This is absolutely not true. I pay the equivalent of about $40 for X-rays and blood tests. A simple consultation is about $15, if that. I recently got diagnosed with asthma, and the whole set of tests plus a month of medicine came out to about 6000 yen, which I suppose is $40.

The only reason you would pay that much is if you're visiting a private no-insurance clinic and not using insurance. And private clinics pretty much only exist to prey on people who identify as expats and make zero attempt at learning non-English languages, aside from a few exceptions (certain speciality dentists, plastic surgery, anonymous STD treatment, some cancers).

That doesn't seem more expensive to what I generally pay in the US.