Janez Janež (pronounced [ˈjaːnɛs ˈjaːnɛʃ]; January 14, 1913 – October 11, 1990) was a Slovene medical doctor and surgeon who worked for most of his life in mainland China and Taiwan.

He did not collaborate with the German or Italian forces, but after the war Yugoslav communist authorities accused him of collaborationism and put him on a death-sentence list.

There he met Ladislav Lenček, a lazarist who proposed that he go to China and help Italian missionaries as a physician.

In mainland China he worked as a medical doctor in Zhaotong (昭通, WG: Chaot'ung), Yunnan.

Janež organized educational training of the staff and bought some modern equipment (thanks to donations made by sponsors from abroad): an X-ray machine and surgical instruments.

Soon the hospital experienced a real boom and the fame of the miraculous doctor who could cure any illness began to spread among the neighboring population.

During this period Janež realized that he would not be able to establish sincere contact with his patients without knowledge of the language, and so he began learning Chinese.

Taiwan had accepted many refugees from the mainland, and the people were afflicted by poverty and diseases caused by lack of hygiene.

On the day of his burial, an enormous crowd came to Luodong to honor the memory of this great man whose entire life was a sacrifice to simple people in need.