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Hospital beds per 1,000 population, 2021: 12.6
Average length of stay in hospital, 2021: 16.0
Average number of in-person doctor consultations per person, 2021: 11.1
CT scanners per million population, 2021: 116
MRI units per million population, 2021: 57
PET scanners per million population, 2021: 5

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

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“The Medical Care Act, 1948 defines hospitals and clinics as places where physicians or dentists conduct a medical or dental practice, serving either the general public or a particular group of people (Government of Japan, 1948b). Hospitals are defined to have facilities that can accommodate at least 20 patients, and clinics have fewer than 20 hospital beds, although many have none at all.

“In 2016, there was a total of 178,911 active medical facilities, including 8442 hospitals, 101,529 general clinics and 68,940 dental clinics. Hospitals are further divided into 7380 general hospitals and 1062 psychiatric hospitals (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2017r). Of the general clinics, 7629 (7.5%) had beds, and 93,900 (92.5%) did not. Among 7629 general clinics with beds, two thirds (70.7%, 5395) had 10–19 beds. Among 8442 hospitals, there were 3039 facilities with 20–99 beds (36.0%), 2754 with 100–199 (32.7%), 2231 (26.5%) with 200–499, and 418 with 500 beds or more (5.0%).”

Source: Sakamoto H, Rahman M, Nomura S, Okamoto E, Koike S, Yasunaga H et al. Japan Health System Review. Vol. 8 No. 1. New Delhi: World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, 2018.

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“Japanese hospitals are in general well equipped with high-technology devices (Matsumoto M et al., 2004). There is no restriction on hospitals that prohibits the purchase of medical equipment, and hospitals are free to open any specialty department without authorization from the Central Government. Two out of every three hospitals, including psychiatric hospitals, have whole-body CT scanners (Table 4.1). The number of CT scanners per 1000 population is 0.101, compared with a mean of 0.024 in other OECD countries, 0.051 in Australia, and 0.041 in the United States of America and Iceland. There are 0.047 MRI scanners per 1000 population in Japan, significantly higher than the OECD average of 0.014, and higher also than the rates of 0.035 in the United States of America, 0.025 in Italy and 0.024 in the Republic of Korea.

“Although this high prevalence of high-technology equipment may improve patient access, it may not be efficient and may incur over-utilization and cost escalation. An important challenge facing health policy-makers is ensuring there is balance between cost effective distribution of high-technology equipment within a region and ease of access for patients.”

Source: Sakamoto H, Rahman M, Nomura S, Okamoto E, Koike S, Yasunaga H et al. Japan Health System Review. Vol. 8 No. 1. New Delhi: World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, 2018.

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“Clinics fulfil a general diagnostic function and are usually very wellequipped with apparatus for X-rays, electrocardiography, and blood and urine tests. Clinics with inpatient beds function effectively as small-sized hospitals, and their beds constituted 9.9% of the total beds in 2004. This comprehensive function of clinics is an important basis for primary health care in Japan. People can access very convenient services at affordable prices almost anywhere in the country and receive treatment at a comparatively early stage of any illness.”

Source: Sakamoto H, Rahman M, Nomura S, Okamoto E, Koike S, Yasunaga H et al. Japan Health System Review. Vol. 8 No. 1. New Delhi: World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, 2018.

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World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other nations.

Page last updated March 31, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.