The full comparison
Japan. Korea.
What you are comparing
~2,500 GRAFT FUE, TYPICAL CASE Japan
PUBLISHED TARIFFS AND STATUTE, TOKYO Korea
STATUTORY PUBLISHED FEE SCHEDULE + THE MEDICAL SERVICE ACT Who may legally perform the extraction
Nurses may implant THE MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS ACT RESERVES MEDICINE TO PHYSICIANS, YET TOKYO'S NHT PRINTS THAT NURSES DO THE IMPLANTING UNDER INSTRUCTION
The surgeon only MEDICAL SERVICE ACT §27: DELEGATION TO NON-LICENSED STAFF IS PROHIBITED OUTRIGHT, NOT LICENSED
What the price is quoted per
Per graft + base fee SAME UNIT AS TURKEY, NOT SEOUL'S PER-HAIR UNIT
Per hair 1 FOLLICLE ≈ 2 HAIRS: A SEOUL 3,000 IS NOT AN ISTANBUL 3,000
Non-shaven option
Published by one chain NHT DOES NOT OFFER IT; SHONAN AGA PRINTS ¥950/GRAFT WITH NO SHAVING AT ALL
A standard category SHAVEN AND NON-SHAVEN ARE LISTED AS SEPARATE STANDARD CATEGORIES DOMESTICALLY
Revision if grafts fail
One chain prints terms SHONAN AGA: FREE RE-OPERATION IF THE SURGEON JUDGES GROWTH CLEARLY POOR, NO REFUNDS; NHT PRINTS NONE
Contracted AGREED IN WRITING BEFORE YOU TRAVEL: OUR OWN TERM, NOT MARKET DATA
All-in price, ~2,500 grafts
$16,470 ¥220,000 SURGERY FEE + ¥990/GRAFT, SURGERY ONLY
$4,900–11,800 SURGERY ONLY: WE LOSE THIS ROW TO EVERY ASIAN MARKET EXCEPT JAPAN
Nurses implantin Tokyo (the clinic's own FAQ, lawfully)
The surgeon onlyin Seoul, where delegation is prohibited by law
1.4–3.4×Tokyo's price against Seoul's, ours to win
What the unit actually means NHT Japan (Kioicho Clinic) published price tariff, Tokyo (https://www.nhtjapan.com/price/), measured 2026-07-28. Japanese price: NHT Japan (Kioicho Clinic, Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, opened 1997) published tariff: FUE surgery fee ¥220,000 plus ¥990 per graft;
2,500 grafts computed from that tariff, collected 2026-07-28, converted at ECB rates of 2026-07-27. n=1 clinic, and labelled as such.
Korean price: one Seoul clinic's statutory non-covered fee schedule, 4,500-hair band (≈2,250+ grafts).
Also n=1. Both figures are surgery-only, so this is the one comparison on this site that is genuinely like-for-like on inclusions.
Regulatory and practice rows collected 2026-07-29: the Medical Practitioners Act §17 and the Nurses Act §5/§37 (laws.e-gov.go.jp: medicine is physician-only, nurses may perform delegated assistance under a physician's instruction; no Japanese statute or MHLW notice names hair-transplant steps specifically, and this row claims only the general framework), NHT Japan's own FAQ on division of labour (nhtjapan.com/faq: the physician handles anaesthesia, donor harvesting and recipient slits, nurses do graft dissection and implantation under instruction; the same FAQ states NHT does not offer non-shaven harvesting), and Shonan AGA Clinic's published pages (sbc-aga.jp, non-shaven at ¥950/graft standard, and a written guarantee: free re-operation where the surgeon judges growth clearly poor, no refunds, assessment window 1–2 years).
