The goals of universal health coverage (UHC) are to ensure that all people can access quality health services, to safeguard all people from public health risks, and to protect all people from impoverishment due to illness, whether from out-of-pocket payments for health care or loss of income...

This country report provides a description of the emergence of a health care system under public responsibility in Japan. The inception of the health care system refers to the first legislation stipulating entitlements to medical care. The report also includes a brief description of major health...

When the Japanese government adopted Western medicine in the late nineteenth century, it left intact the infrastructure of primary care by giving licenses to the existing practitioners and by initially setting the hurdle for entry into medical school low. Public financing of hospitals was kept...