Military and SOFA Civilian Healthcare Crisis in Japan - Townhall sponsored by JCMA and VoteFromAbroad.org

The Japan Civilian Medical Advocacy Group and VoteFromAbroad.org co-sponsor 

Military and SOFA Civilian Healthcare Crisis in Japan - Online Townhall 

On September 12th at 19:00 JST

The Defense Healthcare Agency (DHA) was established by Federal law in 2013 to streamline healthcare among the services and refocus it away from family care to Active Duty and combat support over a 10-year period.  The impacts in Japan have been especially severe, resulting in hundreds of cases of denial of service and at least 4 deaths.  The burden of these policies falls especially heavily on civilian DoD employees in Japan, but the knock-on effects of healthcare reduction impact all DoD employees, Active Duty personnel, their dependents, retirees and their dependents, and civilians and contractors.  There have been some short-term improvements since the public outcry in 2023, but long-term policy solutions still need to be enacted. 

The program will cover the history of the DHA, the founding of JCMA, the community response in 2022~24, the current status of healthcare for DoD employees in Japan, and the policies and long-term solutions JCMA is advocating.  There will be time for anonymous Q&A and feedback. 

Then the folks from VoteFromAbroad.org, which maintains a voter registration and ballot request website will help attendees make sure that they can vote in the upcoming November 3rd elections and elect representatives who will pursue the policies important to them. 

RSVP or contact JCMA https://www.jcmadvocacy.org/contact
for the link to the online event. 

WHEN

Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 07:00 PM Tokyo Time

WHERE

This is a virtual event. See the event description above or RSVP for virtual participation options.

CONTACT

David W Brauer
[email protected]