Japan fights tuberculosis surge among arriving foreigners

OSAKA -- Japan is scrambling to address a surge in tuberculosis cases among foreigners, prompting a new policy requiring proof of non-infection from visa applicants from China, the Philippines and four other Asian countries with high infection rates.

TB incidents among non-Japanese increased 40% in the five years from 2012, with 1,530 coming down with the disease in 2017. The rise corresponds with an increase in foreign residents, which reached a record of roughly 2.63 million at the end of June last year. The percentage of TB patients in the total population is also on the rise, reaching 9% in 2017.