Hi everyone,
I'm American and my gf is Japanese. We got confirmation today that she is pregnant! I currently still live in the US and I'm still new to learning Japanese so I don't really know much about this process in Japan.
She currently lives in Izumi, Osaka. She had previously told me the whole of pregnancy and childbirth is Japan would be "free", through later reimbursement. Well obviously I went to look this process up today only to find that isn't that case, and also got a nice 20000円 bill today that I now know I won't be getting back…
Is there a way to reduce these costs during pregnancy? I've read a little about registering the pregnancy, coupon books, etc. but obviously I'm unfamiliar with this process. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Just to prevent wasting anyone's time, I didn't see anything about it, but if there's some income limit cutoff for assistance, I make ~1700万円 per year.
by l00k1ingf0r4dv1c3