THE market for Lasik surgery here is so hot, the Japanese are entering the business, making them the first foreigners to vie for a piece of the lucrative pie.

Shinagawa Lasik Centre opened its doors at Wheelock Place last month.

Shinagawa, which has three centres and 435 staff in Japan, owns about 25 per cent of the sprawling centre. Local chain Capitol Optical owns 50 per cent and rest is held by SNEC Eye Associates, the private arm of the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC).

This is Shinagawa's first project outside Japan.

The centre hopes to tap into the burgeoning market for Lasik surgery.

While there are no industry-wide figures available, public hospitals did more than 6,000 operations in 2006.

Two large private clinics here claim that together, they perform about 2,100 procedures each month.

At 6,000 sq ft, five times the size of a five-room HDB flat, the Wheelock Place centre is equipped with four operating theatres, six consultation rooms and two diagnostic and preparation rooms.

The $4 million facility will focus on a bladeless, all-laser operation and charges $2,388 for both eyes.

'Singapore is the best place for a medical hub in the Asian market,' said director of Shinagawa Lasik Centre Jun Torihata.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.