frozen UK pensions

[northSaver]

So a long cruise or... merchant seaman?

Or live on a sailboat? Probably none of these options are practical for a person in their late 70s

This thread is really interesting! It's something to think about even if the cost and hassle exceed the benefits, as will probably be the case for most people. Something I find attractive, coming from Hokkaido, is wintering in a warmer clime. I wonder if it is possible to spend winter in the Philippines, the rest of the year in Japan, and maintain residency in both countries? From what I've read so far, I have a feeling that it is.

In order to get the UK state pension increases you would have to tell the DWP that you lived in the Philippines. So you would need a permanent address there and someone looking after your mail while you were away. Possible? I guess so, especially if you bought a cheap property and hired an agent to look after it. But would you have to tell the DWP that you also lived in Japan? Would it be fraudulent to omit this fact even though you spent the majority of your time here? Possibly. So how much time would you have to spend in the Philippines each year for it not to be fraudulent? Hmm... interesting

[Moneymatters]

I think the most important thing when you are in your mid-seventies is having access to a good health system and I think Japan has that in spades whether you compare it to the UK, USA or the Philippines.

Not sure I would write off The Phillippines. They have international hospitals for tourists similar to Thailand. Thai international hospitals are probably way better than Japanese normal ones

I also worry about having access to a good health system in retirement here in Japan.
There are some good Japanese doctors around (the ones who studied abroad, if only for a year or two), but most scare me with their lack of up-to-date knowledge and their "medicine-by-numbers" approach.

If my last visit to a hospital was in a sit-com it would be considered too far fetched. Placing to one-side I'm famously unfortunate, I went to the local place recommended by my partner(or "future carer" as I call her..). I actually bailed on my first attempt as the queue was quite literally out the door.
When I did get in I reduced the waiting room average age by about 10 years.(And I'm including the staff in that.).
The doctor was basically a living trope, an amalgamation of all that is wrong with medicine here. Starting with.. "Doctor is god" (awful)...
I did manage to get many x-rays and and MRI out of it. Then he looked at the MRI like a dog trying to read Latin.
Actually, I'm not sure if he even was a doctor. If you've had the pleasure of seeing the movie(and Hi-Ace drivers ed video) "The Cannonball Run".
He's THAT doctor. And he injected me. Urghh.
But the worst part was the 15 minutes trapped in the MRI annex (replete with visible rat poison and traps.) when the MRI attendant (and aspirational physician) regaled me with endless nihonjin-ron with a some genuinely concerning ayran undertones.
This wasn't even my worst medical experience of the year. (I have a dentist with boundary issues..)

Looking back over the past 2 and a half decades all my interactions fall somewhere between the banality of Only when I laugh (along with the 1970's practices and decor.) and something genuinely unnerving like the Green Wing or The Marathon man...

Obviously I've never received any meaningful diagnosis or treatment so I wait for retirement when I can join the zombie hordes who seem to take to a 'sit-in protest' approach to receiving treatment. Or maybe they think they'll benefit form others' treatment by osmosis...

Anyway. Unless the Philippines are still practicing blood letting I'm open to it...

[RetireJapan]

If my last visit to a hospital was in a sit-com it would be considered too far fetched.

The best thing about the health care system in Japan is that you can easily choose which doctor or hospital to go to.

The worst thing about the health care system in Japan is that you need to spend a lot of time finding doctors and hospitals that work for you.

I went to over 20 整形外科 clinics in Sendai before finding my current one (which is excellent, has online appointment system that they stick to, and I only spend about 15 minutes there). Same with dentist. Same with ENT. Same with skin clinic.

If you have ongoing issues or a stupid hobby like me (currently recovering from torn ligament in ankle) it is very worth finding a decent health care provider.

[Roger Van Zant]

I guess wishing for the best from both worlds is too much to ask....
In the UK/US/northern Europe etc., the doctors are mostly very competent and very well trained.
The medical training in Japan is woeful compared to these countries.
But the system is awful in these countries; in the UK, ridiculous waiting times, in the US, exorbitant costs....
In the UK, we have more of a "National Sick Service" as opposed to a "National Health Service".

In Japan, the system is great, as Ben mentioned; you can choose your doctor and shop around if not happy.
But the doctors are so poorly trained here, it can take ages to find a decent one.
And they almost never open up a medical journal or textbook after graduating medical school (certainly not an English language one, where all the latest research is published).

If only we could have decent doctors combined with a good system, it would be a win-win.

I live in Fukuoka, where we have a foreign doctor (he's Dutch), so I am lucky in getting world-class treatment for the past two decades.
But I am really dreading when he retires and I have to go back to awful/even dangerous Japanese doctors....

[Moneymatters]

If my last visit to a hospital was in a sit-com it would be considered too far fetched.

The best thing about the health care system in Japan is that you can easily choose which doctor or hospital to go to.

The worst thing about the health care system in Japan is that you need to spend a lot of time finding doctors and hospitals that work for you.

I went to over 20 整形外科 clinics in Sendai before finding my current one (which is excellent, has online appointment system that they stick to, and I only spend about 15 minutes there). Same with dentist. Same with ENT. Same with skin clinic.

If you have ongoing issues or a stupid hobby like me (currently recovering from torn ligament in ankle) it is very worth finding a decent health care provider.

Thanks for that. Others have said the same. Work doesn’t afford me to take time off easily to go kissing Toads, (or rather my eff’d up relationship with work). So it’s priority one in retirement. But I’ll hit up one or two more places before that.. (Those pain killer sip stickers are cheaper that way..)