Man arrested for posing as doctor in earthquake-affected area

Need more info. If he lied to get into affected areas and try to help that's one thing, especially if he actually CAN help those injured (even if not qualified on paper), but in this case he just sounds like a nut who saw his big chance.

I always wanted to be a doctor.... so he became one...... Funny story...

Iryu 4

did he pretend to be an ob-gyn doc ?

Isolated incident, so need to crack down on him as an example.

The biggest question is if he actually helped, did nothing, or did harm. If he actually helped, suspended sentencet. If he did nothing, a couple months jail. If he did harm, an appropriate sentence for each instance.

Reminds me of an episode of MASH where an unlicensed doctor was performing surgeries and doing a great job until he got caught being unlicensed. And taking him away meant more people died on stretchers because there just were not enough doctors, and he could have saved them. But they died because of a piece of paper.

Sorry, no need to crack down. Nobody is going to follow his example. They don't have the skills to pull it off.

This bloke is a lunatic with a doctor fantasy. No medical training whatsoever. Maybe they should make him a governmental radiation adviser. He can hardly be worse than "Dr." Shunichi Yamashita who claims that radiation won't hurt people who are laughing, only those who are depressed.

Yoneta , the wrong diognosis could have resulted in serious injury or death, it seeems the media played an important role in finding this guy. Well done

I guess it would depend on what "treatments" he was providing. If it was basic first aid then he could very well have the knowledge without a valid piece of paper. If he was diagnosing more serious issues then he was putting people at risk. Even if the guy had gone through all the required medical training to become a doctor, there's some reason why he DOESN'T have a valid license and it can't be good that he wasn't able to get one.

Hummmm...Reminds me of the recent film, "Dear Doctor", starring the talented Shofukutei Tsurube as an extremely popular rural doctor. Isn't that film set in Tohoku, Japan?

maybe he was pretending to be doctor just to touch woman, that wouldnt surprise me an other pervert with stupid fantasy.

This is scary, there are not enough Japanese doctors there in Ishinomaki, this nut case jumps in with his fake ID bought for 50,000 yen over in South Korea, todays news, pretending to be a young doctor?? Even REAL doctors can make mistakes, wrong diagnosis etc..give you the wrong treatment and make you more sick and end up dying, but this wanna be doctor?? with no medical training also got 1 million yen from the Japanese government, because they did believe he was a real doctor volunteering in this earthquake ravaged area of Japan. Many volunteer REAL doctors from around the world are READY to help Japan, but the JAPANESE RED TAPE will not allow non Japanese doctors to help here in Japan.

the question is: how are the people he treated?

Oracle - I thought this guy was not just a fraud but a scumbag, that is until you shed light on the situation with an episode of MAS*H. Now I realize he's a good Samaritan because Hawkeye Pierce thought so.

hoserfellaAug. 20, 2011 - 10:20PM JST

Now I realize he's a good Samaritan because Hawkeye Pierce thought so.

I think you should stop jumping to conclusions so fast. There is not enough information in the article to determine if he caused harm (scumbag) or actually helped (good samaritan). He could be either, and I was just illustrating that fact. Oh, and no need to drag bitterness from other threads around. None at all.

Oracle - he's not a doctor, and never was. By the way, no bitterness was dragged into this thread. It reared it's ugly head when I saw you trying to give life lessons through episodes of situation comedies.

hoserfellaAug. 21, 2011 - 12:37PM JST

Oracle - he's not a doctor, and never was.

Says you. What he is not is a licensed doctor, and there used to be a time when they all were. What truly makes a doctor is not a piece of paper, as some actually do have the piece of paper and are total quacks.

As for the "life lesson" I said it "reminded" me of that episode and told you it was TV all on my own. If you think my recollections of TV are meant as life lessons, well, it explains a lot about you doesn't it?

If you want some proof that he did not do harm, notice how he was discovered; not through a complaint from a patient, but just because of his picture.

One could reasonably think that he has done a lot of reading and got some practical experience somehow and might be fairly competent. And before you have your usual conniption and wild search for something to beat me over the head with, none of the proof is adequate to say anything for sure. I am just saying its possible.

This an odd phenomena everywhere. I recall a couple of cases in the US where the 'doctor' was only discovered years later, with numerous patients treated. And 'cured'. Nothing new here just an idiot who wants to 'help' but goes about it in the wrong way. I'm sure we'd all be surprised just how many 'doctors' there are in this world who have never been to medical school. More than a few I think ...