Home / References / Extrainsurance
Extra Travel insurance whilst travelling abroad!!!
You may or may not have taken the time to read through our insurance policy with SOMPO insurance. I really, really hope that you have! If you look, you'll see that our coverage for medical treatment only goes up to 700,000 yen. If the worst were to happen, and you ended up in hospital whilst abroad, this only equates to around $7000. Which isn't much. If you were going on holiday from your home country, you would take out an extra insurance policy... and you should seriously think about doing that here, too. This can be easily arranged through travel agents yourself, however many people may have neglected to do this when they booked their trip abroad.
Michael, the SPA in Tochigi has done research into insurance companies, and in the end, (oh the irony), he has decided that SOMPO's Overseas Travel Insurance Policy is probably the best for us. One of his ALTs was caught up in the Tsunami last year and had massive medical bills which were not covered at all by our National Health insurance policy, and were only partially contributed to by the basic SOMPO JET plan. However, for only a few thousand yen you can have a policy which will give you up to 20,000,000 for medical expenses abroad.
He's done a step-by-step guide for how to apply for the insurance online, so you should be able to do it yourself or get someone to help you. I'll make sure this goes up on the message boards and also in the online handbook before I leave this week.
Here you go:
JET Participants are covered under TWO insurance plans. First is the National Health Insurance, which all workers in Japan (gaijin and Japanese alike) are covered under. This provides excellent coverage for stuff like sickness (in Japan), broken bones (in Japan), medicine (in Japan), etc...do you see a pattern? This insurance coverage gets VERY limited once you travel abroad.
JETs are also covered under a limited SOMPO Japan insurance policy. The Contracting Organization for each JET participant pays roughly 28,000 yen PER YEAR for this SOMPO coverage.
For those of you that have the BLUE (English) or GREEN (Japanese) Sompo Japan booklets, you can see from the chart that this coverage is limited.
Here's our situation:
Type/Amount of Coverage
Death and Residual Disability - 20,000,000 yen
Medical expenses for Accidental Injury - 700,000 yen (5000 deductible)
Death from Sickness - 6,000,000 yen
Medical Expenses for Sickness - 700,000 yen (5,000 deductible)
Rescue Expenses - 4,000,000 yen
Personal Liability Insurance - 50,000,000 yen
I would like to draw your attention to the two instances where the Amount of Coverage is only 700,000 yen after a 5,000 yen deductible: Medical Expenses for Accidental Injury and Medical Expenses for Sickness.
These are the two areas of coverage which most JETs would need most assuming they get caught up in some big accident or disaster while travelling abroad. However, when it comes to the JET SOMPO Insurance Policy, these two areas provide LIMITED coverage when compared to most insurance plans. Well, what do you expect...if we're paying only 28,000 yen per YEAR for this coverage, of course it's going to be limited. That's only 2,333 yen per month!
Japanese workers are covered under the National Insurance plan, however, as many JETs are finding out recently, this doesn't help much at all when it comes to severe accidents/injuries/sickness sustained abroad. So when Japanese people travel, many buy additional short-term travel insurance. This insurance provides a much higher coverage for both Medical Expenses for Accidental Injury and Medical Expenses for Sickness.
For simple injuries and medical issues resulting in accidents abroad, 700,000 yen should be sufficient. This is roughly US$7,000, which can buy a lot of Band-Aids and Robitussin. For more serious injuries and accidents, however, costs can increase dramatically, so we encourage ALL JETs to buy additional travel insurance, just to secure a little more financial safety in the event the worst happens.
So, here we go...
SOMPO Japan Additional Travel Insurance
Can you smell the irony here?
I highly encourage you to increase your coverage in SOMPO Japan by buying your own personal travel insurance from them. For not that much money you can get up to 20,000,000 yen of Medical Expenses for Accidental Injury and Sickness coverage, almost 30 times more than what we're normally covered for.
