Abstract
It took more than one century after modernization started in Japan for rural residents, in contrast with urban residents, to come to enjoy modern medicine. The delay was caused by the geographic distance from medical institutions and the extreme shortage of medical doctors in countryside even after the national health insurance system for all the people started in 1961. Through the difficult period the residents have maintained a reciprocal aid system in each community and their traditional medicine, and local governments have developed their own systems of medical aid.
The recent financial difficulties both at national and local levels would inevitably arouse dissatisfaction with the current public health care system. The medical aid systems which have been developed among residents and local governments in countryside could be a new model of medical care if the dissatisfaction caused by the financial difficulties increases in the future.
From the viewpoint of medical anthropology, the traditional health care system was the complex and compound system which consisted of not only medical professionals, medical institutions and medical facilities but also a vast network of ordinary people. The financial difficulties in medical administration could provide a good opportunity to change the current health care system which will cost a greater deal and ultimately collapse.
