Holiday and a health check: Nikko woos medical tourists

The Yomiuri Shimbun

UTSUNOMIYA--Dokkyo Medical University and the World Heritage-listed Nikko Toshogu shrine are teaming up to help the nation's tourism agencies and hospitals cash in on the growth of medical tourism.

The university in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, and the shrine in Nikko in the prefecture will jointly establish the International Society of Tourism Medicine (ISTM) to look into ways of attracting people to visit Japan for medical checkups.

The society will facilitate discussion between universities, medical institutions and tourism agencies over such issues as division of labor, customer service and practice standards. A general meeting is scheduled for Oct. 9 in Nikko, with representatives of several universities and hospitals expected to attend.

Every year, about 60,000 foreigners visit Nikko, which counts the shrine and the Kinugawa onsen resort among its top tourist attractions. Hotels in the resort offer medical service packages, which include a hotel stay and a complete medical checkup. The packages are targeted at both the domestic and international tourism markets.

The medical component of the package is provided by the university's Nikko Medical Center, which in April established a department of tourism medicine.

In July, the center made an agreement with a university hospital in Shanghai to provide aftercare to Chinese patients. People purchasing the medical service packages can also request that Chinese nurses take part in their checkup.

So far only two Chinese tourists have purchased such packages at the Kinugawa resort, but the center says it receives a steady stream of inquiries from tour agencies in China and South Korea, with some expressing interest in group bookings.

While comprehensive medical checkups are common practice in Japan, the same is not true of some other Asian countries, where the idea of combining a general health with a trip to Japan is thought to have strong appeal.

The government's new growth strategy, approved by the Cabinet in June, includes a plan to issue special tourist visas to people visiting the nation for medical treatment.