All this insurance must be purchased before you leave Japan on holiday/vacation, but it can be done quickly and effortlessly online. Unfortunately, I have not found English support for applying, so I suggest you and your supervisor take 10 minutes to sit down and do this together. Otherwise, it is very simple, and I will take you through the steps in excrutiating detail...
Click the middle box where it says 海外旅行保険 (Overseas Travel Insurance).
From here you can get a quote by selecting your travel destination (旅行先) and the length of time you'll be away (旅行期間)
アジア - Asia 北米・ヨーロッパ・オセアニア - North America, Europe & Oceania アフリカ・中南米 - Africa & Central/South America
There are three different grades of coverage: PA, PB & PC Costs are different as is coverage. For example, I entered in a 2 week (14 day) trip to North America/Europe/Oceania and got three different quotes:
PA: 5,750 yen PB: 6,920 yen PC: 8,730 yen
However, if you apply online you get a pretty sweet discount...
PA: 4,220 yen PB: 4,850 yen PC: 5,880 yen
Coverage is somewhat different, though you really need to keep an eye on 治療費用 (Medical Expenses), which JETs are very inadequately covered for as it is. Either way, 6,000 yen for two weeks of SOLID travel insurance isn't bad by any standard.
Once you decide to go with additional insurance, click on the link that says:
新・海外旅行保険【off!】インターネット契約サービスへ (Here is a direct link)
...You'll be directed to a page with info on the insurance policy.
ご旅行出発日の４５日前からご旅行出発日の当日までご加入いただけます。 You can apply for insurance from 45 days before you leave, up til the date of departure.
ご旅行期間が３か月以内の方 For travel UP TO 3 months.
当サービスご利用時点で日本国内に在住されている方 For current residents of Japan.
After that there's a big blurb that talks about what is covered, office hours, etc. Stuff that is good to know is: Offices are closed from Dec. 31st to Jan. 3rd. You ARE covered for accidents an injuries, etc. resulting from Terrorist Attacks, Earthquakes and Tsunamis, as well as other medical nightmares like SARS outbreaks and bird flu. That's good to know...
Click "進む" (Continue)
Step 1 - Qualification Guidelines.
現在ケガや病気で医師の治療を受けているなど、健康上の異常がありますか？ Do you have any injuries/medical conditions, etc. that you are currently seeking treatment for?
他にも同種の保険(死亡保険金額5000万円以上)に加入していますか？(生命保険、クレジットカードに付帯されている傷害保険は除きます。) Are you presently covered by any additional Death and Dismemberment Policy that equals or exceeds 50,000,000 yen? Apart from Life Insurance, Credit Card insurance, etc. (JETs are only covered for 20,000,000 yen, so answer "no".)
現在、日本国外に在住していますか？または、日本国外からアクセスしていますか？ Do you reside outside of Japan?
ご旅行中に危険な職業(注３)に従事しますか？ Are you going to engage in any dangerous work while abroad?
旅行先で危険なスポーツをしますか？ Are you going to be engaging in any dangerous sports while abroad? (Dangerous sports include mountain climbing, skydiving, luge, stuff like that...)
If you answered "NO" to all five of these questions, click the orange button on the far right --> すべて (いいえ)
Step 2 - Destination(s) & Travel Period
アジア - Asia 韓国 - Korea 台湾 - Taiwan 香港 - Hong Kong 中国 - China シンガポール - Singapore タイ - Thailand フィリピン - Phillipines インドネシア - Indonesia その他のアジア地域(日本を除く) - Other Asian country
北米・ヨーロッパ・オセアニア - North America/Europe/Oceania ハワイ - Hawaii グアム・サイパン - Guam/Saipan アメリカ合衆国 - USA カナダ - Canada イタリア - Italy フランス - France イギリス - UK ドイツ - Germany オーストラリア - Australia その他の北米・ヨーロッパ・オセアニア - Other NA/European/Oceania country
アフリカ・中南米 - Africa/Central & South America アフリカ全地域 - Africa (all countries) メキシコ - Mexico ブラジル - Brazil その他の中南米地域 - Other Central/South American country
Select All That Apply
---
旅行目的 - Reason For Travel Abroad
観光 - Tourism/Pleasure ビジネス - Business 留学 - Study Abroad その他 - Other
---
出発日 - Departure Date
帰宅日 - Return Date
Enter both in Year/Month/Date format, in Japan time. As in, when you leave Japan and when you arrive back in Japan...
