April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Johns Hopkins Hospital, taking advantage of Japan's dissatisfaction with public health care, is starting a clinic in Tokyo that will charge as much as 2 million yen ($17,000) for a three-day medical checkup.

The Tokyo Midtown Medical Center, which opened March 30 in the city's tallest office tower, is a venture involving Baltimore-based Hopkins, Mitsui Fudosan Co. and Resorttrust Inc. The clinic is the latest of seven overseas projects since 2006 for Hopkins, which has topped U.S. News & World Report's ranking of American hospitals the past 16 years.

Medical care for an aging population is absorbing more than 40 percent of the Japanese government's health budget, leaving less money for hospital emergency rooms and clinics. Almost half of Tokyo residents say they're frustrated by long waiting times at hospitals, a city government survey shows.

``Health care is a growing business, and we see a greater need among retirees'' wanting to maintain their health, Katsuyasu Ito, president of Nagoya-based Resorttrust, an owner of time-share resorts and golf courses, said March 27.

Japanese patients must wait as long as one month for surgery because of a shortage of medical staff, the Mainichi newspaper reported on April 3. Forty-one of 113 hospitals surveyed by the newspaper said surgical patients are waiting longer than they did five years ago.

The medical services unit of Resorttrust generated 4.47 billion yen in sales last year and has grown an average 25 percent the past two years, three times the pace of the division that manages 41 resort hotels.

Midtown Tower

Resorttrust and Mitsui Fudosan, Japan's largest property developer, spent 2 billion yen creating the medical center in Midtown Tower in Tokyo's nighttime entertainment district of Roppongi. The 54-story building is the centerpiece of the $3.1 billion Tokyo Midtown development, whose other tenants include the local unit of Cisco Systems Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp.

``We wanted to add value to services in Tokyo Midtown, and the area needs a clinic that can handle services in English,'' Mitsui Fudosan President Hiromichi Iwasa said. ``The trend for developers to ally with medical clinics and hospitals will probably continue.''

Shares of Tokyo-based Mitsui Fudosan shares have climbed 14 percent this year and ended trading at 3,300 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. Resorttrust shares fell 0.4 percent to 2,710 yen and are up 3.6 percent in 2007.

`Explosive Growth'

Developing ``state-of-the-art'' clinics overseas is an area of ``explosive growth'' for Johns Hopkins Medicine International, the group said in its 2006-2007 annual report.

``Our goal is to make new discoveries and new treatments available in Japan,'' Steve Thompson, chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine International, said on March 27.

Demand for private health services is increasing among the estimated 1.4 million millionaires living in Japan, according to Koichi Kawabuchi, a professor at Tokyo Medical and Dental University.

``Japan's health care is economy class,'' Kawabuchi says, and wealthier people ``are willing to pay for business class services.''

At the Tokyo clinic, doctors can get advice from colleagues at Johns Hopkins via videoconference and patients can be referred to the hospital in Baltimore for treatment unavailable in Japan. Bilingual staff, nutritionists and cosmetologists are on staff.

5-Star Comfort

Fees start from 80,000 yen for a one-day appointment to 2 million yen for a three-day package that includes screening for 250 disorders and a room at the Ritz-Carlton featuring panoramic views of Tokyo and Mount Fuji. Japan's National Federation of Health Insurance Societies, in comparison, recommends hospitals charge between 36,750 yen and 52,500 yen for a one-day checkup.

Almost half of Tokyo's residents weren't satisfied with the city's health care, according to a survey conducted by the metropolitan government in 2004. Eighty-six percent weren't satisfied with waiting times and two-thirds couldn't decide which clinics or hospitals provide good treatment.

Japan's health-care system is based on a universal insurance program requiring working-age citizens and children to pay 30 percent of the cost of treatment in any hospital or clinic around the country, while seniors are reimbursed for as much as 90 percent of the cost.

Emphasis on basic medical services for all of Japan's 128 million people has created four times the number of hospital beds per capita than the U.S., and raised costs that are forcing the Japanese government to curb health spending.

Profit in 3 Years

While 69 percent of hospitals run by local governments had operating losses in 2005, Tokyo Midtown Medical Center aims to be profitable in three years, the clinic's chief operating officer Tetsuya Furukawa said.

He expects the clinic to attract clients from among the estimated 13,000 foreign residents who live in and around Roppongi and work in its offices, which include the local headquarters of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Michael Critchley, a Canadian who teaches English at a university outside Tokyo, traveled to Bangkok in December for a $900 medical checkup and for answers to questions he says he wasn't getting in Japan, where patients can wait three days for an appointment lasting 2 minutes.

While paying 2 million yen for a checkup would be ``insane,'' Critchley, 42, said he's glad to have a new option. ``With Johns Hopkins, I would definitely be interested in a checkup for 80,000 yen,'' he said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, is an alumnus and benefactor of Johns Hopkins University, whose Bloomberg School of Public Health is named after him.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at at kmatsuyama2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 5, 2007 02:56 EDT