4 ms·

I haven't lived in Japan, but my understanding is that it is bizarre. For instance they don't do organ transplants at all. period. none. They also visit the

I haven't lived in Japan, but my understanding is that it is bizarre. For instance they don't do organ transplants at all. period. none. They also visit the doctor 15 times per year on average, which means they go to the doctor when they are not actually sick, so the doctors are in the habit of not actually treating anyone. Japan may have the highest life expectancy of any country in the world, but Japanese people in the US live about 5 years longer on average than Japanese people in Japan.

yummyfajitas 16y ago
...Japanese people in the US live about 5 years longer on average than Japanese people in Japan. 2 years longer, not 5 years. http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlID=53 http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&#3... http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:JPN&dl=en&hl=en&q=japan+life+expectancy http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le... Of course, it's hardly clear that this effect is caused by health care. Most studies with good controls show very little relationship between variation in health care and health outcomes. (To measure the effect of lifestyle factors on health outcomes, you need a few hundred people for clear results. To measure the effect of health care on health outcomes, sample sizes of thousands give you muddled results.)
pauldelany 16y ago
They do transplants, but the rate is extremely low - mainly due to no donors: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6156925.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6156925.stm