After a shocking number of reports about patients being turned away from emergency care and inevitably dieing, it is clear that the medical system is in a dire condition. But what exactly is going wrong?

Something that many of us as foreign parents in Japan are surprised at is the amount of candy Japanese mothers feed their kids - especially in public, such as on the trains and in supermarkets. It seems that the need to keep the kids orderly and quiet supersedes any health concerns and so at the first whine from the stroller, out comes the candy. We can only assume that what goes on in public is probably continued to some degree at home and so you have to wonder if this is setting an extremely negative diet pattern for these kids later on in life.

Hiroyuki Miyagawa By Joseph Greenberg -- How Medical Hi-Net is bringing the medical mall to Japan -- The future of healthcare in Japan looks to be one of improvement and innovation. Dissatisfaction with the level of medical service and the government’s funding woes has provided an opportunity, and arguably a need, for high quality healthcare services to set up in Japan. An example of this new trend is the Osaki ‘DOKTORS’ medical center, opened in November of last year.

J@pan Inc's comprehensive directory of healthcare services in Japan.

By Anna Kitanaka -- Problems with Japan's healthcare system -- Edlyn Niimi, a US citizen who moved to Japan in February last year, told us of an emergency encounter she had with the healthcare system in Japan. She was in need of emergency care after an infection turned septic following complications from surgery. After arriving at a Tokyo hospital, she was immediately denied assistance...

This week Terrie considers the commercial consequence of Goodwill Group's failure to renew operating licenses for their nursing homes business as well as need-to-know summaries of Japan-related news and commercial information. Read Terrie's Take Now