Pick the market you already have a quote from and see the same five-row comparison against Korea: who may legally perform the extraction, what the price is quoted per, the non-shaven option, what happens if grafts fail, and price for roughly 2,500 grafts, last. Four of the five are in Asia, because for most readers of this site the real alternative is Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok or Delhi rather than Istanbul, and against the East Asian two, our hair-type argument is worth nothing and we say so on the page. Every figure is sourced and dated on its own page.
The baseline in every table, from a statutory fee schedule and the Medical Service Act.
China against Korea, Asia's volume market.
India against Korea, the lowest-priced market.
Japan against Korea, the one dearer market.
Thailand against Korea, with non-shaven priced in writing.
Turkey against Korea, the global price anchor.
Roughly 2,500 grafts. Surgery only unless the note says otherwise. Korea is fifth of six.
| Market | Who may perform the extraction | Quoted per | ~2,500 grafts | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | An RMP, for incisions (NMC 2022 notice); technicians may still implant into premade slits | Graft | $1,230–2,155 | ₹40–70/graft plus 18% GST; clinic-published guide, weakest source here |
| Turkey | Certificated assistants; only channel-opening is reserved to a physician | Flat package | $2,720 | Median entry package, n=3 Istanbul clinics; includes hotel and transfers |
| China | A physician, or staff under one (aesthetics regulation §18); only a voluntary standard reserves extraction to the surgeon | Case | $2,853 | Yonghe FY2025 audited average across 71,400 patients, an average, not a graft price |
| Thailand | A licensed physician: cosmetic surgery is reserved by statute; the clinic operator is criminally liable for non-licensed hands | Graft | from $3,040 | FUE from THB 102,000; non-shaven published at THB 100/graft |
| Korea | The surgeon only: delegation prohibited, not licensed | Hair | $4,865–11,780 | Statutory published fee schedule, 4,500-hair band ≈ 2,250+ grafts |
| Japan | A physician, by statute, and Tokyo’s NHT prints that nurses do the implanting under instruction | Graft | $16,470 | ¥220,000 surgery fee plus ¥990/graft, published tariff |
Published fee schedules, advertised packages and one audited annual report across six markets (Modaol Seoul; NHT Japan Tokyo; Yonghe Medical HKEX 02279 FY2025; Hairtran Bangkok; Cosmedica, Smile Hair Clinic and Dr. Serkan Aygin Istanbul; HairMD India), plus Turkey’s 2023 hair-transplant regulation (Official Gazette 06.05.2023) and Korea’s Medical Service Act §27 for the legal column (https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2023/05/20230506-11.htm), measured 2026-07-28. Converted at European Central Bank reference rates of 2026-07-27. Three cautions before quoting this table. The Chinese figure is an audited average spend per patient across a full year, not a price for a defined graft count. The Turkish figure is a package including hotel and transfers; the Korean and Japanese figures are surgery only. And every market except Turkey rests on a single clinic, so these are order-of-magnitude anchors rather than national averages. We would rather publish n=1 and label it than publish an average we did not measure. The legal column is now sourced for every market: statutes or ministerial rules for Korea, Turkey, Japan, Thailand and China, and a National Medical Commission notice plus a High Court order for India, each read on the date its compare page states. Where a jurisdiction has no hair-transplant-specific rule, its page says that plainly rather than inferring one.