TOKYO (TR) — Police have arrested an uninsured Buddhist priest from Hyogo Prefecture who is suspected of using a found health insurance card to fraudulently receive medical treatment more than 100 times, reports TV Asahi.
Terukazu Hirokaga, 55, who is currently on a leave of absence from his temple duties, is suspected of fraud for impersonating a man in his 60s to obtain medical exams and prescription drugs at an Osaka City medical facility in February.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of fraud, Hirokaga, who lives in Himeji City, Hyogo, admitted to the charges. “I didn’t have an insurance card, so I used the one I found,” the priest was quoted by police as saying. “I thought if I repeatedly used the same hospital, I would eventually be found out by the police, so I used it in various regions.”
According to investigators, Hirokaga picked up the health insurance card belonging to a stranger on a street in the capital’s Ueno district in March 2024. Lacking his own coverage under the National Health Insurance system, he began exploiting the lost card.
Over a period of approximately two years, the suspect allegedly presented the card about 115 times at over 20 different hospitals and clinics across Tokyo and Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures. To conceal his identity, he filled out medical questionnaires using the exact name, address, and date of birth printed on the found card.
The extensive scheme finally came to light after a health insurance union flagged a string of “unnatural medical treatments” and alerted the authorities.
