Just looking for personal experiences. I know there are several options available in terms of acquiring health insurance in Japan. I'm just trying to get an idea of the coverage and average monthly costs.

I'm on my wife's work plan, but a friend of mine used to be on the national plan when he first moved here and was unemployed. I think he was only paying about 1000円 per month for it. The national plan covers 70% of you medical costs. It is also going to now be a requirement for visa renewal in 2010. If you are late getting insurance they will make you back pay to when you first became a resident. The payment amount is calculated on your previous years income in Japan.

These are just numbers off the top of my head, so some might be off by a bit. I'm not sure if you can get different rates with different visa's or not.

Your college should have some kind of plan for you. If not you can enroll in national insurance. it is based on your previous years income in japan. If that income was 0%, then its very cheap and yes it comes 70% and you can go anywhere. If you are only staying a year or so its well worth it.

Wow I had no idea the national plan was that cheap. Good to know.

http://okazaki.yamasa.org/o.nsf/p/Medica...&ln=en& actually says that enrolling in the national health insurance system is required if you have an alien registration card. It's what I used when I was there as a student; however I didn't get ill so my only interaction with the medical system was having a chest x-ray for tuberculosis as part of the enrollment (seemed deeply weird to me, like something from the 30s or 50s, given that I was vaccinated against it back in high school...)

pm215, you aren't required to enroll in the national health insurance system, you just need to be insured. You could go through a corporate plan with your work or school for example.

i think that recently changed and yes, you are requied to have national? before you werent required at all. I would not trust some of thoses gaijin pot advertised insurance compnaies with my money by the way....