I just recently moved to a new area in Tokyo, I called a nearby clinic to make a reservation (in Japanese) and pretty quickly into the conversation, the receptionist asked if I could go somewhere else instead. When I asked why, she clearly and blatantly said “they don’t take foreigners.” I was shocked so I asked again just to make sure I heard right and again she said they don’t take foreigners.
When I accused the clinic of discrimination they tried to deny it and claim that “it’s difficult to communicate with foreigners,” though I’ve never had that issue at any other Japanese speaking only clinic or hospital.
If this were just a bar or something I’d drop it, but the fact that a CLINIC can blatantly discriminate against patients seems insane to me. I’m not expecting much sadly, but is there anywhere I can report them?
I’m paranoid about just leaving bad reviews because I’ve seen a first hand case of someone getting sued over one.
———————
UPDATE:
I called a “patient voice” hotline for reporting these sort of things. I explained the situation and they said they would contact the clinic. They later updated me and said they were actually able to talk to the doctor, and he just doubled down and insisted they did nothing wrong because “communication with foreigners is difficult.” After that they basically could not do anything else other than offer sympathy lol…
[患者の声相談窓口 東京都保健医療局 (tokyo.lg.jp)](https://www.hokeniryo.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/iryo/sodan/madoguchi.html)
I also called this government hotline. First they tried to refer me back to the patient voice hotline. After I explained the results from patient voice, they said they are going to determine if it warrants an investigation, which would take 2-3 weeks. They also warned that the clinic is allowed to decline the investigation… so honestly I’m expecting nothing. But they said they would contact me again in 2-3 weeks.
[Human Rights Bureau (moj.go.jp)](https://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/HB/hb.html)
Local police just said different hospitals have different rules and nothing can be done, just go to a different clinic.
by No-Artichoke9959