Home for the final days

TOKYO - Doctor Bunyu Ogasawara, 69, who operates the Ogasawara Clinic in Gifu, fulfills the wishes of patients who want to spend their final days in their own home. Last year, the clinic where Ogasawara is director cared for 88 patients at home, including people with terminal cancer, when they died.

But what is the best way for people to spend the end of their life so they are happy in their final moments?

Ogasawara rarely wears his white coat on house calls to his patients. He just knocks at the door, with a stethoscope in one hand, and calls out, "It's Ogasawara Clinic", before entering the patient's home together with a nurse. It is Ogasawara's style to listen to his patients for as long as time permits.