Before You Go to a Hospital in Japan: Have Proof of Insurance and Notes on Your Symptoms Ready

When you fall ill in Japan, there are broadly three things you may be unsure about: where to go, what to bring, and how to describe your symptoms. This article is meant to help you prepare for those three things before you go to the hospital. Information about institutions and contact points is based on what could be read on each organization’s official page as of September 23, 2026.

This article does not diagnose illness or judge which department you should visit. If you suddenly feel very unwell or are injured, call 119 before reading any further.

If It’s Urgent, Call 119

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working, Japanese edition, 8th edition, February 2026), supervised by the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, gives the following guidance for calling 119 in the event of sudden illness or injury.

• When you call 119, the operator will ask, “Is it a fire? Is it an emergency?” — tell them it is an emergency (“kyūkyū desu”).
• Tell them the place, or a landmark, where you want the ambulance to come.
• Tell them the symptoms and age of the person who is unwell.
• Tell them your own name and contact information.

On the language side, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) is rolling out “three-way simultaneous interpretation,” in which the caller, the fire department and an interpreter at a telephone interpretation center all speak together on a 119 call. According to the agency’s own materials, as of January 1, 2025, 673 of the 720 fire departments nationwide had introduced this system, and “every fire department supports English, Chinese and Korean; languages other than these are handled department by department according to local circumstances.”

In other words, whether you can get Ukrainian interpretation on a 119 call depends on the fire department covering the area where you live. The agency does not state that Ukrainian interpretation is available uniformly nationwide. The translation app “Kyukyu Voicetra,” which emergency crews use on-site, supports Russian among its 15 languages (per the agency’s own listing), but not Ukrainian. The agency’s own 16-language “Guide to Using Ambulances” for visitors to Japan likewise has no Ukrainian edition.

That is exactly why there is preparation you can do in advance. Keep a note with your address written in Japanese somewhere you can produce it immediately. Memorize one nearby landmark (the name of a station, a school, a convenience store). If you can speak English, remember that using English may connect you to an interpreter more easily. The Japan National Tourism Organization’s (JNTO) guidance page shows a method of having a Japanese person nearby call an ambulance for you by showing them a written sentence asking them to do so.

Where to Go

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) explains Japan’s medical institutions as falling into three roles: everyday illness or injury goes to a 診療所・クリニック (clinic), surgery, hospitalization or emergency care goes to a 中小病院 (small or mid-sized hospital), and severe emergencies or advanced care go to a 大病院 (large hospital). For minor illness or injury, it recommends going first to a nearby clinic.

The same guidebook lists the following ways to find a medical institution.

• 医療情報ネット（ナビイ） (Medical Information Net, “Navii”) — a nationwide medical institution search site run by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW).
• JNTO’s medical institution search — lets you look for medical institutions that can see you in a foreign language (such as the core institutions each prefecture designates for accepting foreign patients). It began as a page for inbound travelers.
• Consulting your municipality or one of the roughly 400 医療安全支援センター (Medical Safety Support Centers) found in prefectures and elsewhere. People who don’t speak Japanese are told they can also consult their municipality, a local international exchange association, or an NPO.

As of September 23, 2026, the list of languages you can select in JNTO’s search includes Russian but not Ukrainian. JNTO’s own page also states, “the number of medical institutions that can respond in a foreign language is limited.” Even for a hospital you find through the search, it is safest to confirm by phone before going.

Bring Proof of Insurance

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) explains that “everyone living in Japan is required to join public medical insurance, regardless of nationality.” People who are not enrolled in their employer’s health insurance and who are registered as residents and under 75 years old will, in principle, be enrolled in National Health Insurance. However, the same guidebook also lists cases that fall outside enrollment, such as people whose period of stay is three months or less, or people with the status of residence “Temporary Visitor.” Confirm at your municipal counter which category applies to you. Because National Health Insurance procedures are tied to resident registration, we have covered the terms used in resident registration in a separate article.

What matters at the hospital reception desk is showing something that proves you are enrolled in insurance. The same guidebook states: “At hospitals and clinics, please present your My Number health insurance card (Mynahokenshō), etc. If you do not present it, you will bear the full cost of medical treatment yourself.” A My Number health insurance card is a My Number card (Individual Number card) that has been registered for use as a health insurance card. The guidebook also mentions a document called a “certificate of eligibility” (資格確認書) alongside the My Number health insurance card. Confirm with the counter for whichever insurance you are enrolled in which of the two you should use.

According to the same guidebook, the share you pay at the counter when using insurance is 20% for children under 6 (before starting elementary school), 30% for people under 70, and 20% for people aged 70 to 74 (30% for people with income comparable to that of a working-age person). If you have just enrolled and your My Number health insurance card registration is not yet complete, and you do not yet have a certificate of eligibility either, the guidebook also explains a system in which you pay the full amount once and can later apply to have the portion beyond your own share reimbursed (a medical expense benefit, 療養費).

