Alongside travel companies. Through a specialist operator. Or designed by us from the ground up. Three routes — and what each one asks of a guest’s stay is different.
“From overseas” is one phrase covering very different things. Where a guest travels from changes how long they stay, what they want from Japan, and how they think about cost. That is why there is no single way to receive them.
The guests we are built for travel through Japan differently from the way Japanese travellers do: they stay for long stretches. Over two or three weeks, a day always appears with nothing in it — no train to catch, no temple to see. A day spent slowly, at the hotel.
That day has room in it for a health check. Nothing is taken out of the itinerary; a day that was already empty is used. The trip stays intact.
They do not come to Japan for an examination.
They happen to have a free day while they are here.
This became visible because we see Western patients every day at an international hospital in Hanoi. Practising in Japan, seeing Japanese patients, it is not something you would notice — which is why so little of what Japan offers its visitors is yet designed around it.
So we don't build expensive packages by stacking examinations on top of one another. We design something that fits, without strain, into one open day of a longer stay.
"Inbound healthcare" covers several quite different things. These are the three we work in. Who we work with, and what your guest would actually experience, differs in each.
Working with travel companies and hotels abroad, we offer checkups to their guests. We build the referral route, run the day itself and hand over the results. For the guest it is one open day used well; the rest of the itinerary is untouched.
Guests seeking treatment are introduced to medical institutions through a medical travel operator, Conomity Co., Ltd. Visas, interpretation and payment are handled by them, so the guest is carried from first enquiry through to treatment without having to arrange any of it themselves.
A programme for English-speaking individuals where we design the content ourselves. It is built to fit one open day of a stay, and the guest goes home with an English summary for their own doctor. We are building this now, and we welcome enquiries from operators who would like to offer it to their guests.
| Form | Who we work with | What it means for the guest |
|---|---|---|
| Inside the itinerary | Travel companies and hotels abroad | One open day used; the itinerary stays intact |
| Through an operator | Medical travel operators | Treatment arranged end to end |
| Designed by us | Directly with us | Built around the stay, not the other way round |
The people who bring guests to us are rarely in healthcare themselves. They are the operator who planned the trip, the hotel the guest is staying in, a colleague who knows Japan. This is what happens once you put a guest in touch with us.
Medical care is provided by the partner institution.
What we provide is planning and navigation.
I still practise as an internist at an international hospital in Hanoi, seeing patients who have come from Europe, North America and across Asia — not Japanese patients, every day.
What I noticed there was how they use their time. The longer someone stays, the more certain it is that a day with nothing in it will appear. While I'm in Japan, perhaps I should have myself looked at. On that day, there is genuinely room for the thought.
Japanese medicine is of high quality when you see it from the inside. But someone arriving from outside does not know where to go, or how to take the results home. That is not a medical problem. It is a design problem.
We exist to take on that design. This will not become a company that sells examinations. The measure is whether someone who spent a day looking after their health remembers it warmly, months later, from home.
| Name | Aijyu LLC（合同会社アイジュ） |
|---|---|
| Founded | 15 June 2017 |
| Registered office | Ginza Otake Residence 2F, 1-22-11 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
| Capital | JPY 1,000,000 |
| Founder & Medical Director | Dr. Shun Kubo (Internal Medicine / Nephrology) |
| Corporate number | 0109-03-003704 |
| Fiscal year end | October |
| Business | Support and coordination for overseas patients seeking care at medical institutions in Japan; introductions to medical institutions; advisory and information services in healthcare; editorial and content production; education and training; translation and interpretation |
| Partners | Conomity Co., Ltd. (medical travel operator) and others. Individual hospitals are named in line with each institution's own disclosure policy. |
| Contact | info@aijyu.tokyo |