Key Sentence:
- As hospitals in Japanese Clinic focus on treating patients with Covid-19.
- More innumerable and more older adults are moving to nurse homes such as those operated by registered Tokyo Amvis.
As a result, stocks have doubled since August last year, making Keiichi Shibahara a billionaire. Amvis’ largest 77% shareholder, Shibahara, 56, now has a net worth of $1 billion.
According to its website, Amvis Japanese Clinic operates 41 private nursing homes across Japan, and 11 more are under construction.
Shibahara founded Amvis in 2013, a year later the Japanese government introduced a home care policy. That encouraged people with chronic illnesses or disabilities to receive care at home to reduce hospital workloads. According to the Japan Times, Japan has the highest proportion of people aged 65 years and over, 28.7% of the total world population.
“In Japan, government policy changes are forcing people with terminal cancer or respiratory cancer to be discharged from hospitals and into their homes,” Shibahara said. “This situation is exacerbated by the fact that hospitals are busy working with patients infected with Covid-19.
And Japanese Clinic patients are flocking to Amvis-operated facilities.”
Due to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in early August. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced a policy to limit hospitalizations for coronavirus patients to the most severe cases.
For the fiscal year ending September 2020, revenue increased more than 71% year-on-year to 9.2 billion yen ($83 million), while profit doubled to 1.2 billion yen ($11 million). From October 2020 to March 31 this year, sales and profit increased 66% and 108%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Born in Nagoya, Central Japan, Shibahara graduated from Nagoya University Medical School to practice medicine. He remained his studies in molecular biology at the College of Medicine at Kyoto University.