Hospitals in Japan

Hello world!!! For those of you living in Japan or planning to move to Japan here is some advice on hospitals. Be aware it is VERY different than the US. Here anything that has medical equipment like IVs is called a hospital. What we would call a clinic would be a hospital here. They use hospital and clinic interchangeably here. They do have some giant ones like in the US but they are far and sparse. So if you have an emergency don't start looking for a hospital like in the US. ESPECIALLY in the country.

In the country areas hospitals take turns. For example, where I live one is open from 8am to 11am then another is open from 11am to 5pm. And then during the night they switch off to. SO make sure you know which ones are open when because if you are having an emergency you could end up stuck not knowing where to go and it could be very bad.

Now they do have ambulances. So if you are having a major emergency like a heart attack of course call the ambulance and don't worry about where they take you. The emergency number is 119 for hospitals and fire. Call 110 for police.

Often if you go to a hospital they might send you to a more specialized clinic. If you are not having an emergency and you know whats generally wrong with you go to the clinic that is specialized in your condition. For example, ear, nose, and throat doctors. They probably will end up sending you there anyway. That's more for the city areas though. Here in the country where there aren't as many places you can just go to a general clinic.

Now if you don't have national health care here don't worry because even without it it wont be super expensive. Health care here covers 70%. I went to a hospital and I got an IV and it only cost me $18. So had I paid out of pocket it would of only cost me around $70 but that is with the IV treatment. When I went last year with no health insurance I was charged $10 just to be seen. SO if they just see you then you will be barely charged a thing. So don't worry about the price.

And the health care here is very good. The medicine they gave me worked within an HOUR. I had the stomach flu and I stopped throwing up right after they gave me the medicine and I wasn't nauseous either. So don't hesitate to go to the doctor here. Yes it is annoying that the hospitals take turns being open but once you figure it out you'll be much better off :)

Lots of love,

Shanti

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