2027 to cover long- and medium-term foreign residents and utilize the nonpayment information for residency examinations.

The package under consideration also includes a measure to check tax and medical insurance premium payments during residency examinations, as well as stricter screening of applications to convert driver's licenses issued abroad to Japanese licenses.