Cross-cultural communication （10）　

16）Is an annual X-ray necessary?
　 There is a global home appliance manufacturer with its headquarters in Osaka, and there are a certain number of foreign employees from English-speaking countries working there. One of these employees, an American woman, visited Kido Clinic.

Her complaint was that she wanted to be exempted from having chest X-rays taken as part of the company health check-up, which is carried out twice a year. She said that she had no history of tuberculosis and no symptoms of respiratory disease, and that she did not want to undergo unnecessary X-ray exposure unless there was a medical need for it. Of course, in her home country of America, there is no system of taking X-rays for health check-ups even if you are not ill, so this was probably the first thing that came to her mind.

This was quite a difficult problem. From a medical point of view, she was certainly right, and in developed countries other than Japan, there are no countries where companies require chest X-rays every year as part of health checks for no reason. However, this is Japan, and she is a full-time employee of that electronics company. Therefore, she also needs to follow the company rules.

So, I came up with a plan. I happened to know the head of the company's clinic, so I contacted him directly. I explained the situation and persuaded him, mixing in a few threats about the possibility of it developing into an international issue, and the head of the clinic was happy to agree.

In countries other than Japan, there is no system for regular medical examinations for basically healthy people, such as health check-ups or company health checks, so this Japanese system can sometimes lead to minor problems. Of all the examinations, the ones that seem to cause the most problems are the ones that involve exposure to X-rays, such as chest X-rays and gastroscopy.

In this case, the American system is more rational. However, I personally have a slight nagging feeling about this. Until recently, chest X-rays were a requirement for visas for studying abroad in the US from Japan. This is where the arrogance of America, or white countries, can be seen.

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