I want to get my tubes tied. I've been told that it's not done here. Is that true? Does anyone know about this procedure as it is done here? It's hard to belief that I cannot get it done. I always think about it when I go home to the States, but I'm usually too busy to take the time for recovery. Anybody have a suggestion?

In the U.S. it can be difficult to convice your family physician that you are ready for a tubal ligation if you are a younger woman and healthy. Doctors in the U.S. are sometimes hesitant to remove your ability to reproduce. As for Japan, I know nothing, but I will send this information request on to some people here and see what comes back regarding the availability and coverage by NHI.

I also heard that a lot of elective surgery can be done in Thailand at a very modern hospital with American trained doctors in Bangkok for very reasonable prices compared to here or in the USA.

In the meantime here is a quick read at the "Feminist Mom Center of the Universe" web site which states:

"In 1995, 41% of married women in the U.S. ages 15-44 were surgically sterile."

And gives a bunch of great info on the subject in the form of feedback from women who have undergone the procedure:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5262/tubal.htm
It also containes links DIRECTLY to related articles. The site design here is pretty good.

Hope this gives you something to start with!

Tubal Ligation is available in Japan. It is called "rankan kessatsu".
If you ask your OB/GYN, he might point you in the righ direction.
I called Tokyo University Hospital (03) 3815-5411
and asked to speak to someone who could explain something to me in English. It took about 10 minutes for someone to be found who was up to the task, but find one they did! (This always makes me feel quite sheepish about having made so little effort thus far to learn the language here.)

Tokyo University Hospital does not do this procedure but perhaps about 50% of hospitals do have it available. It is not covered by National Health Insurance. Kugu-sensai suggested one of the two National hospitals in Tokyo or any of the Metropolitan hospitals, but of course the first objective would be to find a doctor who can communicate in English.

Vasectomies ("paipukatto") are also available, though not so common, and also not covered by NHI.

Someone just sent a private request for finding out about where to get a vasectomy. If you can get a Japanese literate person to enter the Japanese for "paipukatto" into the Japanese google, you'll get a good selection, to start with anyway, of clinics/physicians that offer this service. Mostly urologists I think. The price seems to be around Y 100,000-200,000.

Here are some examples:
http://www.shinjukukeisei.com/pipe_cut/ (in Shinjuku 03-3208-5008 and Osaka 06-6886-6374)
http://kanacli.net/clinic/genital_m/genital_m08.html (in Kanagawa? more than one location? 0120-062354)