Medical Access Surveys for Foreign Residents in Japan: Implications for Ethics in Social Work

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13104
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Social welfare and social work studies
• Research Institution: Kobe College
• Principal Investigator: YOKOTA KEIKO 神戸女学院大学, 文学部, 教授 (50316022)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 出口 真紀子 上智大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (10593494) ; 大北 全俊 東北大学, 医学系研究科, 講師 (70437325)
• Research Collaborator: AOKI Rieko NPO法人CHARM, 責任代表者
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 外国籍住民の医療 / 多言語調査 / 文化等価性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the kind of barriers foreign residents face when accessing medical services in Japan. A unique aspect of the study was that we administered surveys in six languages (Filipino, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Portuguese, and Spanish), and that we involved cultural informants fluent in their respective languages in the process of translating the surveys, allowing us to detect and correct for discrepancies in cultural values and customs.
Our study found that rather than hearing of issues that were found in the past such as the problem of not having health insurance, or not being able to go to the hospital, the issues that emerged included facing language barriers when trying to access medical facilities, the lack of institutional support to access specialized interpreters, and having little means to learn the same basic knowledge about medical facilities and health insurance as any other Japanese.

Free Research Field

社会福祉学