Guides · 旅行者の受診 · ryokōsha no jushin
Getting Sick as a Visitor to Japan — A Doctor's Playbook for Tourists
Most of this site is written for people who live in Japan. This page is for the other reader: you're here for two weeks, you're ill or hurt, and you have no Japanese insurance, no Japanese, and no idea where the system's doors are. Here is the playbook, in the order you should actually use it.
First, the 60-second triage
A real emergency — crushing chest pain, stroke signs, severe breathing trouble, major injury, someone unconscious: dial 119. Not 911, not 999, not 000. The ambulance is free (treatment is not), dispatch centers in major cities can patch in interpretation — say "eigo onegaishimasu" — and you should know one procedural difference so it doesn't alarm you: the crew assesses you and contacts hospitals from the scene, departing once one has accepted you. Minutes spent parked are the system working, not failing. Full details in the emergency guide.
Not sure how serious it is? Call #7119 (nurse advice line, available in most big cities) or, for children, #8000. For anything else, JNTO — the national tourism organization — runs a 24-hour, multilingual Japan Visitor Hotline: 050-3816-2787, which handles medical guidance among other emergencies.
Not an emergency? Call your travel insurer before anyone else
This is the step travelers skip, and it is the one that saves the most money and friction. Your travel insurance company's assistance line can direct you to a partner hospital where care is cashless — the insurer settles directly, and English support is usually arranged. Go to a random clinic instead, and the default becomes pay-and-claim: you pay the full bill at the counter, keep every receipt (領収書, ryōshūsho — ask for an itemized one), and claim reimbursement after you get home. Both work; one requires you to front the cash and trust the paperwork.
No insurance at all? The system will still treat you — Japan does not check your wallet before care — but read the money section below, then consider whether the rest of the trip deserves a policy anyway.
Finding a clinic that speaks your language
The official tool is better than most people expect: JNTO's medical institution search filters clinics and hospitals by language, specialty, credit-card acceptance, and 24-hour availability, and offers downloadable point-and-show symptom sheets. Hotel front desks are the other underused resource — asking them to phone a nearby clinic and confirm English support is a completely normal request in Japan.
Two of our own tools work just as well for visitors: Which Doctor Do I Need? tells you which type of clinic handles your symptom (Japan has no GP gatekeeper — you walk directly into the right specialty), and the Clinic Card Maker turns your symptoms, allergies and medications into a bilingual card you can show at any reception desk.
What it costs without Japanese insurance
Two things determine your bill. First, you pay 100% of the cost — residents pay 30% of a nationally fixed fee schedule; you pay the whole thing. Second, and less known: hospitals are permitted to charge uninsured overseas visitors above the standard schedule — government guidance allows institutions to set their own price, and larger hospitals increasingly bill at 1.5–3× the standard rate to cover interpretation and administration. In practice:
- A simple clinic visit with medication: roughly ¥5,000–15,000, sometimes more at foreigner-oriented clinics
- A night-time ER visit for something minor: ¥10,000–60,000, plus a ¥7,700+ non-referral fee at large hospitals
- A hospital admission: genuinely expensive — this is what the travel policy was for
Run your own scenario in the cost simulator (choose "No Japanese insurance"). And two practical notes: bring cash — many neighborhood clinics and pharmacies still take only Japanese yen in person, whatever the tourist areas have taught you — and bring your passport, which serves as your ID in place of an insurance card.
The pharmacy is a legitimate first stop
For colds, upset stomachs, blisters and hay fever, Japanese drugstores (ドラッグストア) are well stocked and pharmacists are helpful — describe symptoms and let them work. Know one thing: Japanese OTC doses run lower than US/EU equivalents (acetaminophen at 300mg per tablet, ibuprofen at 200mg per dose), so what you buy is real medicine, tuned conservatively. Our Medicine Finder translates the brand you know — Tylenol, Nurofen, Imodium — into what's on the Japanese shelf and what to say at the counter.
If a doctor gives you a prescription, it's a paper slip filled at a separate pharmacy — and it expires 4 days after issue, weekends included. Fill it the same day.
The medicines in your luggage
Japan's drug law does not care what your doctor at home legally prescribed. Before you fly: Adderall and Vyvanse are prohibited outright — do not bring them. Codeine-containing products, strong painkillers, and many psychotropics have quantity limits or require an import certificate (輸入確認, the successor of the Yakkan Shoumei) beyond roughly a month's supply; pseudoephedrine-heavy decongestants have limits too. The full rules, with the safe-packing checklist, are in the medicine cabinet guide. When in doubt, bring the original packaging and a doctor's letter — and less, not more.
Small rules that surprise people
At some clinics and most dental offices you'll swap shoes for slippers at the entrance — follow the shelf and the row of slippers. Masks are still commonly expected inside medical facilities; one in your pocket avoids a scene. You may be called by your full name in the waiting room, and examinations sometimes happen behind a curtain rather than in a closed room — normal here, not a privacy lapse. None of this affects the quality of what happens next: the medicine itself is excellent, and for genuine emergencies nobody will ask about masks, slippers, or money first.
General information for travelers, not medical advice. In an emergency, call 119. Price figures are typical ranges; uninsured billing policies vary by institution — ask for an estimate before non-urgent treatment, which is a normal and answerable question.