I’m in a bit of a situation – my mother is ailing and I need move her into an elder care facility. She is currently hospitalized. I work for a US company so I follow the FMLA (Family & Medical Leave Act) rules. In order for my FMLA to be approved, a medical provider needs to sign it and submit a medical certificate. I tried a few methods but it is clear now that only my mother’s Japanese doctor can sign & provide all of these. Has anyone been in similar situations? I doubt if a Japanese MD will sign an English form without being able to read it, which most probably have no idea what an FMLA form is. Is it worth getting translated? The bureaucratic red tape just seems insurmountable.
2 comments
Why are you assuming that every Japanese doctor has no English ability? I would say over 50% of the doctors I have ever seen in my 30+ years here can communicate in English.
Doctors usually request money to write a note or sign documents, so be aware you might have to pay about ¥3000 for it, though I haven’t needed it in over a decade, so I don’t know if the situation still occurs.
It reminds me of when I needed a doctors note to receive paid sick leave from my company. I wasn’t actually sick, but I wanted 2-3 days off. The doctor asked me how long I wanted him to write the note for, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks? He didn’t care, as long as I paid for the note, that was fine with him.
Have you asked them? When I had surgery in Japan, my dad had to take FMLA and had some forms. My doctor attached the Japanese notes, I wrote the English on the form and he made a copy for hospital records and signed it for my dad’s company.