Revised health insurance law in Japan
In Japan, a revised health insurance law seeks to block the use of the system by foreigners who have never lived in the country. This comes as the country is accepting more foreign workers in an effort to tackle labour shortages arising as a side-effect of the country’s rapidly ageing population.
The legislative revision seeks to make the national health insurance programme mainly applicable to workers and their dependents residing in Japan, and covers eight sets of laws related to the social security system, mainly in the field of medical services.
The revised law specifies that if non-working spouses of public pension recipients living in Japan also with to receive a spousal pension, they too must reside within Japan. It enables people to present My Number cards, which are national ID cards, in place of health insurance certificates.