---
ご契約プラン - Type of Plan 個人プラン - Individual (1 Person) ファミリープラン - Family Plan (Select Number of Family Members) カップルプラン - Couple Plan (2 related individuals - honeymooners, family members, etc.)
For the sake of example, I'm taking an imaginary trip by myself (Individual Plan) to Thailand for the purpose of Tourism ("Pleasure" ) from December 23rd to January 5th.
Yosshhh! Click 進む (Continue)
Step 3 - Insurance Plan
I'm going for moderate coverage...Plan B (PB)
Click the orange button at the bottom - 進む (Continue)
Step 4 - Contract Terms
Click 確認 (Confirm) if you agree with the contract terms...nothing new here.
Step 5 - Explanation of Coverage (in Japanese)
Click 確認 (Confirm)
Step 6 - Personal Info
First, the Sompo Japan account holder's info...who is buying the insurance: Name: (you will be entering your name twice: first in Romaji, then in Katakana...)
(Last Name - Romaji) (First Name - Romaji) (Last Name - Katakana) (First Name - Katakana
郵便番号 - Postal Code 都道府県 - Prefecture/Desig. City --> You should know this but "Tochigi" = 栃木
（保険契約証を送付しますので、住所は正確に入力してください。） They will be sending you the insurance policy, so now enter your address:
電子メールアドレス - Email Address
旅行に行かれる方（被保険者） Now enter some personal info regarding the insured Person - (in most cases, yourself)
生年月日 - (Birthdate) 昭和 - Showa Year eg. 昭和50 - 1975 昭和51 - 1976 昭和52 - 1977 昭和53 - 1978 昭和54 - 1979 昭和55 - 1980 昭和56 - 1981 昭和57 - 1982 昭和58 - 1983 昭和59 - 1984
性別 - Gender - (男 Male; 女 Female)
旅行される方は申し込みをされる方と同一ですか？ Is the person applying for insurance the same person who will be traveling?
いいえの場合、旅行される方の情報をご入力ください。 If "No", enter the info of the person who will be traveling below...
Click 進む (Continue), when done...
Step 7 - Confirmation/Credit Card Payment
All the details of your travel insurance will be shown. At the bottom it will give you a price quote. In my hypothetical case, only 4,420 yen! For two weeks of MAD coverage in Thailand!
At the bottom, enter your credit card info and click 申込 "Order".
Your insurance policy will be sent to the address you entered. Make sure you have this with you at all times while abroad.
Here's a comment from Liz in Kuriyama---
In case anyone is leaving really soon and is worried about not getting their policy in time...after I paid for mine it showed a big red arrow pointing at an orange box with some japanese on it; basically the gist I got with my limited japanese skills was, you're leaving in less than a week, so print your policy now! Very convenient. It's less than 3 full pages long, so maybe it's not the full policy but it details what and how much you're covered for and it's in English! (well, partly). Kind of like a really long receipt. That was indeed painless...
There are also other places to get travel insurance, but I'm not going to go into them like I did with SOMPO:
In checking out the AIU deal I found that the SOMPO Japan travel insurance is cheaper, and the easiest to apply for. I would definitely consider going for this if you will be travelling abroad this holiday season. And, for the rest of you, if you ever plan on taking a trip outside of Japan, I would encourage you to keep this in mind.
A note about CREDIT CARD Insurance: Although I doubt many JETs have Gold Credit Cards from Japanese companies, (correct me if I am wrong), but they also offer insurance to their card holders. Check with your credit card company to see if they offer additional insurance for travel abroad.