What to Confirm When Booking and at Reception

JNTO’s guidance page presents the flow at a hospital in the order “reception,” “filling in the intake form,” “examination and treatment by the doctor, and prescription,” and “payment.” It also recommends asking roughly how much the treatment will cost when you check in. On payment, it notes that large hospitals generally accept credit cards, while clinics generally expect cash.

Confirming the following in advance, by phone or at the counter, reduces mix-ups on the day.

• Whether they can respond in a language other than Japanese (such as English). Whether an interpreter can be arranged, and whether you may bring someone to accompany you.
• Whether a reservation is required, and what the reception hours are.
• What to bring (your My Number health insurance card or certificate of eligibility, your residence card, any medication you are taking, etc.).
• The method of payment (cash only, or cards accepted) and the approximate cost.

Preparing to Describe Your Symptoms

Before the examination, you will usually write your symptoms on a form called a 問診票 (intake form). The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare publishes “Multilingual Explanatory Materials for Foreign Patients” to help medical institutions accept foreign patients, and a Ukrainian-language version was added in July 2022. The Ukrainian version includes English and Japanese alongside it, and covers not only a treatment application form but also intake forms by department, such as internal medicine and pediatrics. The ministry describes these materials as “provided for medical institutions within Japan,” but linking to the page is, in principle, unrestricted. You can ask the hospital you are visiting whether it has a Ukrainian-language intake form, and if not, show it this page.

JNTO also publishes, as PDFs, a form for recording your own medical information and a sheet for pointing to describe your symptoms. On emergency hospitals, JNTO writes: “You cannot choose the receiving hospital yourself. Depending on the circumstances, you may end up receiving treatment without an intake interview,” and states that it is important to fill things in ahead of time.

Making the following notes in your own words before going to the hospital will help whether you go through an interpreter or use a translation app. Writing in the order of what, since when, where, and how makes it easier to communicate.

• Since when, where, and how you feel unwell.
• If you took your temperature, the time and the reading.
• Any medication you are currently taking (bring the box or the package insert if you have it).
• Any major illnesses, surgeries or allergies you have had.
• Any test results or a medical certificate from Ukraine or elsewhere, if you have them.

The Refugee Assistance Headquarters (RHQ) publishes a Ukrainian-language “medical glossary” as a PDF, linked from the Immigration Services Agency’s page. We also introduced this in the article on where to consult when you start living in Japan.

What to Know About Medical Interpretation

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare supports placing medical interpreters at medical institutions, and also runs, as a commissioned project, a remote telephone interpretation service that medical institutions can use for languages with few speakers (the ministry calls these “rare languages”). However, this remote interpretation is a system used by medical institutions that have registered for it in advance; it is not something a patient applies for directly. This article could not confirm whether Ukrainian is among the languages covered.

JNTO’s “Japan Visitor Hotline” (050-3816-2787, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year) can also refer you to a medical institution that can see you in a foreign language when you are ill, but the languages it supports are English, Chinese and Korean, and it is aimed at inbound travelers. It states that, in principle, it does not provide three-way interpretation or make bookings on your behalf.

Arrangements for interpretation differ by hospital. It is realistic to ask “is interpretation available?” when booking, and if not, to think about whether someone who can speak Japanese or English can accompany you.

Guidance You Can Read in Ukrainian

The 生活・就労ガイドブック (Guidebook on Living and Working) has editions in 19 languages including Easy Japanese, and there is a Ukrainian edition. The chapter on medical care (Chapter 6) and the chapter on emergencies and disasters (Chapter 10) are also published as individual chapter PDFs. However, while the Japanese edition is the 8th edition (based on the system as of August 1, 2025), the multilingual editions are the 7th edition (published December 2025). For systems that have changed recently, such as the handling of health insurance cards, the wording may differ between editions.

Where to go when you don’t know whom to consult is covered in where to consult when you start living in Japan.

What to prepare	Where to confirm it	Ukrainian
How to call 119, and interpretation	Fire and Disaster Management Agency; Guidebook on Living and Working	Three-way interpretation is available nationwide in English, Chinese and Korean. Other languages depend on the fire department
Which medical institution to visit	Medical Information Net (Navii), JNTO’s medical institution search, your municipality	Not in JNTO’s search language list
Proof of insurance	Your municipal counter (National Health Insurance), your employer (employee health insurance)	Depends on the municipality
Intake form	MHLW’s “Multilingual Explanatory Materials for Foreign Patients”	Available (with English and Japanese alongside)
Medical terminology	RHQ’s medical glossary (linked from the Immigration Services Agency’s page)	Available
General guidance on living in Japan	Guidebook on Living and Working	Available (multilingual edition is the 7th edition)

One last thing. This article covers preparation before going to the hospital. It cannot determine which illness you have, which department you should visit, or which insurance you can join. If you’re unsure, ask at a medical institution or your municipal counter. If you think it may be life-threatening, call 119.