Symptoms

How to Use These Symptom Guides

Start with the card above that comes closest to how you actually feel, rather than to what you think the cause is. Most guides follow a similar structure: why the problem is common among visitors to Japan, what you can do for yourself first, a mild / moderate / severe guide to urgency, what a consultation involves, and the documents you need for an insurance claim. If two pages seem to describe you, read both — overlapping symptoms are normal.

What the 14 Guides Cover

• Infections and seasonal illness — fever, cold and flu, including Japan’s winter influenza season, and COVID-19, cough and sore throat, including test certificates and fit-to-fly letters.
• Food and stomach trouble — stomach pain, diarrhea and vomiting: food poisoning, winter norovirus, and raw-fish risks.
• Climate and season — heat stroke and dehydration in Tokyo’s humid summer, allergies, rash and itching during cedar pollen season, and insect bites, sunburn and skin problems.
• The physical toll of travelling — muscle, joint and back pain after 20,000-step days, minor injuries such as cuts and sprains, headache and dizziness, and jet lag and fatigue.
• What you arrived with — losing, forgetting or running out of regular medication. Prescriptions written outside Japan cannot be filled here, so read it before your last pill.
• More localised problems — urinary symptoms and UTI, ear and eye pain (ears blocked after a flight, red eyes, contact lenses), and toothache.

Wait, Be Seen, or Call 119?

Across all fourteen guides, the direction things are moving matters more than any single symptom. Something clearly easing day by day usually rewards patience; something holding steady, spreading or worsening deserves a look. The lists below are general guidance, not a diagnosis.

Usually reasonable to rest and monitor

• Mild symptoms improving with rest, fluids and pharmacy medicine
• Something small and localised — one insect bite, a shallow graze
• No fever, and nothing stopping you eating, drinking or sleeping

Worth being seen

• Three days or more without improvement, or symptoms returning as medicine wears off
• A fever of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher alongside other symptoms
• Pain that keeps you awake, or symptoms that stop your itinerary
• Persistent vomiting or diarrhoea that is not settling
• Running low on medication that should not be stopped abruptly
• A flight coming up, or an airline or insurer asking for documentation
• Not knowing, and not wanting to spend the trip wondering

Call 119 immediately

• Difficulty breathing, or swelling of the lips, tongue or throat
• Chest pain or pressure
• Confusion, drowsiness, fainting, seizures or loss of consciousness
• A sudden severe headache, one-sided weakness, slurred speech, or loss of vision
• Hot, dry skin with confusion in the heat — sweating that has stopped
• Heavy bleeding, an obviously deformed limb, or a head injury with vomiting
• A temperature above 40°C (104°F), or a high fever with a severe headache and a stiff neck

Japan’s emergency number is 119, not 911, and operators can connect you to an English interpreter. For anything on this list, call — do not make your own way to a clinic.

Still Not Sure Where You Fit?

If no card is an obvious match, the Symptom Checker walks you through a few simple questions about your symptoms. The First Visit Guide covers what to bring and the Basic Medical Consultation fee of ¥33,000 (prescription ¥11,000, referral letter ¥11,000); payment is by credit card only, as we cannot accept cash. Access & Directions has the map and station lines.

Frequently Asked Questions

I have several symptoms at once. Which page should I read?

Read whichever two or three look closest. Symptoms cluster: fever with a cough, headache with jet lag, dizziness with summer heat. The guides cross-reference each other for that reason, and you can raise more than one concern in the same visit.

Can I just buy something at a Japanese pharmacy instead?

Often, yes — most guides list the products worth asking for, with their Japanese names so you can show them at the counter. Drugstores here are well stocked for pain, fever, colds, itching and stomach upset. The limit: antibiotics and most prescription medicines need a prescription issued in Japan, and prescriptions from home cannot be filled. Our Pharmacy Phrase Card helps at the counter.

What if my problem needs a specialist?

We are a general practice — internal medicine, travel medicine, preventive medicine — and many travellers’ problems are resolved at that level. Some are not, and dentistry in Japan is a separate licence entirely. Where a specialist or hospital is the right answer, the doctor writes a referral letter (¥11,000) setting out the findings. See our Referral Network page.

Will I be able to claim this on my travel insurance?

Most international policies cover an outpatient consultation abroad, though the terms are yours to check — some insurers want notice before treatment. You pay at the visit and claim afterwards; we issue the English medical certificate and itemised receipt insurers ask for. The Insurance Claim Guide walks through it.